sphincter photos on Flickr

SO I DESTROYED MY NIKON 14-24mm LENS...... (Selected by GETTY IMAGES) by DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

artpage: ShawnDall.com

Grid-Hauled Logs At Woodacre. by Neil Harvey 156

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56087 thunders past Woodacre, near Garstang with 6J37 12:44 Carlisle Yard to Chirk "logs". 7/6/2013. I just sneaked it in sun after a sphincter-testing half hour!

The Gundagai bridge, a sphincter tightening experience in its day. Replaced in 76. by Nudy59

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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on May 20th 2015

CREATIVE RF gty.im/tbc MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

This photograph became my 685th frame to be selected for inclusion and sale in the Getty Images 'Moment' collection, and I am very grateful to them for this wonderful opportunity.

This is the last photograph that I took before destroying my most loved lens, the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF......You know the lens I am talking about, so good that Can...Cano...(sorry, I cannot bring myself to say the word canon) users can get their grubby little mits on by a special mount to use this on their DSLR's, forged from Magnesium and angel's tears, carved by hand on the supple flesh of a virgin maiden's tender thigh......(not many of those left these days I can tell you)

Forty two years holding a plethora of sexy Nikon cameras from classic 35mm film FM's and F4s to the advent of the Digital dawn and D80's to D800's, with no major accidents aside from a horrid third party Tamron SP AF 10-24mm F3.5-4.5 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) lens that deserved to die (cue evil laugh like Vincent Price at the beginning of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'), is not too bad a record but, oh my, why did it have to be my most favourite of lenses. Famed as the world's best ultra wide professional zoom lens and costing almost as much as Bolivia's national debt £1315 of your 'Gawd bless you Guvnor' British pounds/$2086 of your 'Have a nice day now ya hear' American dollars, dripping in more bling than Lady Ga GA on a trip to the Salon to have her Clunge waxed, lavishly coated in unobtanium juice and protected by Nano pixies (special Nikon Pixies that beat off glare from the sun and generally stroke and massage the lens and tell it how marvellous it really is), this was my second copy after previously (regrettably) selling one a few years earlier along with my full frame D700 before moving to the D800.

Now let's make something crystal clear from the outset and say that I am known (i.e - pointed to and laughed at by friends, family and random small ginger haired children on the streets), for being over cautious, Hyper protective and down right anally retentive in terms of looking after my kit.... cleaned scrupulously before and after EVERY photo shoot with silk cloth from the almost extinct Wugga Wugga silk worms of the Borneo jungle (I know they are almost extinct because most have been slaughtered specifically to make that silk cloth for me), and 24 carat gold dipped cotton buds ($25 bucks from Walmart), pampered and preened, never let out of my sight, given separate seats next to me on long haul flights, given names (Nigella in this instance) and a birthday card each year ….. well, you get the picture I'm sure. But on this day, on this little sandy beach in Utopia (well the Highlands of Scotland is near enough), I fell short in terms of the caring side and boy did I pay the price.

The 14-24mm was happily seated on my D800, firmly clamped via a PL-14 metal plate to the Manfrotto tripod, all three legs splayed (the tripod's, not mine), no wind (the beach, not mine), no tide nor waves (well, it was a lake)..... just soft golden sand interspersed with tiny shitty little bastard pebbles (you know where I'm going with this)... tripod at it's lowest elevation about eighteen inches off the sand and I rise like an elegant vision in an elegant manor...erm elegantly from seated behind it to kneel and take a panoramic shot, like you do.....the sand in front of me shifts forward like a dust storm in the Sahara and down goes the combo, Nigella screaming for help before I can react.

The few seconds it takes to hit the sand and me gather it up along, hopping and cursing like a mad man walking on a bed of red hot coals with several expletives that I didn't even know I knew... And I do apologise most profusely to the coach load of Sisters from the 'Patagonian Church of Our Lady of the sacred Sphincter' who had just pulled up after an arduous journey for a day of beauty, leisure and contemplation by the Loch, for spoiling their day and causing one sister to faint and be promply carted off to the local casualty department in Spleen, just North of McGoolie! With no filter on the front as protection due to the bulbous front glass element and no protection behind thanks to the bulbous photographer taking pictures that day!, and the zoom ring is proper buggered up (that's a technical term used by people like myself who have a vast knowledge of making a cock up on a regular basis in one way or another), and the front glass element looks like PINHEAD, leader of the Cenobites and chief monster from the eighties classic horror flicks 'HELLRAISER. My protective Nano Pixies were all dead and bleeding, the front glass element was tits up waving a surrender flag, my ego shattered, a grown man weeping into the sand. Those random red haired children were now pointing and laughing at my predicament, and I was praying for H.G.Wells to turn up in a puff of smoke with a time machine to take me back a minutes earlier. Might also have ventured back to the Western Cowboy days as I always wanted to wear a ten gallon Stetson and fire me some twin Colt 45's at dudes who dared to even look at me the wrong way!

The lens still saw me through the remainder of my trip, but obviously with the coating destroyed, the light hitting the element at angles from the side was a major problem and subsequent frames showed abnormalities not dissimilar to ghosting or long dust spots which ruined many. As an abstract lens shooting ghostly things or those covered in long dust spots it made great viewing, but for anything else it was right royally screwed! The zoom ring, also damaged in the tumble was as useful as a waxworks in a desert, stiff as five day old roadkill and only good for ultra wides at 14mm or standard 24mm frames. A real pain as a client due in the next week had an unusually large forehead which required portrait shots at 16.5mm to flatter and deceive. Anyway, the lens went in today to be sorted at FIXATION in Kennington Lane, London (highly recommended by butter fingered pro's and used by the mighty Nikon empire themselves for many repairs) and so I am awaiting the return of my little beauty in all her former glory....ie not terminally trashed, unable to zoom, unable to render frames without ghostly blades of grass all over the RAW files. And the cost of my brief misdemeanor... we are talking somewhere in the region of £420.... I am still crying into my Starbucks Skinny Latte as I write....Be careful fellow owners of the wonderful Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF 'cos it's tough out there on those sandy beaches!

