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After successfully attempting the theme of ”The Dance”, I always wanted to do something that was based on Music & an opportunity came soon my way .. .

 

A nice theme along with a beautiful Model , a lovely location and a great Team always pays off ...

 

So Sit back and njoy “The Music”

Of the successful de-hazing shots from Hong Kong, this is one of my favorites. I never thought I would be such a fan of government housing, but these buildings do make for a great tableau! I left a little bit of haze in there because I think it helps to add a sense of depth to the image. I had to zoom in there close to see what was happening on that sports field. At first, I thought it was baseball… but baseball is not popular in China (it is in Japan). It's two soccer fields, or football as they call it in most of the world.

 

- Trey Ratcliff

 

Click here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

 

Lumen print

This assailant seems more skilled than either of the two I faced on the rooftop in Bludhaven. His aggressive style keeps me from launching a successful counter attack against him, and when I do manage one he manages to intercept it before I have a chance to do hardly any damage to him at all. Barbra on the other hand appears to be having a completely different experience, her staff allows her to block every strike made against her without seeming to break a sweat. For a brief moment, I wonder if I should do the same and join my sticks together into the staff configuration.

 

Before I have a chance to test that idea though, the edge of the assailant’s blade manages to scrape my right knee creating another open wound. Damn it. The pain itself is minimal and from what I can see of the cut itself it’s nothing major, but that doesn’t make it any less of a problem. I can already feel it start to throb as my body begins to process what just happened. It’s a minor issue, almost nothing, but ultimately what brings someone down isn’t the big things….it’s the small things.

 

A fact I quickly begin to realise as I continue to spar with the assailant. He’s quick to change his combat style and begins delivering a series of heavy blows to my escrima sticks. The attacks aren’t intended to kill, or even to maim, the aim is simply to force me back which requires me to move my feet. Now that doesn’t sound bad at all. Hell, you’d think I was weird for thinking that’s a problem were it not for the fact that he’s deliberately wounded both of my legs.

 

You can tell these are the people Bruce trained with as I could easily see him using a similar tactic against someone. Come to think of it, I think he did it to Killer Croc once. Or was it someone else? Who knows these days.

 

Just as I feared, being forced to retreat backwards forces me to put pressure on the wounds Of both of my legs and even though it distracts me for less than second, he’s quick to exploit my position. Rather than go for a killing strike, he deliberately targets my chest which leaves me no choice but to block his blade with both of my sticks, exactly as he’d hoped. Before I have a chance to respond, he kicks my right knee cap causing a surge of pain throughout most of my body.

 

It’s only by clenching my teeth that I manage to stop letting out a cry of pain as I lose my footing and collapse onto the ground.

 

Christ that hurt, and he knows it.

 

Against my better judgement, I glance across to see how Barbra’s doing against her assailant. Given how much trouble I’m having against mine and unlike her, I didn’t walk into all this with a previous injury. Much to my surprise and also relief, she’s not just faring better than me, she’s mopping the floor with the guy. Typical. Of course she’d get the easy one….

 

———————

 

Whilst I am somewhat lucky that this goon’s punch to my face didn’t break anything, the endless throbbing I keep feeling now is difficult to ignore. Better make this quick before it becomes too much of a distraction. As he readies himself to try and make his next move, I can’t help but hear a subdued groan coming from Dick’s direction and look over my shoulder just to be sure that it’s not the sound of what I fear it could be. I see nothing as both he and his opponent clash their weapons together in quick succession with the League’s agent attempting to strike him and Dick narrowly managing to block every swipe at him.

 

My brief pause unwillingly creates an opening which the assailant I’m dealing with attempts to exploit. You can tell these guys were trained similar to how Bruce was. Were he in the same position, I’m sure he would have tried to exploit that narrow opening as well. Can’t say I like being on the receiving end of these tactics though. Luckily, thanks to my staff I manage to block his surprise without too much difficulty.

 

Far more easily than he would have liked. I wonder, does he know about my wound? He mustn’t….otherwise he’d have focused in on it by now…..that’s what Bruce would have done were he in this guy’s shoes. Hell, that’s what Dick would do and he’s almost oblivious to these things. But with this guy seemingly unaware of my injury, I choose to go back on the offensive and employ the infamous ‘Flying Grayson’.

 

Here’s hoping I can still do it even with a stab wound in my chest.

 

I draw my opponent in by making it seem as though I’ve accidentally created another opening. Just as I had hoped, he sees the opening and takes the bait attempting to slash his blade against my chest in the hopes of delivering a fatal wound. Sadly for him, he’s nowhere near that lucky and instead I block his blade with my staff and force it upwards back into his helmet, causing him to retreat backwards for a brief moment.

 

The assailant is quick to try and correct his mistake, but not quick enough to stop me from using the ‘Flying Grayson’.

 

Before he can take another swing at me, I lunge forward and jump into the air.

 

As I race towards him in mid-air, I tuck my legs in mere moments before my feet into contact with the assailant’s torso. Unfortunately for him, my feet collide with his torso knocking him backwards before he has a chance to even think about making a counter attack. But I don’t stop there. The momentum I have keeps me moving forwards and my feet remain pressed into his chest as he falls back into the wall behind him.

 

Ouch that’s got to hurt.

 

It’s difficult to tell just how badly that hurt him given that most of his face is obstructed since he’s wearing a mask, but the force of the blow knocks him out cold.My instincts say to check his condition to make sure he’s alright. But before I have a chance to do so, I look across to see how Dick’s doing. Much to my horror, he’s on the ground desperately blocking every blow his attacker is trying to make against him.

 

He won’t last long in that situation, especially with the two wounds I can see on both his legs. Though I should first make sure that my opponent has been properly dealt with, I can’t help but race over to try and save Dick before either his attacker gets lucky or worse yet, Dick gets unlucky and fails to block of the attacks…….

A successful reintroduction programme has seen the Red Kite become common place in many areas now. This bird was sat early morning above a road, so I chanced my luck to try and get a shot, hoping it would not fly off. The bird was very obliging and was still perched in the same spot when I left.

Kingfisher returning to the perch with trout

Having successfully navigated the Oatman Highway and Sitgreaves Pass, the reward coming back on I-40 is this sign near Yucca, as well as a terrific Whiting Bros. sign.

Rover 2200 Ser.II P6 (1973-76) Engine 2205cc S4 OHC Production 6126 9316 TCs (+ + 9316 SCs)

Registration Number MCW 934 P (Preston)

 

ROVER SET

www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623690660271...

 

Designed by Spen King, Gordon Bashford and David Bache, the new Rover P6 represented a design aimed at appealing to a wider clientelle than the traditional Rover buyer.The design was advanced for the time with a de Dion tube suspension at the rear, four-wheel disc brakes (inboard on the rear), and a fully synchromesh transmission. The unibody design featured non-stressed panels bolted to a unit frame, inspired by the Citroën DS. The de Dion set-up was unique in that the "tube" was in two parts that could telescope, thereby avoiding the need for sliding splines in the drive shafts,

 

The Mark II 2200 SC and TC were the final version of the successful Rover P6 model with its enlarged overhead cam engine producing 98 bhp (SC) or 115bhp (TC) against the 89 and 110 bhp of the earlier 2000 SC and TC P6, the two only have tiny detail differances but have a strengthened transmission to cope with the extra torque, plus a larger ( 15 gallon) fuel tank bringing in line with the 3500.

 

The Series II, or Mark II as it was actually named by Rover, was launched in 1970. All variants carried the battery in the boot and had new exterior fixtures such as a plastic front air intake (to replace the alloy version), new bonnet pressings (with V8 blips even for the 4-cylinder-engined cars) and new rear lights. The interior of the 3500 and 2000TC versions was updated with new instrumentation

 

Thankyou for a massive 56,374,335 views

 

Shot 07.08.2016 at the 2016 Shugborough Car Show REF 121-836

 

Place: Yangshuo County, Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region

 

Chinese name: 起亚K2 (qǐyà K2)

Year of launch: 2016

 

The second generation Kia K2 was launched in November 2016, succeeding the successful old model, which has the size of the Kia Rio, but is only offered in China and Russia, in the latter market as Kia Rio, where it one of the most popular cars on the market. Kia once again offers a sedan and hatchback, but the hatchback now comes with a rugged 'cross' look as standard and is named Kia KX Cross.

Successful dev time test. Increased time by 6 min.

1/6

Obliging bird from Sunday morning and very successful. Best viewed large!

Having successfully completed its day's duty, visiting LMS 'Coronation' Class 4-6-2 Pacific No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland reverses onto Bewdley Depot for its overnight stabling on Saturday 21st September 2013 during the Severn Valley Railway's 2013 Autumn Steam Gala.

 

The Travel Air company was one of the most successful aircraft companies of the interwar period, at one point selling more aircraft than its rivals combined. This should come as no surprise: the Travel Air's main designers included Walter Beech, Clyde Cessna, and Lloyd Stearman.

 

The company's big seller had been the reliable, superb biplane designs of the 1920s, but by 1926, the company realized that biplanes were becoming obsolete—at least in the public's eyes—and Travel Air's new design, known as the Model 5000, was made a high-winged monoplane. Besides giving the Travel Air 5000 good lift characteristics, it also gave the four passengers unobstructed views. To prove the design, two 5000s entered the Dole Air Race, a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii; one turned back, and the other crashed (the latter having crashed in Hawaii), making it only the second aircraft ever to make the flight successfully.

 

However, only around 13 Travel Air 5000s were sold, so the design was initially viewed as a commercial failure. In an effort to increase sales, Travel Air marketed an executive "sedan" version of the Model 5000, known as the Travel Air 6000. Designed to meet the demand for airline and private luxury aircraft, the 6000 included seating for up to six passengers and an insulated cabin. Despite its size, its agile performance made it not only a successful business aircraft but also popular with private pilots who could afford the standard $12,000–$18,000 price.

 

Powered by the famed and highly reliable Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior, the 6000s could be found performing many roles throughout their careers. While some flew with Central Air Lines and Overland Airways, others found use with the Phillips Petroleum Co. Others even found their way into the film industry. One was even owned by noted Hollywood actor Wallace Beery, who paid $20,000 for his custom-built Travel Air Type A-6000-A in December of 1928.

 

The cabin was made far more comfortable by giving it a plush interior, car-style wind-down windows, and soundproofing. The 6000 became an immediate hit after it first flew in 1928, but ironically, it was not with Travel Air's intended market. Though some were purchased as executive aircraft, most were bought by regional airlines, whose passengers would appreciate the pleasant interior. Travel Air was not disappointed either way: over 150 Model 6000s were built. The last few were built as Curtiss-Wright 6Bs after Curtiss-Wright merged with Travel Air in August of 1929.

 

Though the Travel Air 6000 was rapidly left behind in the fast-evolving world of airline transportation in the 1930s, its reliable design ensured that eleven examples would survive to modern times, most of them still being airworthy today.

 

Originally built as CF-AEJ for Curtiss-Reid Airways, this Travel Air 6000 first entered service in 1929. It would fly for several Canadian airlines between 1929 and 1954, including Canadian Pacific, Central BC, and Pacific Western. In 1954, it was sold to a private collector in the United States; it was reregistered to N4942V and restored as a Travel Air flying with Grand Canyon Airlines. Yanks acquired the aircraft in a trade in 2015, and N4942V has been here ever since—and is still flyable.

NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, left, NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson are shown an early mirror alignment image from the James Webb Space Telescope, by NASA Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager Lee Feinberg, as NASA Program Director for the James Webb Space Telescope Program Greg Robinson, right, looks on, Monday, Feb., 7, 2022, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. This engineering visual, which features 18 unfocused dots of light, demonstrates that the Webb team has successfully identified starlight through each of Webb’s 18 hexagonal mirror segments – the starting point in a months-long process to progressively align the segments into a single, precise mirror to prepare the telescope for science. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Forster's Tern (Sterna fosteri) just coming out of the water after diving for a fish and getting airborne again. This dive was successful. Image taken on a North Park, Colorado pond .

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A missing filter... Picture or maybe in the air of the time that brews a little anguish, it grinds ideas by dint of filtering the words... the cunning life with a twist. Angel or mill?

  

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the scale of the pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease.[1][2][3] False information, including intentional disinformation, has been spread through social media,[2][4] text messages,[5] and mass media,[6] including the tabloid media,[7] conservative media,[8][9] state media of countries such as China,[10][11] Russia,[12][13] Iran,[14] and Turkmenistan.[2][15] It has also been spread by state-backed covert operations to generate panic and sow distrust in other countries.[16][17]

 

Misinformation has been propagated by celebrities, politicians[18][19] (including heads of state in countries such as the United States,[20][21] Iran,[22] and Brazil[23]), and other prominent public figures.[24] Commercial scams have claimed to offer at-home tests, supposed preventives, and "miracle" cures.[25][26] Politicians and leaders of some countries have promoted purported cures, while some religious groups said that the faith of their followers and God will protect them from the virus.[27][28][29] Others have claimed the virus is a lab-developed bio-weapon that was accidentally leaked,[30][31] or deliberately designed to target a country,[32] or one with a patented vaccine, a population control scheme, the result of a spy operation,[3][4] or linked to 5G networks.[33]

 

The World Health Organization has declared an "infodemic" of incorrect information about the virus, which poses risks to global health.[2]

 

Types and origin and effect

On January 30, the BBC reported about the increasing spread of conspiracy theories and false health advice in relation to COVID-19. Notable examples at the time included false health advice shared on social media and private chats, as well as conspiracy theories such as the origin in bat soup and the outbreak being planned with the participation of the Pirbright Institute.[1][34] On January 31, The Guardian listed seven instances of misinformation, adding the conspiracy theories about bioweapons and the link to 5G technology, and including varied false health advice.[35]

 

In an attempt to speed up research sharing, many researches have turned to preprint servers such as arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv or SSRN. Papers can be uploaded to these servers without peer review or any other editorial process that ensures research quality. Some of these papers have contributed to the spread of conspiracy theories. The most notable case was a preprint paper uploaded to bioRxiv which claimed that the virus contained HIV "insertions". Following the controversy, the paper was withdrawn.[36][37][38]

 

According to a study published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, most misinformation related to COVID-19 involves "various forms of reconfiguration, where existing and often true information is spun, twisted, recontextualised, or reworked". While less misinformation "was completely fabricated". The study found no deep fakes in the studied sample. The study also found that "top-down misinformation from politicians, celebrities, and other prominent public figures", while accounting for a minority of the samples, captured a majority of the social media engagement. According to their classification, the largest category of misinformation (39%) includes "misleading or false claims about the actions or policies of public authorities, including government and international bodies like the WHO or the UN".[39]

 

A natural experiment correlated coronavirus misinformation with increased infection and death; of two similar television news shows on the same network, one took coronavirus seriously about a month earlier than the other. People and groups exposed to the slow-response news show had higher infection and death rates.[40]

 

The misinformations have been used by politicians, interest groups, and state actors in many countries to scapegoat other countries for the mishandling of the domestic responses, as well as furthering political, financial agenda.[41][42][43]

 

Combative efforts

Further information: Impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on journalism

File:ITU - AI for Good Webinar Series - COVID-19 Misinformation and Disinformation during COVID-19.webm

International Telecommunication Union

On February 2, the World Health Organization (WHO) described a "massive infodemic", citing an over-abundance of reported information, accurate and false, about the virus that "makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it". The WHO stated that the high demand for timely and trustworthy information has incentivised the creation of a direct WHO 24/7 myth-busting hotline where its communication and social media teams have been monitoring and responding to misinformation through its website and social media pages.[44][45][46] The WHO specifically debunked several claims as false, including the claim that a person can tell if they have the virus or not simply by holding their breath; the claim that drinking large amounts of water will protect against the virus; and the claim that gargling salt water prevents infection.[47]

 

In early February, Facebook, Twitter and Google said they were working with WHO to address "misinformation".[48] In a blogpost, Facebook stated they would remove content flagged by global health organizations and local authorities that violate its content policy on misinformation leading to "physical harm".[49] Facebook is also giving free advertising to WHO.[50] Nonetheless, a week after Trump's speculation that sunlight could kill the virus, the New York Times found "780 Facebook groups, 290 Facebook pages, nine Instagram accounts and thousands of tweets pushing UV light therapies," content which those companies declined to remove from their platforms.[51]

 

At the end of February, Amazon removed more than a million products claimed to cure or protect against coronavirus, and removed tens of thousands of listings for health products whose prices were "significantly higher than recent prices offered on or off Amazon", although numerous items were "still being sold at unusually high prices" as of February 28.[52]

 

Millions of instances of COVID-19 misinformation have occurred across a number of online platforms.[53] Other fake news researchers noted certain rumors started in China; many of them later spread to Korea and the United States, prompting several universities in Korea to start the multilingual Facts Before Rumors campaign to separate common claims seen online.[54][55][56][57]

 

The media has praised Wikipedia's coverage of COVID-19 and its combating the inclusion of misinformation through efforts led by the Wiki Project Med Foundation and the English-language Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine, among other groups.[58][59][60]

 

Many local newspapers have been severely affected by losses in advertising revenues from coronavirus; journalists have been laid off, and some have closed altogether.[61]

 

Many newspapers with paywalls lowered them for some or all their coronavirus coverage.[62][63] Many scientific publishers made scientific papers related to the outbreak open access.[64]

 

The Turkish Interior Ministry has been arresting social media users whose posts were "targeting officials and spreading panic and fear by suggesting the virus had spread widely in Turkey and that officials had taken insufficient measures".[65] Iran's military said 3600 people have been arrested for "spreading rumors" about coronavirus in the country.[66] In Cambodia, some individuals who expressed concerns about the spread of COVID-19 have been arrested on fake news charges.[67][68] Algerian lawmakers passed a law criminalising "fake news" deemed harmful to "public order and state security".[69] In the Philippines,[70] China,[71] India,[72][73] Egypt,[74] Bangladesh,[75] Morocco,[76] Pakistan,[77] Saudi Arabia,[78] Oman,[79] Iran,[80] Vietnam, Laos,[81] Indonesia,[73] Mongolia,[73] Sri Lanka,[73] Kenya, South Africa,[82] Somalia,[83] Thailand,[84] Kazakhstan,[85] Azerbaijan,[86] Malaysia[87] and Hong Kong, people have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the coronavirus pandemic.[88][73] The United Arab Emirates have introduced criminal penalties for the spread of misinformation and rumours related to the outbreak.[89]

 

Conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories have appeared both in social media and in mainstream news outlets, and are heavily influenced by geopolitics.[90]

 

Accidental leakage

 

Virologist and immunologist Vincent R. Racaniello said that "accident theories – and the lab-made theories before them – reflect a lack of understanding of the genetic make-up of Sars-CoV-2."[91]

A number of allegations have emerged supposing a link between the virus and Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV); among these is that the virus was an accidental leakage from WIV.[92] In 2017, U.S. molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright expressed caution when the WIV was expanded to become mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory, noting previous escapes of the SARS virus at other Chinese laboratories.[93] While Ebright refuted several conspiracy theories regarding the WIV (e.g., bioweapons research, or that the virus was engineered), he told BBC China this did not represent the possibility that the virus can be "completely ruled out" from entering the population due to a laboratory accident.[92] Various researchers contacted by NPR concluded there was "virtually no chance" (in NPR's words) that the pandemic virus had accidentally escaped from a laboratory.[94] Disinformation researcher Nina Jankowicz from Wilson Center indicates the lab leakage claim entered mainstream media in United States during April, propagated by pro-Trump news outlet.[43]

 

On February 14, 2020, Chinese scientists explored the possibility of accidental leakage and published speculations on scientific social networking website ResearchGate. The paper was neither peer-reviewed nor presented any evidence for its claims.[95] On March 5, the author of paper told Wall Street Journal in an interview why he decided to withdrew the paper by the end of February, stating: "the speculation about the possible origins in the post was based on published papers and media, and was not supported by direct proofs."[96][97] Several newspapers have referenced the paper.[95] Scientific American reported that Shi Zhengli, the lead researcher at WIV, started investigation on mishandling of experimental materials in the lab records, especially during disposal. She also tried to cross-check the novel coronavirus genome with the genetic information of other bat coronaviruses her team had collected. The result showed none of the sequences matched those of the viruses her team had sampled from bat caves.[98]

 

In February, it was alleged that the first person infected may have been a researcher at the institute named Huang Yanling.[99] Rumours circulated on Chinese social media that the researcher had become infected and died, prompting a denial from WIV, saying she was a graduate student enrolled in the Institute until 2015 and is not the patient zero.[100][99] In April, the conspiracy theory started to circulate around on Youtube and got picked up by conservative media, National Review.[101][6]

 

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that one of the WIV's lead researchers, Shi Zhengli, was the particular focus of personal attacks in Chinese social media alleging that her work on bat-based viruses was the source of the virus; this led Shi to post: "I swear with my life, [the virus] has nothing to do with the lab". When asked by the SCMP to comment on the attacks, Shi responded: "My time must be spent on more important matters".[102] Caixin reported Shi made further public statements against "perceived tinfoil-hat theories about the new virus's source", quoting her as saying: "The novel 2019 coronavirus is nature punishing the human race for keeping uncivilized living habits. I, Shi Zhengli, swear on my life that it has nothing to do with our laboratory".[103] Immunologist Vincent Racaniello stated that virus leaking theory "reflect a lack of understanding of the genetic make-up of Sars-CoV-2 and its relationship to the bat virus". He says the bat virus researched in the institution "would not have been able to infect humans—the human Sars-CoV-2 has additional changes that allows it to infect humans."[91]

 

On April 14, the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, in response to questions about the virus being manufactured in a lab, said "... it's inconclusive, although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural. But we don't know for certain."[104] On that same day, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin detailed a leaked cable of a 2018 trip made to the WIV by scientists from the U.S. Embassy. The article was referenced and cited by conservative media to push the lab leakage theory.[43] Rogin's article went on to say that "What the U.S. officials learned during their visits concerned them so much that they dispatched two diplomatic cables categorized as Sensitive But Unclassified back to Washington. The cables warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab and proposed more attention and help. The first cable, which I obtained, also warns that the lab's work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic."[105] Rogin's article pointed out there was no evidence that the coronavirus was engineered, "But that is not the same as saying it didn't come from the lab, which spent years testing bat coronaviruses in animals."[105] The article went on to quote Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, "I don't think it's a conspiracy theory. I think it's a legitimate question that needs to be investigated and answered. To understand exactly how this originated is critical knowledge for preventing this from happening in the future."[105] Washington Post's article and subsequent broadcasts drew criticism from virologist Angela Rasmussen of Columbia University, which she states "It's irresponsible for political reporters like Rogin [to] uncritically regurgitate a secret 'cable' without asking a single virologist or ecologist or making any attempt to understand the scientific context."[43] Rasmussen later compared biosafety procedure concerns to "having the health inspector come to your restaurant. It could just be, ‘Oh, you need to keep your chemical showers better stocked.’ It doesn’t suggest, however, that there are tremendous problems.”[106]