Lessons learned from my experience:

1) The lens needs it's big lens cap on at all times, just take it off when you are about to shoot, and replace thereafter. (Carrying the lens cap in your jeans back pocket makes you look like a terrorist carrying a bomb anyway and leaves an indentation in your ass like a Great White shark bite when you sit down)

2) Don't think that a tripod is ever truly stable or safe (even if it is, you might not be)

3) Don't keep the camera and battery grip with lens attached to the tripod mount whilst walking about. A simple drop will damage at least the zoom ring and definitely the battery grip electronics where they meet the underside of the camera body (and when you turn suddenly you will probably take out a bus queue of people.... though that might be quite amusing and well worth a frame or two.)

4) But MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL: - Starbucks skinny latte doesn't taste as good as a full fat Caramel macchiatto!

On a serious note: I could not find details on the net of anyone else having to have that bulbous front element replaced, and horror stories from people in armchairs who spend more time giving opinions than actually getting out there and taking photographs, that it would not be economically viable as a proposition to have such a repair.... so now we know. The cost of a new front glass element and a new outer zoom ring on this puppy is somewhere (I will update with final costs) in the region of £145 in labour and £200 for parts plus VAT at 20%...boo hoo

***************

FINAL UPDATE:

Well, the lovely people at FIXATION restored Nigella Nikkor to her former beauty in three working days (cue applause) and the final cost was less than the original quote at £402.92 of your 'Lawks a lummy guvnor up the apple and pears down the dog and duck' English pounds/$646.69 of your *say, do you serve biscuits and gravy for breakfast here' American Dollars (at todays exchange rate). Faultless service, and my beloved Nigella is back and ready to do battle once more.

I got a Costa coffee at the station and let me tell you that stuff sucks! As bitter as Heather Mills at the divorce hearing with Paul McCartney... Starbucks rules OK.

ONE YEAR ON....

So it's December 2014, almost time for Fatty to climb down my chimney with his sack full of Yuletide crap.... two years into my D800 ownership and still the finest camera I have ever had the pleasure of owning.

Nigella the Nikkor is still my favourite lens of all time and since the repairs she has performed faultlessly, perhaps even better than new as the smoothness of aperture ring and focus ring are somehow even better than when first purchased, smoother than a baby's bum....yuk! Nigella has regularly been covered in granules of sand and salty sea water from trips to the South Coast, as well as a month long trip to Canada where she was subjected to lake water, sea water, sand and all manner of general abuse. Many shots taken with her have now sold around the world thanks to my agents, GETTY IMAGES, a few more made it to FLICKR EXPLORE, and several have sold on #ilobsterit.

I am toying with the idea of a Fotodiox filter kit but they are American made, and cost a fortune to import, so short of donning a balaclava and robbing the nearest Natwest bank, that may have to wait a while.

March 2021:

The lens still performs beautifully. I invested in a Lee Filters SW150 adapter ring set which then allowed me to use an array of Neutral density graduated soft resin filers, a circular polariser, a 5 stop little stopper and 10 stop big stopper plus a reverse neutral density graduated 3 stop glass filter for Golden hour shots at sunrise and sunset. Having upgraded to the Nikon D850 in 2018, I can confirm that Nigella the Nikkor is well up to the task of resolving a 47.5 megapixel camera, and is still an absolute joy to use. Nikon have never updated the lens because it simply doesn't need updating, it's always been a legend amongst lenses, always will be!

*** I finally said goodbye to Nigella the Nikkor in August 2022 when I sold her on Ebay along with her Lee SW150 filter adapter set/filter holder and two long exposure SW150 filters. I still had the venerable Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4 G ED VR lens to fill my ultra wide angle needs.

Photograph taken taken at 16:15pm on Tuesday 10th September 2013 off the A82 near Lady's Wood at Luss, on the shoreline of Loch Lomond in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, Scotland.

Loch Lomond (Loch Laomainn), a freshwater loch situated on the Highland Boundary fault, is the largest inland stretch of water by surface area in Great Britain, at 39km in length and up to 8km in width with a maximum depth of 190metres. Primary inflows and outflows include Endrick water, Fruin water and the River Leven.

Nikon D800 21mm 1/500s f/11.0 iso200

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. 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.

LATITUDE: N 56d 6m 12.39s

LONGITUDE: W 4d 38m 17.83s

ALTITUDE: 13.0m

RAW (FINE) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 10.60MB

whatchoo looking at by Shawn Dall

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artpage: ShawnDall.com

Greek goddess of the rainbow. by Nigel Wedge

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Iris was the Greek goddess of the rainbow.

HMS Iris was a 28-gun sixth rate, formerly the American USS Hancock. She was captured in 1777, but retaken by the French in 1781. She was captured again during the occupation of Toulon and burnt in the retreat.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Encounter at the Grand Prismatic Spring by Neha & Chittaranjan Desai

The view of the Grand Prismatic Spring from the top of the Fairy Falls hike is spectacular to say the least. The hike is a little steep & also has it's inherent dangers. Right at the onset of the hike a scary noticeboard advises you not to climb the hill due to the presence of bears. The cyan sky with puffy stratocumulous clouds made me quickly forget the threat & I was up on the top of the hill in no time. Engrossed in taking photographs of this utterly mesmerizing sight, I didn't realize how an hour ticked by.