 

Days later, multiple media outlets confirmed that U.S. intelligence officials were investigating the possibility that the virus started in the WIV.[107][108][109][110] On April 23, Vox presented disputed arguments on lab leakage claims from several scientists.[111] Scientists suggested that virus samples cultured in the lab have significant amount of difference compare to SARS-CoV-2. The virus institution sampled RaTG13 in Yunnan, the closest known relative of the novel coronavirus with 96% shared genome. Edward Holmes, SARS-CoV-2 researcher at the University of Sydney, explained 4% of difference "is equivalent to an average of 50 years (and at least 20 years) of evolutionary change."[111][112] Virologist Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, which studies emerging infectious diseases, noted the estimation that 1–7 million people in Southeast Asia who live or work in proximity to bats are infected each year with bat coronaviruses. In the interview with Vox, he comments, "There are probably half a dozen people that do work in those labs. So let's compare 1 million to 7 million people a year to half a dozen people; it's just not logical."[94][111]

 

On April 30, The New York Times reported the Trump administration demanded intelligence agencies to find evidence linking WIV with the origin of SARS-Cov-2. Secretary of State and former Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A) director Mike Pompeo was reportedly leading the push on finding information regarding the virus origin. Analysts were concerned that pressure from senior officials could distort assessments from the intelligence community. Anthony Ruggiero, the head of the National Security Council which responsible for tracking weapons of mass destruction, expressed frustration during a video conference that C.I.A. was unable to form conclusive answer on the origin of the virus. According to current and former government officials, as of April 30, C.I.A has yet to gather any information beyond circumstantial evidence to bolster the lab theory.[113][114] US intelligence officers suggested that Chinese officials tried to conceal the severity of the outbreak in early days, but no evidence had shown China attempted to cover up a lab accident.[115] One day later, Trump claimed he has evidence of the lab theory, but offers no further details on it.[116][117] Jamie Metzl, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, claimed the SARS-CoV-2 virus "likely" came from a Wuhan virology testing laboratory, based on "circumstantial evidence". He was quoted as saying, "I have no definitive way of proving this thesis."[118]

 

On April 30, 2020, the U.S. intelligence and scientific communities issued a public statement dismissing the idea that the virus was not natural, while the investigation of the lab accident theory was ongoing.[119][120] The White House suggested an alternative explanation, along with a seemingly contradictory message, that the virus was man-made. In an interview with ABC News, Secretary of State Pompeo said he has no reason to disbelieve the intelligence community that the virus was natural. However, this contradicted the comment he made earlier in the same interview, in which he said "the best experts so far seem to think it was man-made. I have no reason to disbelieve that at this point."[121][122][123] On May 4, Australian tabloid The Daily Telegraph claimed a reportedly leaked dossier from Five Eyes, which alleged the probable outbreak was from the Wuhan lab.[124] Fox News and national security commentators in the US quickly followed up The Telegraph story,[125][126] rising the tension within international intelligence community.[127] Australian government, which is part of the Five Eyes nations, determined the leaked dossier was not a Five Eyes document, but a compilation of open-source materials that contained no information generated by intelligence gathering.[128] German intelligence community denied the claim of the leaked dossier, instead supported the probability of a natural cause.[129][130] Australian government sees the promotion of the lab theory from the United States counterproductive to Australia’s push for a more broad international-supported independent inquiry into the virus origins.[127] Senior officials in Australian government speculated the dossier was leaked by US embassy in Canberra to promote a narrative in Australia media that diverged from the mainstream belief of Australia.[127][128][125]

 

Beijing rejected the White House's claim, calling the claim "part of an election year strategy by President Donald Trump’s Republican Party".[131] Hua Chunying, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, urged Mike Pompeo to present evidence for his claim. "Mr. Pompeo cannot present any evidence because he does not have any," Hua told a journalist during a regular briefing, "This matter should be handled by scientists and professionals instead of politicians out of their domestic political needs."[131][132] The Chinese ambassador, in an opinion published in the Washington Post, called on the White House to end the "blame game" over the coronavirus.[133][134] As of May 5, assessments and internal sources from the Five Eyes nations indicated that the coronavirus outbreak was the result of a laboratory accident was "highly unlikely", since the human infection was "highly likely" a result of natural human and animal interaction. However, to reach such a conclusion with total certainty would still require greater cooperation and transparency from the Chinese side.[135]

 

Anti-Israeli and antisemitic

Further information: Antisemitic canard

Iran's Press TV asserted that "Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran".[14] Similarly, various Arab media outlets accused Israel and the United States of creating and spreading COVID-19, avian flu, and SARS.[136] Users on social media offered a variety of theories, including the supposition that Jews had manufactured COVID-19 to precipitate a global stock market collapse and thereby profit via insider trading,[137] while a guest on Turkish television posited a more ambitious scenario in which Jews and Zionists had created COVID-19, avian flu, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever to "design the world, seize countries, [and] neuter the world's population".[138]

 

Israeli attempts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine prompted mixed reactions. Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi denied initial reports that he had ruled that a Zionist-made vaccine would be halal,[139] and one Press TV journalist tweeted that "I'd rather take my chances with the virus than consume an Israeli vaccine".[140] A columnist for the Turkish Yeni Akit asserted that such a vaccine could be a ruse to carry out mass sterilization.[141]

 

An alert by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the possible threat of far-right extremists intentionally spreading the coronavirus mentioned blame being assigned to Jews and Jewish leaders for causing the pandemic and several statewide shutdowns.[142]

 

Anti-Muslim

Further information: 2020 Tablighi Jamaat coronavirus hotspot in Delhi

In India, Muslims have been blamed for spreading infection following the emergence of cases linked to a Tablighi Jamaat religious gathering.[143] There are reports of vilification of Muslims on social media and attacks on individuals in India.[144] Claims have been made Muslims are selling food contaminated with coronavirus and that a mosque in Patna was sheltering people from Italy and Iran.[145] These claims were shown to be false.[146] In the UK, there are reports of far-right groups blaming Muslims for the coronavirus outbreak and falsely claiming that mosques remained open after the national ban on large gatherings.[147]

 

Bioengineered virus

It has been repeatedly claimed that the virus was deliberately created by humans.

 

Nature Medicine published an article arguing against the conspiracy theory that the virus was created artificially. The high-affinity binding of its peplomers to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) was shown to be "most likely the result of natural selection on a human or human-like ACE2 that permits another optimal binding solution to arise".[148] In case of genetic manipulation, one of the several reverse-genetic systems for betacoronaviruses would probably have been used, while the genetic data irrefutably showed that the virus is not derived from a previously used virus template.[148] The overall molecular structure of the virus was found to be distinct from the known coronaviruses and most closely resembles that of viruses of bats and pangolins that were little studied and never known to harm humans.[149]

 

In February 2020, the Financial Times quoted virus expert and global co-lead coronavirus investigator Trevor Bedford: "There is no evidence whatsoever of genetic engineering that we can find", and "The evidence we have is that the mutations [in the virus] are completely consistent with natural evolution".[150] Bedford further explained, "The most likely scenario, based on genetic analysis, was that the virus was transmitted by a bat to another mammal between 20–70 years ago. This intermediary animal—not yet identified—passed it on to its first human host in the city of Wuhan in late November or early December 2019".[150]

 

On February 19, 2020, The Lancet published a letter of a group of scientists condemning "conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin".[151]

 

Chinese biological weapon

India

Amidst a rise in Sinophobia, there have been conspiracy theories reported on India's social networks that the virus is "a bioweapon that went rogue" and also fake videos alleging that Chinese authorities are killing citizens to prevent its spread.[152]

 

Ukraine

According to the Kyiv Post, two common conspiracy theories online in Ukraine are that American author Dean Koontz predicted the pandemic in his 1981 novel The Eyes of Darkness, and that the coronavirus is a bioweapon leaked from a secret lab in Wuhan.[153]

 

United Kingdom

 

Tobias Ellwood said, "It would be irresponsible to suggest the source of this outbreak was an error in a Chinese military biological weapons programme ... But without greater Chinese transparency we cannot entirely completely sure."[154]

In February, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the Defence Select Committee of the UK House of Commons, publicly questioned the role of the Chinese Army's Wuhan Institute for Biological Products and called for the "greater transparency over the origins of the coronavirus".[154][non-primary source needed] The Daily Mail reported in early April 2020 that a member of COBRA (an ad-hoc government committee tasked with advising on crises[citation needed]) has stated while government intelligence does not dispute that the virus has a zoonotic origin, it also does not discount the idea of a leak from a Wuhan laboratory, saying "Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is that laboratory in Wuhan"; the Asia Times reported the story as if it were factual,[155] perhaps unaware of the reputation of the Daily Mail.

 

United States

Further information: Cyberwarfare in the United States and Propaganda in the United States

In January 2020, BBC News published an article about coronavirus misinformation, citing two January 24 articles from The Washington Times that said the virus was part of a Chinese biological weapons program, based at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).[1] The Washington Post later published an article debunking the conspiracy theory, citing U.S. experts who explained why the WIV was unsuitable for bioweapon research, that most countries had abandoned bioweapons as fruitless, and that there was no evidence the virus was genetically engineered.[156]

 

On January 29, financial news website and blog ZeroHedge suggested without evidence that a scientist at the WIV created the COVID-19 strain responsible for the coronavirus outbreak. Zerohedge listed the full contact details of the scientist supposedly responsible, a practice known as doxing, by including the scientist's name, photo, and phone number, suggesting to readers that they "pay [the Chinese scientist] a visit" if they wanted to know "what really caused the coronavirus pandemic".[157] Twitter later permanently suspended the blog's account for violating its platform-manipulation policy.[158]

  

Logo of the fictional Umbrella Corporation, which some internet rumours linked to the pandemic. The corporation was invented for the Resident Evil game series.