I was jolted out of the magical spell, by a firm tap on my shoulder from behind. I turned around only to see an eight Feet plus Grizzly standing next to me, with his paw firmly pressing my shoulder. I could feel my Jugular vein on the neck go turgid & thump a retreat beat, as he playfully asked: "Do you have a tooth pick?" Extremely Surprised I asked him: "Why do you need a tooth pick!!?" He replied with an American drawl: "Your flesh would stick in my teeth after I have you for lunch, You know!"

To this in spite of my sphincter muscles about to open, I calmly replied: "You know Bear Bhai, I hail from India & recently I have been labeled as "INTOLERANT."

The Grizzly looked deep into my eyes, smelt my Armpit, lifted his paw from my scraped shoulder, took a step back, lowered his eyes & whispered with lots of pain in his voice: "I am not quitting this country, but surely leaving this hill!" He walked away chastened with his head down.

Strange are the Bears of Yellowstone National Park.

P.S. - The non Indians would like to read about the Intolerance issue in India to get a whiff of the above.

6 legged P.mirabilis with egg sac by Tone Killick

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If a spider is injured on the abdomen (opisthosoma), it usually amounts to a death sentence. Spiders have an open network which means its arteries carry haemolymph, the arthropod equivalent of mammalian blood, out into the tissue spaces where it diffuses past individual cells before being collected back into the heart. There are few, if any, veins in this system and definitely no capillaries. So if there is an injury which causes an opening in the side of the body, this fluid leaks out and the animal dies. Losing a leg or two is a different ball game altogether. At the joints of the legs the spider has sphincters which close off therefore saving the spider from bleeding to death.

Erectile dysfunction... the secretion of nitric oxide (NO), which causes the relaxation of smooth muscles of corpora cavernosa by Hughes Songe

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During the late 16th and 17th centuries in France, male impotence was considered a crime, as well as legal grounds for a divorce. The practice, which involved inspection of the complainants by court experts, was declared obscene in 1677. John R. Brinkley initiated a boom in male impotence cures in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s. His radio programs recommended expensive goat gland implants and "mercurochrome" injections as the path to restored male virility, including operations by surgeon Serge Voronoff. Modern drug therapy for ED made a significant advance in 1983, when British physiologist Giles Brindley dropped his trousers and demonstrated to a shocked Urodynamics Society audience his papaverine-induced erection. The drug Brindley injected into his penis was a non-specific vasodilator, an alpha-blocking agent, and the mechanism of action was clearly corporal smooth muscle relaxation. The effect that Brindley discovered established the fundamentals for the later development of specific, safe, and orally effective drug therapies.

Erectile dysfunction (ED), also known as impotence, is a type of sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis during sexual activity. Erectile dysfunction can have psychological consequences as it can be tied to relationship difficulties and self-image. The most important organic causes of impotence are cardiovascular disease and diabetes, neurological problems (for example, trauma from prostatectomy surgery), hormonal insufficiencies (hypogonadism) and drug side effects. Psychological impotence is where erection or penetration fails due to thoughts or feelings (psychological reasons) rather than physical impossibility; this is somewhat less frequent but can often be helped. In psychological impotence, there is a strong response to placebo treatment. Besides treating the underlying causes such as potassium deficiency or arsenic contamination of drinking water, the first line treatment of erectile dysfunction consists of a trial of PDE5 inhibitor (such as sildenafil). In some cases, treatment can involve prostaglandin tablets in the urethra, injections into the penis, a penile prosthesis, a penis pump or vascular reconstructive surgery. Erectile dysfunction is characterized by the regular or repeated inability to obtain or maintain an erection.

Causes

Medications (antidepressants, such as SSRIs, and nicotine[citation needed] are most common)

Neurogenic disorders

Cavernosal disorders (Peyronie's disease)

Hyperprolactinemia (e.g., due to a prolactinoma)

Psychological causes: performance anxiety, stress, and mental disorders

Surgery

Aging. It is four times more common in men aged in their 60s than those in their 40s.