In January 2020, Buzzfeed News reported on an internet meme of a link between the logo of the WIV and "Umbrella Corporation", the agency that created the virus responsible for a zombie apocalypse in the Resident Evil franchise. Posts online noted that "Racoon [sic]" (the main city in Resident Evil) was an anagram of "Corona".[159] Snopes noted that the logo was not from the WIV, but a company named Shanghai Ruilan Bao Hu San Biotech Ltd (located some 500 miles (800 km) away in Shanghai), and that the correct name of the city in Resident Evil was "Raccoon City".[159]

 

In February 2020, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested the virus may have originated in a Chinese bioweapon laboratory.[160] Francis Boyle, a law professor, also expressed support for the bioweapon theory suggesting it was the result of unintended leaks.[161] Cotton elaborated on Twitter that his opinion was only one of "at least four hypotheses". Multiple medical experts have indicated there is no evidence for these claims.[162] Conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh said on The Rush Limbaugh Show—the most popular radio show in the U.S.—that the virus was probably "a ChiCom laboratory experiment" and the Chinese government was using the virus and the media hysteria surrounding it to bring down Donald Trump.[163][164]

 

On February 6, the White House asked scientists and medical researchers to rapidly investigate the origins of the virus both to address the current spread and "to inform future outbreak preparation and better understand animal/human and environmental transmission aspects of coronaviruses".[165] American magazine Foreign Policy said Xi Jinping's "political agenda may turn out to be a root cause of the epidemic" and that his Belt and Road Initiative has "made it possible for a local disease to become a global menace".[90]

 

The Inverse reported that "Christopher Bouzy, the founder of Bot Sentinel, conducted a Twitter analysis for Inverse and found [online] bots and trollbots are making an array of false claims. These bots are claiming China intentionally created the virus, that it's a biological weapon, that Democrats are overstating the threat to hurt Donald Trump and more. While we can't confirm the origin of these bots, they are decidedly pro-Trump."[166]

 

Conservative commentator Josh Bernstein claimed that the Democratic Party and the "medical deep state" were collaborating with the Chinese government to create and release the coronavirus to bring down Donald Trump. Bernstein went on to suggest those responsible should be locked in a room with infected coronavirus patients as punishment.[167][168]

 

Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, promoted a conspiracy theory on Fox News that North Korea and China conspired together to create the coronavirus.[169] He also said people were overreacting to the coronavirus outbreak and that Democrats were trying to use the situation to harm President Trump.[170]

 

Hospital ship attack

The hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) deployed to the Port of Los Angeles to provide backup medical services for the region. On March 31, 2020, a Pacific Harbor Line freight train was deliberately derailed by its onboard engineer in an attempt to crash into the ship, but the attack was unsuccessful and no one was injured.[171][172] According to U.S. federal prosecutors, the train's engineer "[...] was suspicious of the Mercy, believing it had an alternate purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover".[173]

 

Population control scheme

See also: List of conspiracy theories § RFID chips

According to the BBC, Jordan Sather, a conspiracy theory YouTuber supporting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and the anti-vax movement, has falsely claimed the outbreak was a population control scheme created by Pirbright Institute in England and by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. This belief is held mostly by right-wing libertarians, NWO conspiracy theorists, and Christian Fundamentalists.[1][174]

 

Spy operation

Some people have alleged that the coronavirus was stolen from a Canadian virus research lab by Chinese scientists. Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said that conspiracy theory had "no factual basis".[175] The stories seem to have been derived[176] from a July 2019 news article[177] stating that some Chinese researchers had their security access to a Canadian Level 4 virology facility revoked in a federal police investigation; Canadian officials described this as an administrative matter and "there is absolutely no risk to the Canadian public."[177]

 

This article was published by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC);[176] responding to the conspiracy theories, the CBC later stated that "CBC reporting never claimed the two scientists were spies, or that they brought any version of the coronavirus to the lab in Wuhan". While pathogen samples were transferred from the lab in Winnipeg, Canada to Beijing, China, on March 31, 2019, neither of the samples was a coronavirus, the Public Health Agency of Canada says the shipment conformed to all federal policies, and there has not been any statement that the researchers under investigation were responsible for sending the shipment. The current location of the researchers under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is not being released.[175][178][179]

 

In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, a senior research associate and expert in biological warfare with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, referring to a NATO press conference, identified suspicions of espionage as the reason behind the expulsions from the lab, but made no suggestion that coronavirus was taken from the Canadian lab or that it is the result of bioweapons defense research in China.[180]

 

U.S. biological weapon

Arab world

According to Washington DC-based nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute, numerous writers in the Arabic press have promoted the conspiracy theory that COVID-19, as well as SARS and the swine flu virus, were deliberately created and spread to sell vaccines against these diseases, and it is "part of an economic and psychological war waged by the U.S. against China with the aim of weakening it and presenting it as a backward country and a source of diseases".[181] Iraqi political analyst Sabah Al-Akili on Al-Etejah TV, Saudi daily Al-Watan writer Sa'ud Al-Shehry, Syrian daily Al-Thawra columnist Hussein Saqer, and Egyptian journalist Ahmad Rif'at on Egyptian news website Vetogate, were some examples given by MEMRI as propagators of the U.S. biowarfare conspiracy theory in the Arabic world.[181]

 

China

Further information: Cyberwarfare by China, Propaganda in China, and Chinese information operations and information warfare

 

The Xinhua News Agency is among the news outlets that have published false information about COVID-19's origins.

According to London-based The Economist, plenty of conspiracy theories exist on China's internet about COVID-19 being the CIA's creation to keep China down.[182] NBC News however has noted that there have also been debunking efforts of U.S.-related conspiracy theories posted online, with a WeChat search of "Coronavirus is from the U.S." reported to mostly yield articles explaining why such claims are unreasonable.[183] According to an investigation by ProPublica, such conspiracy theories and disinformation have been propagated under the direction of China News Service, the country's second largest government-owned media outlet controlled by the United Front Work Department.[184] Global Times and Xinhua News Agency have similarly been implicated in propagating disinformation related to COVID-19's origins.[185][186]

 

Multiple conspiracy articles in Chinese from the SARS era resurfaced during the outbreak with altered details, claiming SARS is biological warfare. Some said BGI Group from China sold genetic information of the Chinese people to the U.S., which then specifically targeted the genome of Chinese individuals.[187]

 

On January 26, Chinese military enthusiast website Xilu published an article, claimed how the U.S. artificially combined the virus to "precisely target Chinese people".[188][189] The article was removed in early February. The article was further distorted on social media in Taiwan, which claimed "Top Chinese military website admitted novel coronavirus was Chinese-made bio-weapons".[190] Taiwan Fact-check center debunked the original article and its divergence, suggesting the original Xilu article distorted the conclusion from a legitimate research on Chinese scientific magazine Science China Life Sciences, which never mentioned the virus was engineered.[190] The fact-check center explained Xilu is a military enthusiastic tabloid established by a private company, thus it doesn't represent the voice of Chinese military.[190]

 

Some articles on popular sites in China have also cast suspicion on U.S. military athletes participating in the Wuhan 2019 Military World Games, which lasted until the end of October 2019, and have suggested they deployed the virus. They claim the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below-average results of American athletes in the games indicate they might have been there for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives. Such posts stated that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.[191]

 

In March 2020, this conspiracy theory was endorsed by Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.[192][193][194][195] On March 13, the U.S. government summoned Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai to Washington over the coronavirus conspiracy theory.[196] Over the next month, conspiracy theorists narrowed their focus to one U.S. Army Reservist, a woman who participated in the games in Wuhan as a cyclist, claiming she is "patient zero". According to a CNN report, these theories have been spread by George Webb, who has nearly 100,000 followers on YouTube, and have been amplified by a report by CPC-owned newspaper Global Times.[197][198]

 

Iran

Further information: Propaganda in Iran

 

Reza Malekzadeh, deputy health minister, rejected bioterrorism theories.

According to Radio Farda, Iranian cleric Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi accused U.S. President Donald Trump of targeting Qom with coronavirus "to damage its culture and honor". Saeedi claimed that Trump is fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites, if Iranians took revenge for the airstrike that killed of Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.[199]

 

Iranian TV personality Ali Akbar Raefipour claimed the coronavirus was part of a "hybrid warfare" programme waged by the United States on Iran and China.[200] Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iranian Civil Defense Organization, claimed the coronavirus is likely a biological attack on China and Iran with economic goals.[201][202]

 

Hossein Salami, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed the coronavirus outbreak in Iran may be due to a U.S. "biological attack".[203] Several Iranian politicians, including Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Rasoul Falahati, Alireza Panahian, Abolfazl Hasanbeigi and Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, also made similar remarks.[204] Iranian Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made similar suggestions.[205]

 

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to the United Nations on March 9, claiming that "it is clear to the world that the mutated coronavirus was produced in lab" and that COVID-19 is "a new weapon for establishing and/or maintaining political and economic upper hand in the global arena".[206]

 

The late[207] Ayatollah Hashem Bathaie Golpayegani claimed that "America is the source of coronavirus, because America went head to head with China and realised it cannot keep up with it economically or militarily."[208]

 

Reza Malekzadeh, Iran's deputy health minister and former Minister of Health, rejected claims that the virus was a biological weapon, pointing out that the U.S. would be suffering heavily from it. He said Iran was hard-hit because its close ties to China and reluctance to cut air ties introduced the virus, and because early cases had been mistaken for influenza.[205]

 

Philippines

 

In the Philippine Senate, Tito Sotto has promoted his belief that COVID-19 is a bioweapon.

A Filipino Senator, Tito Sotto, played a bioweapon conspiracy video in a February 2020 Senate hearing, suggesting the coronavirus is biowarfare waged against China.[209][210]

 

Russia

Further information: Cyberwarfare by Russia and Propaganda in the Russian Federation

On February 22, U.S. officials alleged that Russia is behind an ongoing disinformation campaign, using thousands of social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to deliberately promote unfounded conspiracy theories, claiming the virus is a biological weapon manufactured by the CIA and the U.S. is waging economic war on China using the virus.[211][12][212] The acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, Philip Reeker, said "Russia's intent is to sow discord and undermine U.S. institutions and alliances from within" and "by spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response."[211] Russia denies the allegation, saying "this is a deliberately false story".[213]

 

According to U.S.-based The National Interest magazine, although official Russian channels had been muted on pushing the U.S. biowarfare conspiracy theory, other Russian media elements do not share the Kremlin's restraint.[214] Zvezda, a news outlet funded by the Russian Defense Ministry, published an article titled "Coronavirus: American biological warfare against Russia and China", claiming that the virus is intended to damage the Chinese economy, weakening its hand in the next round of trade negotiations.[214] Ultra-nationalist politician and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, claimed on a Moscow radio station that the virus was an experiment by the Pentagon and pharmaceutical companies. Politician Igor Nikulin made rounds on Russian television and news media, arguing that Wuhan was chosen for the attack because the presence of a BSL-4 virus lab provided a cover story for the Pentagon and CIA about a Chinese bio-experiment leak.[214] An EU-document claims 80 attempts by Russian media to spread disinformation related to the epidemic.[215]

 

According to the East StratCom Task Force, the Sputnik news agency was active publishing stories speculating that the virus could've been invented in Latvia, that it was used by Communist Party of China to curb protests in Hong Kong, that it was introduced intentionally to reduce the number of elder people in Italy, that it was targeted against the Yellow Vests movement, and making many other speculations. Sputnik branches in countries including Armenia, Belarus, Spain, and in the Middle East came up with versions of these stories.[216]

 

Venezuela

Constituent Assembly member Elvis Méndez declared that the coronavirus was a "bacteriological sickness created in '89, in '90 and historically" and that it was a sickness "inoculated by the gringos". Méndez theorized that the virus was a weapon against Latin America and China and that its purpose was "to demoralize the person, to weaken to install their system".[217]

 

COVID-19 recovery

It has been wrongly claimed that anyone infected with COVID-19 will have the virus in their bodies for life. While there is no curative treatment, infected individuals can recover from the disease, eliminating the virus from their bodies; getting supportive medical care early can help.[279]

 

COVID-19 xenophobic blaming by ethnicity and religion

Main article: List of incidents of xenophobia and racism related to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

File:IOM - Fighting Stigma and Discrimination against Migrants during COVID-19.webm

UN video warns that misinformation against groups may lower testing rates and increase transmission.