Kidney failure

Diseases such as diabetes mellitus and multiple sclerosis (MS). While these two causes have not been proven they are likely suspects as they cause issues with both the blood flow and nervous systems. Lifestyle: smoking is a key cause of erectile dysfunction. Smoking causes impotence because it promotes arterial narrowing. Surgical intervention for a number of conditions may remove anatomical structures necessary to erection, damage nerves, or impair blood supply. Erectile dysfunction is a common complication of treatments for prostate cancer, including prostatectomy and destruction of the prostate by external beam radiation, although the prostate gland itself is not necessary to achieve an erection. As far as inguinal hernia surgery is concerned, in most cases, and in the absence of postoperative complications, the operative repair can lead to a recovery of the sexual life of patients with preoperative sexual dysfunction, while, in most cases, it does not affect patients with a preoperative normal sexual life. ED can also be associated with bicycling due to both neurological and vascular problems due to compression. The increase risk appears to be about 1.7-fold. Concerns that use of pornography can cause erectile dysfunction have not been substantiated in epidemiological studies according to a 2015 literature review. However, another review and case studies article maintains that use of pornography does indeed cause erectile dysfunction, and critiques the previously described literature review. Penile erection is managed by two mechanisms: the reflex erection, which is achieved by directly touching the penile shaft, and the psychogenic erection, which is achieved by erotic or emotional stimuli. The former uses the peripheral nerves and the lower parts of the spinal cord, whereas the latter uses the limbic system of the brain. In both cases, an intact neural system is required for a successful and complete erection. Stimulation of the penile shaft by the nervous system leads to the secretion of nitric oxide (NO), which causes the relaxation of smooth muscles of corpora cavernosa (the main erectile tissue of penis), and subsequently penile erection. Additionally, adequate levels of testosterone (produced by the testes) and an intact pituitary gland are required for the development of a healthy erectile system. As can be understood from the mechanisms of a normal erection, impotence may develop due to hormonal deficiency, disorders of the neural system, lack of adequate penile blood supply or psychological problems. Spinal cord injury causes sexual dysfunction including ED. Restriction of blood flow can arise from impaired endothelial function due to the usual causes associated with coronary artery disease, but can also be caused by prolonged exposure to bright light. It is analyzed in several ways: Obtaining full erections at some times, such as nocturnal penile tumescence when asleep (when the mind and psychological issues, if any, are less present), tends to suggest that the physical structures are functionally working. Other factors leading to erectile dysfunction are diabetes mellitus (causing neuropathy). There are no formal tests to diagnose erectile dysfunction. Some blood tests are generally done to exclude underlying disease, such as hypogonadism and prolactinoma. Impotence is also related to generally poor physical health, poor dietary habits, obesity, and most specifically cardiovascular disease such as coronary artery disease and peripheral vascular disease. Therefore, a thorough physical examination is helpful, in particular the simple search for a previously undetected groin hernia since it can affect sexual functions in men and is easily curable. A useful and simple way to distinguish between physiological and psychological impotence is to determine whether the patient ever has an erection. If never, the problem is likely to be physiological; if sometimes (however rarely), it could be physiological or psychological. The current diagnostic and statistical manual of mental diseases (DSM-IV) has included a listing for impotence.

Duplex ultrasound

Duplex ultrasound is used to evaluate blood flow, venous leak, signs of atherosclerosis, and scarring or calcification of erectile tissue. Injecting prostaglandin, a hormone-like stimulator produced in the body, induces the erection. Ultrasound is then used to see vascular dilation and measure penile blood pressure.

Penile nerves function

Tests such as the bulbocavernosus reflex test are used to determine if there is sufficient nerve sensation in the penis. The physician squeezes the glans (head) of the penis, which immediately causes the anus to contract if nerve function is normal. A physician measures the latency between squeeze and contraction by observing the anal sphincter or by feeling it with a gloved finger inserted past the anus.

Nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT)

It is normal for a man to have five to six erections during sleep, especially during rapid eye movement (REM). Their absence may indicate a problem with nerve function or blood supply in the penis. There are two methods for measuring changes in penile rigidity and circumference during nocturnal erection: snap gauge and strain gauge. A significant proportion of men who have no sexual dysfunction nonetheless do not have regular nocturnal erections.

Penile biothesiometry

This test uses electromagnetic vibration to evaluate sensitivity and nerve function in the glans and shaft of the penis.

Dynamic infusion cavernosometry (DICC)

technique in which fluid is pumped into the penis at a known rate and pressure. It gives a measurement of the vascular pressure in the corpus cavernosum during an erection.

Corpus cavernosometry

Cavernosography measurement of the vascular pressure in the corpus cavernosum. Saline is infused under pressure into the corpus cavernosum with a butterfly needle, and the flow rate needed to maintain an erection indicates the degree of venous leakage. The leaking veins responsible may be visualized by infusing a mixture of saline and x-ray contrast medium and performing a cavernosogram.[20] In Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA), the images are acquired digitally.

Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)

This is similar to magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic resonance angiography uses magnetic fields and radio waves to provide detailed images of the blood vessels. Doctors may inject a "contrast agent" into the patient's bloodstream that causes vascular tissues to stand out against other tissues. The contrast agent provides for enhanced information regarding blood supply and vascular anomalies.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erectile_dysfunction

Sphincter Anemone by Helle Jorgensen

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Pre-loved tapestry wool.

More here

à la lisière de bois by Andrea

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Damien Saez - Sonnez Tocsin Dans Les Campagnes