COVID-19-related xenophobic attacks have been made against people the attacker blamed for COVID-19 on the basis of their ethnicity. People who are considered to look Chinese have been subjected to COVID-19-related verbal and physical attacks in many other countries, often by people accusing them of transmitting the virus.[281][282][283] Within China, there has been discrimination (such as evictions and non-service in shops) against people from anywhere closer to Wuhan (where the pandemic started) and against anyone perceived as being non-Chinese (especially those considered African), as the Chinese government has blamed continuing cases on re-introductions of the virus from abroad (90% of reintroduced cases were by Chinese passport-holders). Neighbouring countries have also discriminated against people seen as Westerners.[284][285][286] People have also simply blamed other local groups along the lines of pre-existing social tensions and divisions, sometimes citing reporting of COVID-19 cases within that group. For instance, Muslims have been widely blamed, shunned, and discriminated against in India (including some violent attacks), amid unfounded claims that Muslims are deliberately spreading COVID-19, and a Muslim event at which the disease did spread has received far more public attention than many similar events run by other groups and the government.[287] White supremacist groups have blamed COVID-19 on non-whites and advocated deliberately infecting minorities they dislike, such as Jews.[288]

 

False causes

5G

 

5G towers have been burned by people wrongly blaming them for COVID-19.

 

Openreach engineers appealed on anti-5G Facebook groups, saying they aren't involved in mobile networks, and workplace abuse is making it difficult for them to maintain phonelines and broadband.

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In February 2020 BBC News reported that conspiracy theorists on social media groups alleged a link between coronavirus and 5G mobile networks, claiming that Wuhan and Diamond Princess outbreaks were directly caused by electromagnetic fields and by the introduction of 5G and wireless technologies. Some conspiracy theorists also alleged that the coronavirus outbreak was a cover-up for a 5G-related illness.[33] In March 2020, Thomas Cowan, a holistic medical practitioner who trained as a physician and operates on probation with Medical Board of California, alleged that coronavirus is caused by 5G, based on the claims that African countries were not affected significantly by the pandemic and Africa was not a 5G region.[289][290] Cowan also falsely alleged that the viruses were wastes from cells that are poisoned by electromagnetic fields and historical viral pandemics coincided with the major developments in radio technology.[290] The video of his claims went viral and was recirculated by celebrities including Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, and singer Keri Hilson.[291] The claims may also have been recirculated by an alleged "coordinated disinformation campaign", similar to campaigns used by the Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg, Russia.[292] The claims were criticized on social media and debunked by Reuters,[293] USA Today,[294] Full Fact[295] and American Public Health Association executive director Georges C. Benjamin.[289][296]

 

Professor Steve Powis, national medical director of NHS England, described theories linking 5G mobile phone networks to COVID-19 as the "worst kind of fake news".[297] Viruses cannot be transmitted by radio waves. COVID-19 has spread and continues to spread in many countries that do not have 5G networks.[279]

 

After telecommunications masts in several parts of the United Kingdom were the subject of arson attacks, British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said the theory that COVID-19 virus may be spread by 5G wireless communication is "just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well".[298] Vodafone announced that two Vodafone masts and two it shares with O2 had been targeted.[299][300]

 

By Monday April 6, 2020 at least 20 mobile phone masts in the UK had been vandalised since the previous Thursday.[301] Because of slow rollout of 5G in the UK, many of the damaged masts had only 3G and 4G equipment.[301] Mobile phone and home broadband operators estimated there were at least 30 incidents of confronting engineers maintaining equipment in the week up to April 6.[301] There have been eleven incidents of attempted arson at mobile phone masts in the Netherlands, including one case where "Fuck 5G" was written, as well as in Ireland and Cyprus.[302][303] Facebook has deleted multiple messages encouraging attacks on 5G equipment.[301]

 

Engineers working for Openreach posted pleas on anti-5G Facebook groups asking to be spared abuse as they are not involved with maintaining mobile networks.[304] Mobile UK said the incidents were affecting attempts to maintain networks that support home working and provide critical connections to vulnerable customers, emergency services and hospitals.[304] A widely circulated video shows people working for broadband company Community Fibre being abused by a woman who accuses them of installing 5G as part of a plan to kill the population.[304]

 

YouTube announced that it would reduce the amount of content claiming links between 5G and coronavirus.[299] Videos that are conspiratorial about 5G that do not mention coronavirus would not be removed, though they might be considered "borderline content", removed from search recommendations and losing advertising revenue.[299] The discredited claims had been circulated by British conspiracy theorist David Icke in videos (subsequently removed) on YouTube and Vimeo, and an interview by London Live TV network, prompting calls for action by Ofcom.[305][306]

 

On April 13, 2020, Gardaí were investigating fires at 5G masts in County Donegal, Ireland.[307] Gardaí and fire services had attended the fires the previous night in an attempt to put them out.[307] Although Gardaí were awaiting results of tests they were treating the fires as deliberate.[307]

 

There were 20 suspected arson attacks on phone masts in the UK over the Easter 2020 weekend.[297] These included an incident in Dagenham where three men were arrested on suspicion of arson, a fire in Huddersfield that affected a mast used by emergency services and a fire in a mast that provides mobile connectivity to the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham.[297]

 

Ofcom issued guidance to ITV following comments by Eamonn Holmes after comments made by Holmes about 5G and coronavirus on This Morning.[308] Ofcom said the comments were "ambiguous" and "ill-judged" and they "risked undermining viewers' trust in advice from public authorities and scientific evidence".[308] Ofcom also local channel London Live in breach of standards for an interview it had with David Icke who it said had " expressed views which had the potential to cause significant harm to viewers in London during the pandemic".[308]

 

Some telecoms engineers have reported threats of violence, including threats to stab and murder them, by individuals who believe them to be working on 5G networks.[309] West Midlands Police said the crimes in question are being taken very seriously.[309]

 

On April 24, 2020 The Guardian revealed that an evangelical pastor from Luton had provided the male voice on a recording blaming 5G for deaths caused by coronavirus.[310] Jonathon James claimed to have formerly headed the largest business-unit at Vodafone, but insiders at the company said that he was hired for a sales position in 2014 when 5G was not a priority for the company and that 5G would not have been part of his job.[310] He left the company after less than a year.[310]

 

Mosquitoes

It has been claimed that mosquitoes transmit coronavirus. There is no evidence that this is true; coronavirus spreads through small droplets of saliva and mucus.[279]

 

Petrol pumps

A warning claiming to be from the Australia Department of Health said coronavirus spreads through petrol pumps and that everyone should wear gloves when filling up petrol in their cars.[311]

 

Shoe-wearing

There were claims that wearing shoes at one's home was the reason behind the spread of the coronavirus in Italy.[312]

 

Resistance/susceptibility based on ethnicity

There have been claims that specific ethnicities are more or less vulnerable to COVID-19. COVID-19 is a new zoonotic disease, so no population has yet had the time to develop population immunity.[medical citation needed]

 

Beginning on February 11, reports, quickly spread via Facebook, implied that a Cameroonian student in China had been completely cured of the virus due to his African genetics. While a student was successfully treated, other media sources have noted that no evidence implies Africans are more resistant to the virus and labeled such claims as false information.[313] Kenyan Secretary of Health Mutahi Kagwe explicitly refuted rumors that "those with black skin cannot get coronavirus", while announcing Kenya's first case on March 13.[314] This myth was cited as a contributing factor in the disproportionately high rates of infection and death observed among African Americans.[315][316]

 

There have been claims of "Indian immunity": that the people of India have more immunity to the COVID-19 virus due to living conditions in India. This idea was deemed "absolute drivel" by Anand Krishnan, professor at the Centre for Community Medicine of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He said there was no population immunity to the COVID-19 virus yet, as it is new, and it is not even clear whether people who have recovered from COVID-19 will have lasting immunity, as this happens with some viruses but not with others.[317]

 

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed the virus was genetically targeted at Iranians by the U.S., and this is why it is seriously affecting Iran. He did not offer any evidence.[318][22]

 

Religious protection

A number of religious groups have claimed protection due to their faith, some refusing to stop large religious gatherings. In Israel, some Ultra-Orthodox Jews initially refused to close synagogues and religious seminaries and disregarded government restrictions because "The Torah protects and saves",[319] which resulted in an 8 times faster rate of infection among some groups.[320] The Tablighi Jamaat movement organised mass gatherings in Malaysia, India, and Pakistan whose participants believed that God will protect them resulted the biggest rise in COVID-19 cases in a number of countries.[321][29][322] In Iran, the head of Fatima Masumeh Shrine encouraged pilgrims to visit the shrine despite calls to close the shrine, saying that they "consider this holy shrine to be a place of healing."[323] In South Korea the River of Grace Community Church in Gyeonggi Province spread the virus after spraying salt water into their members' mouths in the belief that it would kill the virus,[324] while the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu where a church leader claimed that no Shincheonji worshipers had caught the virus in February while hundreds died in Wuhan later caused in the biggest spread of the virus in the country.[325][326]

 

In Somalia, myths have spread claiming Muslims are immune to the virus.[327]

 

Unproven protective and aggravating factors

Vegetarian immunity

[icon]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2020)

Claims that vegetarians are immune to coronavirus spread online in India, causing "#NoMeat_NoCoronaVirus" to trend on Twitter.[328][better source needed] Eating meat does not have an effect on COVID-19 spread, except for people near where animals are slaughtered, said Anand Krishnan.[329] Fisheries, Dairying and Animal Husbandry Minister Giriraj Singh said the rumour had significantly affected industry, with the price of a chicken falling to a third of pre-pandemic levels. He also described efforts to improve the hygiene of the meat supply chain.[330]

 

Efficacy of hand sanitiser, "antibacterial" soaps

 

Washing in soap and water for at least 20 seconds is the best way to clean hands. Second-best is a hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol.[331]

Claims that hand sanitiser is merely "antibacterial not antiviral", and therefore ineffective against COVID-19, have spread widely on Twitter and other social networks. While the effectiveness of sanitiser depends on the specific ingredients, most hand sanitiser sold commercially inactivates SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.[332][333] Hand sanitizer is recommended against COVID-19,[279] though unlike soap, it is not effective against all types of germs.[334] Washing in soap and water for at least 20 seconds is recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as the best way to clean hands in most situations. However, if soap and water are not available, a hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol can be used instead, unless hands are visibly dirty or greasy.[331][335] The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration both recommend plain soap; there is no evidence that "antibacterial soaps" are any better, and limited evidence that they might be worse long-term.[336][337]

 

Alcohol (ethanol and poisonous methanol)

Contrary to some reports, drinking alcohol does not protect against COVID-19, and can increase health risks[279] (short term and long term). Drinking alcohol is ethanol; other alcohols, such as methanol, which causes methanol poisoning, are acutely poisonous, and may be present in badly-prepared alcoholic beverages.[338]

 

Iran has reported incidents of methanol poisoning, caused by the false belief that drinking alcohol would cure or protect against coronavirus;[339] alcohol is banned in Iran, and bootleg alcohol may contain methanol.[340] According to Iranian media in March 2020, nearly 300 people have died and more than a thousand have become ill due to methanol poisoning, while Associated Press gave figures of around 480 deaths with 2,850 others affected.[341] The number of deaths due to methanol poisoning in Iran reached over 700 by April.[342] Iranian social media had circulated a story from British tabloids that a British man and others had been cured of coronavirus with whiskey and honey,[339][343] which combined with the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers as disinfectants, led to the false belief that drinking high-proof alcohol can kill the virus.[339][340][341]

 

Similar incidents have occurred in Turkey, with 30 Turkmenistan citizens dying from methanol poisoning related to coronavirus cure claims.[344][345]

 

In Kenya, the Governor of Nairobi Mike Sonko has come under scrutiny for including small bottles of the cognac Hennessy in care packages, falsely claiming that alcohol serves as "throat sanitizer" and that, from research, it is believed that "alcohol plays a major role in killing the coronavirus."[346][347]

 

Cocaine

Cocaine does not protect against COVID-19. Several viral tweets purporting that snorting cocaine would sterilize one's nostrils of the coronavirus spread around Europe and Africa. In response, the French Ministry of Health released a public service announcement debunking this claim, saying "No, cocaine does NOT protect against COVID-19. It is an addictive drug that causes serious side effects and is harmful to people's health." The World Health Organisation also debunked the claim.[348]

 

Ibuprofen

A tweet from French health minister Olivier Véran, a bulletin from the French health ministry, and a small speculative study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine raised concerns about ibuprofen worsening COVID-19, which spread extensively on social media. The European Medicines Agency[349] and the World Health Organization recommended COVID-19 patients keep taking ibuprofen as directed, citing lack of convincing evidence of any danger.[350]

 

Helicopter spraying

In some Asian countries, it has been claimed that one should stay at home on particular days when helicopters spray disinfectant over homes for killing off COVID-19; no such spraying is taking place.[351][352]

 

Cruise ships safety from infection

Main article: COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships

 

Claims by cruise-ship operators notwithstanding, there are many cases of coronaviruses in hot climates; some countries in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf are severely affected.