Sonnez tocsin dans les campagnes

Allez camarade debout

Des coups dpioche et des perspectives

Entre le ciel et le ciment

Y a des cocktails dans les bagnoles

Des CRS en farandole

Cest sûr niront au paradis

Que ceux qui brûlent de lalcool

Sécuritaires nos avenues

Ont pris le goût des cimetières

Y a des virus aux hémisphères

Et se i-phones dans les sphincters

Satellitaires sont nos alcôves

Entre les vierges qui je suis

Emportez-moi dans la tourmente

Les freins ont lâché dans la pente

Sonnez tocsin dans les campagnes

Allez camarades debout

Entre les tours les illusoires

Et puis le cris des abattoirs

Puisquici on a peur de tout

Des éphémères sur les grands lacs

Pays jadis feu de cultures

Toi dis-moi la bonne aventure

Des somnifères sur la colère

Faut des pansements sur la misère

La jeunesse a tété le sein

Des dictatures de nos besoins

Du cynisme des gouvernements

Puisque le bon peuple est content

Puisquon crie police à tous vents

Surtout pour protéger largent

Aux armes citoyens des pleurs

Quoi te dire dautre quil est lheure

De libérer les horizons

Des contingents de nos armées

Devant nous lavenir enfin

Pour un meilleur au bout du poing

Et des printemps sous les flocons

Y a de lespoir à nos chansons

Allez marchons vers la grand route

Au gré des ombres calcinées

Pour aller faire monter du souffre

Les égouts dans les beaux quartiers

Moi dans mes contes pour mes enfants

Y a des solitudes au calmant

Et du carbone dans les naufrages

Des pétroliers cherchant la plage

Moi dans mes contes pour mes enfants

Y a des solitudes au calmant

Et des polices au paradis

Dun monde qui meurt à crédit

Aux agneaux égorgés au loin

Le chant du coq dans le lointain

A lorée des grands champs de blé

Ma campagne a le poing lié

Scotché à la lisière du bois

Petit poucet cherche pourquoi

Ses parents lont abandonné

Au grands vents des communicants

Cest fini le temps des instruits

Le temps des populaires aussi

Fini le temps des littéraires

Finies les latines les racines

Au bon dos de nos origines

Finie la parole sacrée

Fini les ni bon dieu ni maître

Fini le chant des rossignols

Oublié le temps des muguets

Fini salut à toi mon frère

Bonjour le temps des paradis

Au-dessus des comptes bancaires

Aux armes citoyens des pleurs

Quoi te dire dautre quil est lheure

De libérer les horizons

Des contingents de nos armées

Devant nous lavenir enfin

Pour un meilleur au bout du poing

Et des printemps sous les flocons

Y a de lespoir à nos chansons

Allez marchons vers la grand route

Au gré des ombres calcinées

Pour aller faire monter du soufre

Les égouts dans les beaux quartiers

Moi dans mes contes pour mes enfants

Y a des solitudes au calmant

Et du carbone

Dans les naufrages

Des pétroliers cherchent la plage

Raw Intestines by Eddy Allart

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The intestines are vital organs in the gastrointestinal tract of our digestive system. Their functions are to digest food and to enable the nutrients released from that food to enter into the bloodstream. Our intestines consist of two major subdivisions: the small intestine and the large intestine. The small intestine is much smaller in diameter, but is much longer and more massive than the large intestine. Together the intestines take up most of the space within the abdominal body cavity and are folded many times over to pack their enormous length into such a small area....

The intestines are located inferior to the stomach in the abdominal body cavity. They are connected to the posterior wall of the abdomen by the mesentery, a thin vascular membrane. Blood vessels of the mesentery carry oxygenated blood to support the tissues of the intestines and carry nutrient-rich venous blood away from the intestines to feed the tissues of the body.

The small intestine is about 1 inch in diameter and about 10 feet long in a living body. It extends from the stomach to the large intestine and consists of 3 major regions: the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum.

The duodenum receives partially digested food from the stomach, bile from the liver and gallbladder, and pancreatic juice from the pancreas. These substances mix in the duodenum to further digest food into its most basic units. The duodenum begins to absorb nutrients from the food passing through its lumen.

Food next passes into the jejunum, a longer region of intestine where the bulk of the absorption of nutrients takes place.

Finally, food passes into the ileum, the longest region of the small intestine. Any last nutrients that were not absorbed in the jejunum are absorbed in the ileum before the food passes into the large intestine.

The large intestine is about 2 ½ inches in diameter and about 5 feet long in a living body. It receives fecal matter from the small intestine through the ileocecal sphincter. The smooth walls of the large intestine absorb water from fecal matter. These intestinal walls also absorb vitamins released from the fermentation of feces by bacteria living in the large intestine.

Our large intestine consists of 4 major regions: the cecum, colon, rectum, and anal canal.

The cecum is a pouch-like dead-end passage that branches inferiorly from the end of the ileum. Fecal matter entering the large intestine from the ileum passes into the cecum before being pushed superiorly into the ascending colon. The appendix is attached to the inferior end of the cecum and is believed to store beneficial bacteria that help break down undigested food.

Fecal matter passes from the cecum into the colon, the largest region of the large intestine. The ascending colon carries feces superiorly from the cecum to the transverse colon. The transverse colon then carries feces transversely from the right side of the abdomen to the left side, where it enters the descending colon. Next, the descending colon carries the feces inferiorly to the S-shaped sigmoid colon and rectum.

The rectum stores feces until they are ready to be defecated (eliminated from the body).

During defecation, the anal sphincter muscles of the anal canal relax to allow feces to exit the body.

Eet Smalielijk.

The Sea of Menhirs by Neha & Chittaranjan Desai

Any Obelix - Asterix fans here? Ok! So you guys know what Menhirs are! :D

The trek from the Satsar lake to the Jezbal Pass en route to the magnificent Gangbal lake is the most treacherous path of the Kashmir Great Lakes trek. One has to cross a sea of uneven boulders & rocks strewn on the brink of the mountain. The trick is to guess which boulder to step on. A few shake & rattle as you jump a step on them, you know. Not good at all if you are queasy in the tummy, knee, or head, I tell you. As you dare a quick glimpse on the left of you to the ever-increasing chasm between you & the deep valley beneath, your sphincter muscles open. You are glad that the trek pants are brown in color & will camouflage any mishaps due to fear. You hold your walking stick a bit tighter, as you make one more leap of faith on a boulder a meter away.

Jezebel Pass at 4040 meters is a test; both mental & physical & yet an adrenaline-pumping one that you'll cherish all your life.

INVITATION A LA DANSE, IRIS by magda indigo

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#ABFAV_2love

ALL IMAGES ARE BEST seen On Black, yours too!

The name Iris is Greek and it means rainbow for its many colours. However, most irises are shades of blue or purple. The majority of irises that we see today are hybrids of the originals.

The iris has been around for many centuries, and many artists have chosen to paint them. There are several famous paintings of the flowers.

From 1888 to 1890, Van Gogh painted at least four paintings of irises.