In March 2020, the Miami New Times reported that managers at Norwegian Cruise Line had prepared a set of responses intended to convince wary customers to book cruises, including "blatantly false" claims that the coronavirus "can only survive in cold temperatures, so the Caribbean is a fantastic choice for your next cruise", that "[s]cientists and medical professionals have confirmed that the warm weather of the spring will be the end of the [c]oronavirus", and that the virus "cannot live in the amazingly warm and tropical temperatures that your cruise will be sailing to".[353]

 

Flu is seasonal (becoming less frequent in the summer) in some countries, but not in others. While it is possible that the COVID-19 coronavirus will also show some seasonality, it is not yet known.[354][355][356][medical citation needed] The COVID-19 coronavirus spread along international air travel routes, including to tropical locations.[357] Outbreaks on cruise ships, where an older population lives in close quarters, frequently touching surfaces which others have touched, were common.[358][359]

 

It seems that COVID-19 can be transmitted in all climates.[279] It has seriously affected many warm-climate countries. For instance, Dubai, with an year-round average daily high of 28.0 Celsius (82.3°F) and the airport said to have the world's most international traffic, has had thousands of cases.

 

Vaccine pre-existence

It was reported that multiple social media posts have promoted a conspiracy theory claiming the virus was known and that a vaccine was already available. PolitiFact and FactCheck.org noted that no vaccine currently exists for COVID-19. The patents cited by various social media posts reference existing patents for genetic sequences and vaccines for other strains of coronavirus such as the SARS coronavirus.[360][4] The WHO reported as of February 5, 2020, that amid news reports of "breakthrough" drugs being discovered to treat people infected with the virus, there were no known effective treatments;[361] this included antibiotics and herbal remedies not being useful.[362] Scientists are working to develop a vaccine, but as of March 18, 2020, no vaccine candidates have completed Phase II clinical trials.[citation needed]

 

Miscellaneous

Name of the disease

Social media posts and internet memes claimed that COVID-19 means "Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease 19", or similar, as supposedly the "19th virus to come out of China".[477] In fact, the WHO named the disease as follows: CO stands for corona, VI for virus, D for disease and 19 for when the outbreak was first identified (31 December 2019).[478]

 

Bat soup

Some media outlets, including Daily Mail and RT, as well as individuals, disseminated a video showing a Chinese woman eating a bat, falsely suggesting it was filmed in Wuhan and connecting it to the outbreak.[479][480] However, the widely circulated video contains unrelated footage of a Chinese travel vlogger, Wang Mengyun, eating bat soup in the island country of Palau in 2016.[479][480][481][482] Wang posted an apology on Weibo,[481][482] in which she said she had been abused and threatened,[481] and that she had only wanted to showcase Palauan cuisine.[481][482] The spread of misinformation about bat consumption has been characterized by xenophobic and racist sentiment toward Asians.[90][483][484] In contrast, scientists suggest the virus originated in bats and migrated into an intermediary host animal before infecting people.[90][485]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation_related_to_the_COVID...

The name is Harley Destiny Smith (xharleysmithx resident)

Success tastes like Heaven deep-fried with a snickers middle. I recommend tasting it! ✭ღ✧◠‿◠✧ღ✭

Coastal Brown Bear, Alaska

 

This beast of a bear, nicknamed 'Chops' and estimated to be near 1500 pounds, showed little difficulty in moving quickly in the water when chasing after salmon. He definitely ruled the river, and when not successful on his own in getting a fish (he was successful often) he showed his dominance by chasing other bears who had just made a catch, trying to steal their meal.

Recovered American-White Pelican being released into wild at Las Gallinas Water Sanitary District.

2015 floods in Northern Tamilnadu triggered massive damages. Midst all the catastrophe was some very brave rescue operations to save Human life. Here is an operation that had saved not just one life but of three. The lady, dressed in black, was almost 8 months in to her pregnancy and was carrying twins. On hearing about this lady from social media, Professional rescue reached her and she was flown to a hospital to successfully deliver the twins.

A heart-warming incident of how powerful social media can be, how comfortable the rescue team effortlessly carried out the operation, on a very short notice, and how brave Indian women are!

Hats off to all!

This was taken just after sunrise at Kalkheuwel waterhole in Etosha. About 25 elephants arrived there as I watched from my car. The waterhole is not all that big, so the elephants had it to themselves and some were displaying courtship behavior, another was curious (he came up to my car and put his trunk on the tire, I guess trying to figure out of it were edible?), and these very young elephants made their way through a forest of legs and trunks to reach the waterhole.

BLOGGED:

secondoll.blogspot.com/2015/01/aya-skins-fis-creations.html

MESSENGER successfully flew by Mercury on October 6, 2008, using Mercury’s gravity to perturb the probe’s path and to help put it on track to become, in March 2011, the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet in the Solar System. This image, acquired about 89 minutes before the craft’s closest approach to Mercury, resembles the optical navigation images taken leading up to the flyby.

 

This Wide Angle Camera image is one of 11 viewed through different narrow-band color filters, the set of which enable detailed color studies of this area. In addition, the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) acquired a high-resolution mosaic of most of this thin crescent view of Mercury at a resolution better than 0.5 kilometers/pixel (0.3 miles/pixel) that enabled the MESSENGER team to explore this newly imaged region of Mercury’s surface in more detail.

 

NASA Media Usage Guidelines

 

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Image Number: PIA11247

Date: October 6, 2008

'' Cherish yesterday, dream tomorrow, live TODAY ''

  

I wanted to do a short series of photographs that represent in different ways my most important and successful images from my time here on FLICKR and also with GETTY IMAGES, who are my worldwide agents. These photographs might be in the selections for a number of reasons, but each has played a significant part in my photographic journey and represent personal memories, some not having been seen for a while.

  

Whilst my photographic journey and success over the last fifty years pale to insignificance compared to many of the renowned and talented photographers out there, I am none the less proud of my achievements along the way with three published books, worldwide sales of my photographs, my contracts with Getty Images who are my agents, competition wins, appearances in photographic exhibitions and publications in magazines, books, online websites and in corporate calendars and merchandising. I have always where possible allowed free use of certain images when requested, and my passion for photography still runs deep and strong.

  

(2) FOG AT SUNRISE (THE FISH MARKET IN SIDNEY BC ON VANCOUVER ISLAND)

  

Taken on my last trip over to see my family who live in a beautiful little town called Sidney, nestled on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It's always a big deal when I return to the Island, a homecoming of sorts, a spiritual home and a place where I can be at one with nature and relax with my camera, watching the wildlife and the beauty that Mother Nature offers. I am never happier than when photographing amidst the splendour of the golden hour around sunrise and sunset, and here in Sidney it's a very sentimental location as my mother in law moved out here and spent her final years watching her grandchildren grow, enjoying the beauty and the tranquility.

  

On this morning the weather was changing so quickly. A bank of sea fog was rushing in across the Salish Sea from the Southern Gulf Islands, I could feel the drop in temperature and see the darkness as the fog swept across the landscape. I had to act quickly and knew that I only had a few frames possible before I was engulfed. Heading back to the Buick Enclave that I'd parked close to the seafront, I stopped and set up my tripod for my last few shots, the fog swirling all around me, the colours, ambient light and temperature all changing by the second. The Fish market on Beacon Avenue has long been a popular location in Sidney and is situated on the pier close to Beacon Park and the new bandstand. I managed about three thirty second long exposures before everything was bathed in a sea of white, balancing settings with the changing light conditions. An amazing experience.

  

The few frames of that moment have gone on to be published by Getty images in October 2019 and have sold around the world, appearing in magazines as well as being invited into thirteen Flickr groups and an equal number of galleries, as well as being selected for FLICKR EXPLORE, which was really nice. This frame for me represents my passion, my love for the golden hour and the disciplines it imposes on you as a photographer, and also in sentimental terms the place I call my spiritual home.

  

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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This thirty seconds long exposure was taken at an altitude of Zero metres at 06:35am on Saturday 21st September 2019 around sunrise off 1st Street and Bevan Avenue, between the boat jetty and Bevan Avenue Fishing Pier in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

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Nikon D850. Focal length 50mm Shutter speed Thirty seconds seconds long exposure (Electronic front-curtain) Aperture f/16.0 iso160 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L (8256 x 5504 FX). Focus mode AF-C focus 51 point with 3D- tracking. AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode - Aperture priority exposure. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Matrix metering. ISO Sensitivity: Auto. White balance: Natural light auto. Colour space Adobe RGB. Nikon Distortion control on. Picture control: Auto. High ISO NR on. Vignette control: normal. Active D-lighting Auto.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-120mm f/4G ED VR. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 77mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 0.9 (3 stops) ND Grad soft resin.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Nikon EN-EL15a battery.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod 3 Sections (Payload: 5.6kgs). Manfrotto 327RC2 Light Duty Grip Ball Magnesium Tripod Head (Payload: 5.5kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 53.70s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 36.44s

ALTITUDE: 0.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 90.1MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 29.50MB

     

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PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

  

Greylake

A substantial brick commercial premises of three storeys and basement, the former Taylor Heaslop Building was erected in 1889 -1890 as a set of three attached shops. The northwest and middle shops were built for Brisbane chemist Walter Taylor, as an investment. The southeast shop, which is larger than the other two, was built for South Brisbane grocers James and Thomas Heaslop and was a branch of their highly successful People's Cash Store. The three shops were designed by Brisbane architect John Beauchamp Nicholson and were erected as one building, with the street façades of Heaslop's shop distinguished from those of Taylor's two shops.

 

The land on which the building is located was originally part of a suburban block of just over 16 acres, located at the intersection of the roads to the Logan and to Ipswich, later known as the Woolloongabba Fiveways. This parcel (suburban portion 165, parish of South Brisbane) was alienated by James Gibbon in 1857, and was subdivided into commercial and residential allotments by the late 1870s.

 

In the 1880s Woolloongabba boomed as both a working class residential district and as a commercial centre, due principally to construction of the rail link from the Ipswich line at Corinda (South Brisbane Junction) to South Brisbane, which opened in June 1884. The main purpose of this line was to bring coal from West Moreton to the ships at South Brisbane, terminating, via a tunnel at Lower River Terrace, in Stanley Street, near the dry dock. However, the main goods yard and passenger terminus was at the western end of the former water reserve at One Mile Swamp, near Main Street between Stanley Street East and Vulture Street, now the site of the Woolloongabba Busway Station. The railway looped across Logan Road through suburban portion 165 to reach the goods yards and passenger station.

 

In addition, from 1887 a horse-drawn tram service linked South Brisbane to Mount Gravatt via Logan Road and the Woolloongabba Fiveways, and from the 1st of November 1889 the newly opened Cleveland Railway terminated at Woolloongabba. From here passengers continuing on to North and South Brisbane transferred to horse trams.

 

These improvements to passenger and goods transportation stimulated commercial development at the Woolloongabba Fiveways. In January 1886, title to a small, triangular parcel of land between Logan Road and Stanley Street East, at the Fiveways Corner (subs 1 & 2 of section 1 of suburban portion 165, containing 30 perches) was transferred to South Brisbane chemist and dentist Thomas Watson Thomason. Within a few months, Thomason had subdivided this land into eight smaller commercial re-subdivisions, each with a frontage to both Logan Road and Stanley Street East. At the Fiveways Corner, Thomason established the Five Ways Pharmacy in a two-storeyed timber building. The other seven re-subdivisions were sold by the end of 1886.

 

In August 1886, Henry Willoughby acquired title to re-subdivision 8 (9.3 perches), and in December 1886 Catherine Taylor, wife of Walter Taylor of Brisbane (likely the Queen Street wholesale chemist, dentist and property investor), acquired title to re-subdivisions 6 & 7 (8.7 perches). In December 1887, title to Willoughby's allotment was transferred to South Brisbane grocer Thomas Heaslop, and in May-June 1889 Brisbane architect John Beauchamp Nicholson called tenders for the construction of substantial brick buildings at the Woolloongabba Fiveways, for Walter Taylor and J & T Heaslop. This appears to refer to the large, three-storeyed brick building at 10-14 Logan Road, Woolloongabba which, when completed, dominated the Fiveways Junction.

 

Early photographs reveal that at street level on both street facades, the three shops shared a common convex iron awning supported on posts with decorative cast iron bracketing. The middle and northwest shops had cantilevered verandahs on the upper floors, onto which french doors opened. The verandahs had elaborately decorative cast iron balustrading, valances, and brackets. By 1955 these verandahs were removed. Designed without verandahs, the façade of the southeast shop was distinguished by arched windows and greater use of render ornament.

 

Nicholson developed a successful architectural practice in Brisbane in the 1880s. His notable commissions include: the Princess Theatre (1888 - 1889) at nearby Clarence Corner; the Norman Hotel (1889) on Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba and the Shaftson Hotel (1889 - 1890) at East Brisbane (both hotels possibly erected for members of the Heaslop family); and, in partnership with architect ARL Wright: the Normanby Hotel (1889 - 1890) at Red Hill; Parbury, Lamb & Co.'s Warehouse in Eagle Street (1890) (demolished); Lady Musgrave Lodge, Astor Terrace, Spring Hill (1891 - 1892) (demolished); and Chardon's Hotel, Ipswich Road, Annerley (1891 - 1892) (demolished). Nicholson had designed J & T Heaslop's shop and store in Stanley Street, South Brisbane, erected 1885 - 1887, and later their shop in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, erected in 1891. Despite his varied architectural commissions and development interests, Nicholson was declared insolvent in 1891 as a result of the prevailing economic depression.

 

The Taylor Heaslop building at the Woolloongabba Fiveways was under construction by August-September 1889, when Catherine Taylor and Thomas Heaslop registered easements and encumbrances over a party wall now erected on their Woolloongabba property. At this time, part of Heaslop's allotment was effectively made the property of Catherine Taylor, to accommodate the whole of the middle shop. The building was likely completed in 1890.

 

The timing was unfortunate. In 1890 the economic boom of the 1880s burst and Queensland, along with the rest of the world, entered a period of widespread economic depression. In addition, the extension of the railway to Melbourne Street, which opened on the 1st of December 1891, bypassed Woolloongabba Station, diverting passenger traffic on the South Coast, Cleveland, and South Brisbane Junction lines to South Brisbane. The Woolloongabba passenger station closed, but the railyard remained the south side's principal goods yard and locomotive depot until the line was closed in 1969.

 

J & T Heaslop's People's Cash Store had opened in the southeast shop (14 Logan Road) by 1891, but the Taylor's two shops, at 10-12 Logan Road, may have been unoccupied until at least one was tenanted by SH Rawlings, boot importer, from 1892. In October 1893, Catherine Taylor transferred her interest in the two northern shops to James Heaslop, who maintained these as rental propositions. By the late 1890s, Albert M Goodall appears to have taken over Rawlings boot importing business in the building.

 

Brisbane in the 1890s supported four principal shopping centres: North Brisbane (along Queen, George, and Adelaide Streets); the Fortitude Valley (along Brunswick, Ann, and Wickham Streets); Stanley Street, South Brisbane; and the Woolloongabba Fiveways. Branches of J & T Heaslop's People's Cash Store were opened in each of these centres, and their building at 10-14 Logan Road, Woolloongabba, dominated the Fiveways commercial district.

 

Irish brothers James and Thomas Heaslop had arrived in Queensland in 1863 with their parents, Samuel and Mary Heaslop, and brothers Samuel, Robert, John, George, and William. In 1865, James and Thomas established a small retail grocery business at One-Mile Swamp (near Clarence Corner, South Brisbane) and by 1900 had created a chain of 'direct importing' stores known as the People's Cash Store. The principal wholesale and retail stores were at Stanley Street, Clarence Corner, and branch stores had been established at the Woolloongabba Fiveways; Melbourne Street, South Brisbane, at the southern end of Victoria Bridge; Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley; Rockhampton; and Charters Towers.

 

The Heaslops were well known and respected in Brisbane business circles, and were staunch supporters of the Catholic Church. Thomas Heaslop served on the South Brisbane Municipal Council 1888 - 1895, from the inception of the Borough of South Brisbane, and was Mayor of South Brisbane for three terms, 1891 - 1893. He was involved with the commissioning of the South Brisbane Municipal Council Chambers, paid the workmen on the site nearly £500 out of his own pocket when the contractor, Abraham James, absconded in 1891, and officiated at its formal opening on the 1st of July 1892. His term as mayor also encompassed the great floods of 1893, which decimated large sections of South Brisbane, West End, and Woolloongabba.

 

In 1901 James and Thomas dissolved their partnership. At this time, title to 14 Logan Road (the southeast shop) was transferred from Thomas Heaslop to James Heaslop, giving the latter ownership of the 3 shops at 10-14 Logan Road. James leased 14 Logan Road to Thomas Heaslop (Thomas Heaslop & Co. Limited by 1911). Thomas died in 1911, but his Company continued to operate a branch of the People's Cash Store from James Heaslop's Woollongabba Fiveways building until the early 1920s.

 

From the 1st of May 1902, Fiveways draper John Edwin Sheppard Evans took up the lease of the middle shop (12 Logan Road) from James Heaslop, and from the 1st of February 1903 he also took up the lease of the northwest shop (10 Logan Road). Evans was no stranger to the locality. In February 1888 he had established a drapery business next door at 8 Logan Road, in premises owned by AR McLeod. By 1900 he was occupying 6-8 Logan Road, and in 1902 - 1903 expanded into Heaslop's building. Together, John Evans Cash Draper and Heaslop's People's Cash Store dominated the shopping centre at the Woolloongabba Fiveways in the early 1900s.

 

Evans died in 1907, and for some years the business was conducted by his widow, Margaret Anne Higgins Evans, until she sold to George Logan in 1910. As George Logan, Draper, the business was sustained into the early 1920s.

 

James Heaslop died in 1922, following which his estate passed to his widow, Clara Ellen Heaslop, who from February 1923 leased 14 Logan Road to grocer and hardware merchant John Robertson Blane. Also in 1923, George Logan apparently sold his drapery business to William Johns, who took a lease of 10-12 Logan Road from Mrs Heaslop in March 1923.

 

In the 1920s, Woolloongabba flourished as a shopping centre, servicing the rapidly expanding eastern and southern suburbs of Balmoral, Hawthorne, East Brisbane, Coorparoo, Stone's Corner, Greenslopes, Holland Park, and Annerley, all of which had electric tram access to North and South Brisbane via the Woolloongabba Fiveways. Many of the earlier shops around the Fiveways were re-developed at this period, including the block opposite Mrs Heaslop's building in Logan Road, but her building continued to dominate, both in scale and landmark value, the Fiveways Junction. It appears that the street level shop facades of Mrs Heaslop's building were remodelled at this period.

 

In terms of height and street presence, the only building to rival Mrs Heaslop's building at the Woollongabba Fiveways was the Broadway Theatre, a three-storey high brick picture theatre fronting Ipswich Road, just past the intersection with Logan Road, erected in 1923 but destroyed by fire in June 1962.

 

JR Blane, grocer & hardware merchant, occupied 14 Logan Road until 1928, and Johns & Co., Drapers, occupied 10-12 Logan Road until 1930. Ernest Reid acquired John's drapery business about this time, and also expanded into 14 Logan Road (the southeast shop, formerly Blane's), occupying all three of Mrs Heaslop's shops until 1932. In the midst of the depression of the early 1930s, Mrs Heaslop found it difficult to attract tenants for the Woolloongabba premises following Reid's departure. The shops remained vacant until 1936, when the Moreton Rubber Works, motor tyre retailers who had premises further south along Logan Road, occupied 14 Logan Road as their offices. In the late 1930s, 10-12 Logan Road was occupied by estate agents Five Ways Real Estate & Auctioneers.

 

Mrs Heaslop died in 1944, and the building passed out of her estate in 1950, when 14 Logan Road was acquired by Frederick Pratt and 10-12 Logan Road was transferred to Mrs Ruby Richards, then to Andrew Lowreys in 1951. In 1953, Pratt also acquired title to 10-12 Logan Road, and the property remained in his estate until 1989.

 

From the 1950s, the expansion of outer suburban shopping centres had a negative impact on older, inner city shopping districts such as the Woolloongabba Fiveways. The closure of the Woolloongabba Railyards and the cessation of Brisbane's tram services in 1969, and the construction of the Southeast Freeway through Woolloongabba in the early 1970s - which effectively cut the suburb's commercial heart in half - further contributed to the decline of Woolloongabba as a shopping centre. The northern end of Logan Road, where the Former Taylor Heaslop Building is located, is no longer directly accessible from the Fiveways Junction. However, in the last two decades of the 20th Century, this section of Logan Road, which is now virtually a cul-de-sac, was rejuvenated as an antiques, secondhand goods, and gallery precinct. The ground floor of the shop at 10-12 Logan Road, for example, is occupied by a furniture restoration business.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

My first successful full run through Jupiter imaging with R,G and B filters plus IR 685nm for Luminosity.

 

3 minute video captures in a RoI of about 650x650 pxls. Good tracking with just minimal hand guiding from me.

 

5% of each video stacked so just 9 seconds equivalent exposure for each channel but increasing percentage just added more noise.

 

Can see the following disturbance caused by the GRS especially in the Red image. Dark central dot in the GRS also visible.

 

A white oval is seen closer to the meridian.

 

Stacked in AutoStakkert!3

Wavelets adjusted in RegiStax6

Derotated and Ephemerides data from WinJupos.