Monet painted "Iris" sometime between 1914 and 1917.

Not only is the iris a beautiful flower, but also they have several uses. As a live plant they are used as a water purifier.

They are ingredients in some perfumes, homemade toothpaste, pottery and herbal medicines.

The stylised iris, fleur-de-lis, descends from the white iris which is native to Florence, Italy and which grew even in its city walls. This white iris, displayed against a red background, became the symbol of Florence until the Medici family, to signal a change in political power, reversed the colours making the white one red and setting in motion a centuries-long breeding program to hybridise a red iris. Catherine de Medici carried this symbol of Florence to Paris when she married the king of France where this most famous of irises acquired its nickname, fleur-de-lis.

The iris has been associated with France as Louis VII adopted it as a symbol in the 12th Century.

Contemporary uses can be seen in the Quebec flag and on the flag of Saint Louis, Missouri.

The iris is now the sole feature on the flag of the Brussels-Capital Region.

The Iris is the state flower of Tennessee.

In Flowers'-language: Iris means faith; hope; wisdom and valour

Iris can mean:

* The equivalent device in a camera,

* The messenger of the gods in Greek mythology,

* A variety of flower,

* A female first name.

Hope this makes you smile again, have a good day and thank you for your visit, so very much appreciated, Magda, (*_*)

For more of my other work visit here: www.indigo2photography.com

September 2001 by Marcel Mac Duchamp and Rroseeen Ní Shélavy in Infrat(h)in

4 1

Hi Rack,

Will try to write tonight from home. These pills I am taking are making me super-fuzzy. Apparently, they do when you take them at first. They are also called Deroxat. I may be coming to do a job in Palm Beach on the 31st of August for 6 to 8 weeks. After that a few weeks in NYC would not go amiss. I hope they let me through customs with my green card having been away for so long. I should find out later today what is happening, but it is almost a definite offer of work. I need to get away and make some good money so that I can think about getting a studio going again. I really need a break from London and the claustrophobia of the flat.

Later babe,

Love,

Ruin

Rackers,

I cannot believe that I am heading stateside tomorrow with my dodgy ‘Carte Verte’........there is little or no hope left for us interlopers, we are our own undoing......let’s see if this works and if I manage in ‘Fuck You Palm Beach’, home of perfect teeth and pecs and tans.......poor little insignificant, freckled yellow-toothed me, all lurgyed-up and irresistible, a sphincter waiting to happen. We is light years ahead of those clones, you and I. We have what they all want, and some........Beg, you bug chasers.

Love you to death,

Ruin

Ruin,

Tomorrow you depart? Excellent. To depart is always a brilliant riposte to life. Palm Beach, imagine? Trying to write here in the August heat, trying to turn off the critic and turn on the air conditioner. When will you drift north to New York?

Love you too, to death,

Rack

Rack,

As soon as I can slaver this poop on those fuckwalls, Venetian Stucco, no less, and convince them that it is beautiful and what we, the super-rich, do in Europe, private jets, the whole cabbodle, I'll have to find me some fellow cheap trash to feck just to stay sane.

Cnuted, lagged before jetting, ready for the scrap heap,

Till death does us do parted,

Give us this day our dairy spread (eagle),

Billzer Ruin

Furthermore.........Florida..........The Colony Hotel........Salubrious

5 Sept 2001

Creature, you poor thing.† I can't imagine it being much fun, but perhaps it will allow you some time in New York later.† I am recovering from Labor-Day weekend with the in-laws.† You know, my psyche is just not what it used to be, that is the plain truth.† I can't take it anymore. Their familial insanity has knocked me off course after I was finally feeling a little more stable.† I don't seem to have any skin, no matter a thick one.† I too am knee deep in dull money work.† God how I hate it, but at least it's not an office. That I think is the worst.† You may not get this but I will try calling you at the number you gave me later this evening.† In the meantime, sending you love and strength for the assault course.

Love,

Rack

10 Sept 2001

Ruin,

You poor creature, you sound a bit trapped.† However, I hope he's paying you properly, prostitution can be wonderful.† I'm looking forward to your visit here.† Glad the tranqs are helping you somewhat, though these things never appear to be the full answer - or maybe they are, and it's just a matter of getting it all right re. dosage etc., as in life.† I'm thinking, as always, of running away.† Just got some money from sale of restaurant shares and it's burning a hole in my debts.† Rather than pay them off I'm tempted to run away for a period of time, I just can't decide where to.† Any ideas?† Doing dull work, which I feel less and less able to apply myself to.† Anyway, you sound pretty good in spite of your captive situation.† It's good to miss the mate for a while.† See you soon I hope.†

Much love, Rack

10 Sept 2001

Ruin,†

You sound markedly more well equipped to deal with the heaving humps of shite now you are armed with les pillules.† I may take a leaf out of your beuke and start chucking some down myself.† Am horribly unproductive at present and perhaps it would snap this stale spell.† I can hear rumblings in my liver area and wonder should I take the dread interferon again.† I think I should and just bite it, part of my blue paralysis is knowing that, in spite of the horror - or because of it - I should be taking care of that little problem.† While I'm in moan mode:† have developed some horrid jaw 21st century thing, it feels like a cross between lock jaw, a mobile toothache roaming all the molars and the day after some far too vigorous dick sucking.† It's making me look and feel totally mental.† I keep being struck by the fact that this is my life and it's not really how I wanted it to be.† Perhaps the solution is to celebrate its complete removal from my ideals, dreams and hopes of youth.† To admit it and be done with it: it sucks, there, said it. If the fabulousness wasn't so all surrounding one could get on quietly with one's dreary life and follow the inexorable spiral downwards without interruptions of envy, greed, lust, and horror at one's own demise.† I fancy a small, dreary place with hidden charm and a lot of young fucks.† There's a lot to be said for the semi-nomadic.

Loving you lawn time and with thoughts of you in Manatee-ville,

Rack

12 September 2001

Ruin,

No, nowhere near and yet incredibly near: from my bed I watched it all happen as it was in stereo on the television:† explosion, implosion.† I refer you to "The Writing of the Disaster" by Maurice Blanchot.† Reminded again to live.

Much love to you,

Rack

PS got a nice e-mail of concern from Eduardo .

Dear Billzer Ruin,

Ran away on Thursday to Cape Cod for a long weekend.† The air here was scary.† Sometimes you can afford to be a coward.† And now back. It's odd.† One realises what a freak one is, don't know any financial types, not that that lessens the horror.† Always there is the shadow of the last disaster, the vestiges of which we share in time and blood.† Odd now to share it with a whole city, a whole world.† Oh, so you all finally tuned in to the horror...?† Anyway, conflicted, crazed and unsure.† But sure of wanting to spend time with you.†

Much love, Rack

20 Sept 2001

Dear Ruin,

Yes, it does smell of Diana, but more so of those years we lived through together here, only compressed.† I got very angry when Pete Hamill on last night's Charlie Rose said that there was a "golden parenthesis" from the end of the Cold War until 9/11/01, an age of innocence now come to an end.† What was that recent commemoration of 20 years of aids?† Not to diminish this disaster but it feels alarmingly similar in its contours even if its particulars are very different.† I just want to drink alcohol, eat carbohydrates, sleep and avoid work.† In Union Square people have established a make shift memorial, you've probably seen it on the news.† I went yesterday, it's incredible but it also irritated me.† You know those inappropriate emotions one gets in these situations?† There were so many photographers and TV crews that it made the whole thing a sort of self-conscious exercise.† I'm feeling very out of touch with my emotions; physically pretty awful, I'm not sure if it is the foul air or just the stress.† I'm sad you may not come but understand under the circumstances.† Things are imitating normality now, though people look sad and troubled and are still being more civil to each other.†One story made me laugh:† Foggy had a meeting with Marlene the morning of 9-11, she is the graphic artist for the new restaurant.

She was concerned that Foggy would go to the arranged meeting place, but she had to pick up her daughter from day care.† She left the house without her phone book so dialled our house from memory.† She misdialled one digit and got the answering machine of Dr. Oliver Saks, he of the mistaken hat/wife.†

Love, Rack

22 Sept 2001

Yep, the old plastic emotion.† Don't you ever just long for a real, un-self-watched one though?† I do.† I suppose it's a little late in the day for all that.† It still smells of burning here.†

Much love,

Rack

23 Sept 2001

Billzer Ruin,

You lovely pink thing.† It makes me deeply tender to think of you there amid all that toasted, boasted flesh.†

Today I walked down to near the disaster area.† I went with an Israeli friend who flashed her still delectable self at the cops and they let us through.† We got as far as Chambers St.†It was incredible to see.† I had no idea of the scale until I got up close.†† It truly looks like an image of hell.† It is fast becoming a tourist sight, with streams of pedestrians (still no cars allowed below Canal St.) going as far south as the various authorities will allow them.† There is so much mangled steel, a mountain. The "rescue" (believe me there is no one alive in there) mission is a huge logistical feat with buses full of men, mountains of bottled water, MASH tents, food being carted in, priests in flowing garbs, screaming bigots dressed from head to toe in flag garb, holy rollers, animal handlers bringing in velcro boots for the search dogs, the whole works.

I think I have survivor's gloat.† I feel strangely vigorous and renewed.

Would love to hang with you, as they say in these parts.

Much love, Rack

Dear Rack,

Hi Sweetie, back in blighty and not anthraxed that I know about.

Love you miss you and will contact you fully when I am over this lag.

Ruin

Another Window on the World.

[17:31, 11/09/2021] WhatsApp

Ruin: Kissy kissy!

Rack: Kissy kissy to you on the anniversary of one Armageddon. I feel more compassion for all those closely affected by it than I did back then. At the time, all I could think was, now you know what it feels like. The beginning of the end of America. The weather today is exactly the same. They roll it out every year. Anyway, what makes me think is the way we are all so compartmentalized in our own disasters. AIDS. 9/11. COVID. Whatever.

I do remember a brief moment in NY where we were all very tender with each other after the towers fell. It lasted a few weeks and then it was gone.

Ruin: I am watching it now on wall-to-wall television here. I was in Florida at the time, shocked but untouched. It’s more bewildering now. We were jaded

Rack: We had been through our own major trauma. One only has so much space for it. What were you doing in Florida? I don’t recall.

Ruin: Sorry, I missed that question and never answered it. I will answer it now. I had flown over to Florida, from London, to do an interior for some millionaire (possibly billionaire, but who knew or cared) or other in Palm Beach. It was a Venetian Stucco Job over 2 floors of thousands of square feet, one of those palatial palm-treed estates, some estates down from the Mar-a-Lago monstrosity. It was about six weeks of hard grind, mostly up scaffolding, smearing walls with ‘artisanly’ concocted ‘luxury’. I remember being up a scaffold, early morning, when the first plane hit home. That island was a queer place. Every evening the ‘help’ would be ushered off the island and back to ‘West Palm Beach’. We, us stucco ‘specialists’, were staying in ‘The Colony Hotel’, on Palm Beach itself, privileged guests in a sea of privilege. It didn’t feel at all like the America we knew, our New York, our abused ‘Home’. New York was home to me, a home that London could never be. I remember you telling me about the smell of the place in those awful weeks around this time. I wanted to be there with you.

We are valuable now (I mean us with our experience of pandemics, with over thirty years of living with this stigma and uncertainty).

Rack: I agree. I’m glad to be more human now. Younger (regarding being jaded).

Ruin: And angry

Rack: Yes, very angry. But that too has subsided for me.

Ruin: That’s what I want to talk about. Did you read the last part? I am using your words, your voice.

Rack: I suppose we are. I am hearing our young neighbors come and go from their apartment opposite us and realize they were not yet born in 2001.

Ruin: Funny

Rack: I’m dense. You mean on Flickr? Not seeing it.

Ruin: Yes, under the last image.

Rack: OK. Will look. Getting ready to go to the beach, Fire Island with Jan and Foggy (my ‘him indoors’). The thought of a swim!

Ruin: I don’t want to exploit you at all, I am not trying to make money or a career.

Rack: Oh, exploit away. Take it. I feel no ownership of it.

Ruin: But you know that already.

Rack: I know. Hah! Our messages crossed.

Ruin: I will tell our story to the best of my ability. And if I peg it half-way through, it’s yours

Rack: Thank you. I don’t seem to be able for it. But I’m not ruling out something. Deal.

Ruin: Or you could tell the anti-story from the exact same source and contradict everything that I write

Rack: I could, but at this point I don’t feel the need to contradict.

Ruin: You are amazing, a huge influence in my life, and I will honour you. But you, like me, will be a filthy bitch!

Rack: Anyway, I think the wonder of it was, in large part, that we were so different in our origins and yet so locked together.

Ruin: Catholic and Protestant, those polar opposites.

Rack: Thank you. I could not have plodded through those pre-treatment years without you. Yup. But some burning thing the same.

Ruin: Or me without you. You are there with a small group of women. Set me free and I will honour us.

Rack: I had bloodwork last week. I have more T-cells than I’ve ever had. Kidney alerts though, but I think I know what it is. Not serious.

Ruin: But you have already, set me free, I mean.

Ruin: Yes, I have that kidney 'do-do' too.

Rack: So interesting that you were rebirthed by women, in part.

Ruin: Just give me 4 years to sort this out (now there’s unbridled optimism speaking). Completely, to that idea of being rebirthed by women.

Rack: I guess it’s inevitable that those two beans in our back will dessicate from all the meds. Peter had one kidney when he died that an MRI showed to have shrivelled to a penny.

Ruin: I might call on you for memory corrections. 4 years to screw it into submission, with no payback, and I couldn’t care less. A rollicking tale of walks through New York, and being ‘stranded’ on the lower east side. (Our walks were the thing that kept us sane, perhaps).

Rack: I have so little memory. Really bad. However, I do have a diary of every year. Not lengthy shit, but what we did every day. For years I’ve been meaning to write it down in a timeline sort of way. 36 years.

Rack: Hah! I do remember that (being stranded).

Ruin: I knew you would. (I was such a melodramatic idiot, that hasn’t changed, and might even provide some light relief in the proceedings. I will be the fool, that would be the easy part).

Anyway, I need you to correct me when I am wrong (memory is fickle), about you, I mean.

Rack: Is there a wrong? It’s what you saw.

Rack: You always lived in posher places (than the Lower East Side).

Ruin: Clondalkin!!!

Rack: Well, I mean you were always fleeing that, and I was always fleeing Howth. Opposite flights.

There it is, the intervention of the ‘immediate message’ into the old-world cache of the voluptuous email habit, generated over 25 years. Letters never died; they were transformed. ‘Clarissa’ became ‘The Sluts’ when we weren’t paying attention, and perhaps a new immediacy was added, an immediacy that enriches. We can decry the death of language, the dropping of punctuation or whatever, but this opportunity has never existed before. That I need to correct rushed mistakes, that immediate thing, marks me out as an old codger, that’s me just struggling to make things clearer, by adding stuff between brackets, or whatever. Perhaps it’s an underestimation of youth, of the new direction language might be taking, of punctuation-less writing where a full stop is seen as an insult, the closing of an idea.

That being said, I would love to read that diary, written over 36 years, I have no doubt at all about its value. Thankfully, time doesn’t press at all. It’s possibly more important that it gets read, than that I actually read it.

I trust you completely. I will very gladly be your fool, or even one of your chorus of fools.

Gratiano answers Antonio:

GRATIANO:

Let me play the fool!

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;

And let my liver rather heat with wine,(85)

Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.

Why should a man whose blood is warm within

Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?

Sleep when he wakes? and creep into the jaundice

By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio,—(90)

I love thee, and it is my love that speaks;—

There are a sort of men, whose visages

Do cream and mantle like a standing pond;

And do a wilful stillness entertain,

With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion(95)

Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;

As who should say, I am Sir Oracle,

And, when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!

O, my Antonio, I do know of these,

That therefore only are reputed wise,(100)

For saying nothing; who, I am very sure,

If they should speak, would almost damn those ears

Which, hearing them, would call their brothers, fools.

I'll tell thee more of this another time:

But fish not with this melancholy bait,(105)

For this fool-gudgeon, this opinion.

Come, good Lorenzo:— Fare ye well, awhile:

I'll end my exhortation after dinner.

The Merchant of Venice.

showing off the neck by Shawn Dall

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in the bathroom checkout out the beautiful day :)

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gazing out by Shawn Dall

10 1

in the bathroom checkout out the beautiful day :)

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