 

Celestron Nexstar 8SE SCT

ZWO ASI 290MM CMOS camera

Ioptron ZEQ25GT eq mount

 

It may be a while before Jupiter is favourable again so some settings on the ASI290:

 

Blue:

Shutter 73.83ms

Gain 300 (50%)

Gamma 10

 

IR:

Shutter 53.33ms

Gain 300 (50%)

Gamma 4

 

Green:

Shutter 50.5ms

Gain 300 (50%)

Gamma 10

 

Red:

Shutter 63.94ms

Gain 291 (48%)

Gamma 4

In late summer 1957, Darwin Lambert bought himself a battered Willys pickup. Darwin was two years into an effort to create a National Park in Nevada’s Snake Range. That effort, ultimately successful, would take another thirty years.

 

The pickup featured a crude, homemade stake bed meant to carry a single horse as far into rough country as the Willys could be driven...at which point the horse came into play. Only Darwin did not want to carry a horse. For one thing, he wanted to explore the Snake Range...to rediscover its forgotten wonders. But, more importantly, he wanted to take people there. He wanted them to see for themselves.

 

Nowadays we might call this a “low-tech” enterprise. A ‘50’s Willys pickup was not much larger than a modern 'side by side' ATV. There was a cramped cab for a driver and one passenger to sit shoulder to shoulder. Maybe four adults could wedge into the open-air bed, alternately facing to front and to back across the tight width, saddle blankets for a cushion. Anyone who did not know their seatmates at the beginning of the day, would know them pretty well by the end. Darwin took them up dusty mining tracks so narrow and rugged and tightly laid-out that he sometimes had to drive forward up one switchback and then in reverse up the next. At the top, in the eleven-thousand foot sunshine, there would be a picnic. Among his notable passengers were conservationists David Brower, Adolph Murie, and, husband and wife, Olaus and Mardy Murie.

 

Of course others, over the years, have been and are drawn to this same site; miners, surveyors, fire crews, government employees, scientists, hunters, pilgrims. The evidence of their transient presence takes the form of scattered rusty cans and colorful, translucent, green and blue and lavender shards of broken glass -- tokens of an era before plastic and aluminum.

 

I like to think that Darwin and his dusty, sunburned band of hearty passengers picked up a lot of this litter and hauled it back down the mountain, clinking and rattling between their knees in the stainless steel milk buckets that had carried the picnic up. (Visualizing this, so help me, I hear banjos.) The less the better, for, in this era, such rusty, weathered items strewn randomly across a landscape are often seen as something other than just stuff that needs to be picked up. Fact is...one picks it up at their own peril. Being a good citizen is always complicated.

 

In September of 1995, while researching his book “A Garden of Bristlecones”, Michael P. Cohen met Ron and Charlie. Cohen was interested in visiting the bristlecone groves of Troy Peak in Nevada’s Grant Range. John Muir had walked from the High Sierra to this grove in 1878 and had been impressed in a timber-cruiser sort of way by the health and vigor of the trees, claiming some to be over eighty feet tall. (Ron generously guessed that this was just “hyperbole”.)

 

Cohen had been directed to Ron and Charlie by the Forest Service which had jurisdiction over the area. According to the Forest Service, Ron and Charlie were, “retired fellows, fifty-five or sixty, but good walkers, all legs and lungs.” They had been trail and backcountry buddies since high school. Forest Service volunteers in the Grant Range now, they had “stayed out there from spring until the water froze” since 1989.

 

In that time, they had tidied things up a bit. Beneath the pine trees of the canyon, they had built a couple of primitive campsites of native stone -- providing a fire pit, a tent site, and perhaps a large boulder for sitting or a place to put a campstove. They hand-graded the rocky, one-lane, bulldozer track leading into their canyon below Troy Peak and, by Cohen’s count, dug “more than twenty-five” waterbars to channel cloudburst runoff. And Cohen found no litter -- none -- neither in the campsites nor along the two or three miles of rugged canyon track. As Cohen points out, for all their efforts Ron and Charlie never received a dime...nor did they ever expect anything. What they did was its own reward.

 

There had been an old sawmill near the end of the track -- all that remained of it was mostly rust-eaten sheet metal, and old tools without handles, and bed springs -- and Ron and Charlie had wanted to clean that up too, but the Forest Service would not let them. Ron told Cohen that the Forest Service said it was an “archeological” site. Sometimes the detritus at such sites is referred to as 'artifacts'. It is illegal to disturb so much as a bent nail.

 

Cohen is something of a scholar with a science and history wonk. If you read his books, you will sense at some points his distinct discomfort with what he has described as “overly expressive language”. So it is a bit whimsical and genuinely touching when he tells the story of Ron and Charlie as an afterword to his book.

 

In his closing words:

 

“It just seems there is always somebody who surprises you, who knows more than you do, who knows more than you will ever know about a place, knows how to be there, and why to choose it. And is so completely open and generous with his time and knowledge.”

 

Cohen never describes it as such, and I’m pretty sure Ron and Charlie would demur, but I think what they created could be thought of as a sort of Zen garden. An orderly, contemplative, place in the heart of a remote, wild range. A place one might want to be...not so much to sort things out, but because one had already sorted them out.

 

I do not know what ever became of Ron and Charlie, but on July 20, 2014 the Bear Trap wildfire began with a lightning strike on the ridge just south of the camp they built. Driven by the prevailing south wind, it was not reported for two days. In the end, after being fought by 200 personnel including bulldozers and helicopters, the thirty to forty foot flames essentially just burned themselves out, consuming over ten thousand acres of the land Ron and Charlie loved. The heart of that country now nothing but ashes and stone, the worst was yet to come.

 

In the first two weeks of August, during what is known locally as 'monsoon season', there were four 100-year rain storms, dumping cloudburst after cloudburst into Ron and Charlie’s narrow, burned-out canyon. What can comfortably be referred to as a biblical torrent of churning mud and debris raged down the length and out the mouth of the canyon. Watching from the safety of an overlooking plateau as this cataclysm spread out across two miles of desert floor, one seasoned veteran of such things, the ground shuddering beneath his feet, described it above the rumble and roar with a single heartfelt word…”Scary!”

 

The upper canyon is now barren, many places almost impassable. In six seasons, Ron and Charlie had never seen a single drop of water in the dry creekbed. Now it is a raggedly stark, boulder-strewn, violent, gash...six to eight feet deep in places. The rusted sheet metal of the 'archaeological' millsite was rolled into a ball by the tumult and dropped into an erosion hole.

 

Somewhere Ron and Charlie must be enjoying the fact that, while no one now at the Forest Service remembers them, the only recognizable 'archaeological' sites that remain in the canyon are the stone campsites they built by hand. They must also be comfortable knowing that the whole cycle will likely repeat in a mere 150 years. (How an ancient bristlecone lives through thirty or more such cycles is a story for another time.)

 

'Microtrash' (not to be confused with 'microplastics', the 'nano' version of which are now accumulating in your brain.) refers to small bits of litter such as broken glass, bottle caps, can tabs, and other smaller, broken down pieces of human debris. It is the sort of stuff that lies scattered around at Lambert’s picnic area and the remnant millsite near Ron and Charlie’s camp; Ron and Charlie picked up everything else. Archaeologists consider such stuff to be artifacts. As with arrowheads, it is illegal to disturb or possess artifacts.

 

Places where microtrash is found at elevation are sometimes designated as 'Cultural Historical Areas'. Great Basin National Park has such an area at 10,700 feet not far from Lambert’s picnic area. Accessible only by a steep, rugged, former jeep trail, it was the site of a World War I Era tungsten mine that scraped sporadically by for two or three decades and was eventually abandoned when an avalanche shoved most of the rudimentary machinery into a sub-alpine lake.

 

The Park has lavished considerable time and funding ($500,000+) on having archaeologists paw through the trash middens of this site and on propping-up the crude seasonal shanties where miners slept and ate, as well as a rickety mill wall or two. Basically, they have learned nothing they either should not have already known, or could not have learned from hundreds of other more accessible sites in Nevada alone. Their plan going forward is to spray these remnants with wood preservative and cut down all trees within a certain defensive radius.

 

One hundred years of National Park Service culture, beginning with Army-recruit rangers, is probably as good an explanation as any for the fascination this remote area holds for them. From that perspective, its crumbling, propped-up, rudimentary structures could be perceived as a monument to real outdoorsmen, doing real work, building real things, dominating an unruly land -- it serves as a ramshackle, rough and ready, derelict, reminder of an era when a man could take whatever he desired. It does not hurt that this taking was on behalf of a war effort -- the tungsten was used primarily in the manufacture of armor-penetrating munitions, literally going from wilderness to war. It is a scar in a pristine wilderness setting that the Park Service chooses, at great expense, to not let heal. It is fair to wonder what their interest would be if it were simply a quiet place where pioneer women went to knit.

 

In an ironically timely twist on the social admonition 'No Means No!' as it applies to contemporary male Park Service Rangers, visitors to the remote area will be reminded that artifacts are to be left untouched.

 

The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife is also concerned about artifacts. It is concerned that condors are attracted to artifacts and ingest them, sometimes regurgitating the colorful detritus for fledglings to ingest, both with often fatal results. Fish and Wildlife asks that you help contribute to the success of their Condor Recovery Program by picking up such microtrash in areas where condors occur.

 

A few years ago, I left my Snake Range camp before first light to get an early start on a day above 11,000 feet that I knew would be mentally and physically exhausting. I was camped in an area I call 'The Maze'. It is a dark, absolutely silent, densely forested area, jumbled chaotically by thousands of years of glacier and avalanche and rockfall and fire and erosion -- a vortex of violent natural forces. I have spent a lifetime picking my way comfortably through untracked wild country; 'The Maze' is the only place I have ever lost (and eventually found) my basecamp. I accomplished this dubious feat in the same area twice. The second time, apparently, just to confirm it was actually possible.

 

Many hours later, my turnaround time well past and weather moving in, I chose to forego a potential ridgetop thunderstorm at 11,700 feet and return to camp by way of a lower elevation valley I had wanted to explore. This would entail following the valley down to its forested terminus before contouring either up and over, or around, a high spur through thickets of tangled manzanita and mountain mahogany and across loose fields of rockfall. If the other side were passable, I would find myself in the lower reaches of 'The Maze' and could probably make my way across it, and back to camp by dark.

 

An hour or two later, having crested the spur and threaded my way down through steep, jagged outcrops on the other side, I reached 'The Maze' at twilight. Darkness approaching, my camp on the other side of 'The Maze', I was beginning to feel a rising sense of urgency. I also needed water -- both to drink and to resupply my camp.

 

As I neared the area of a spring I knew and was coming up over a rise at the edge of a forested area, about to emerge into a small, steep, open meadow, I saw in the distance...a person.

 

He was standing, in profile, by the spring -- a distant, dark silhouette. Against the darkening backdrop, I could make out only his torso and head. With his back to the spring, he seemed to be vigorously adjusting a pack placed on the eroded bank before him, perhaps stuffing something into it. I absolutely could not understand how I could possibly encounter another human being in this remote and isolated place, at this time.

 

I stood still, silently hoping he would not see me and move on. From his movements, he appeared to be wearing, or perhaps putting on or taking off, a baggy black nylon windbreaker with white panels on the underside of the sleeves, maybe continuing down the sides. Pulled tightly over his head was a dark knit cap. On the shoulder visible to me, was a round patch, some sort of insignia. It might have been a team jacket. For some unknown reason, all this made me think he must be European, a soccer fan.

 

Hearing a soft rustle behind me, I instinctively glanced back, recognizing it as a cone slipping down through the boughs of a pine. Turning again to the spring, the person was gone. Immediately above where he had stood a great winged creature rose silently into the air, quickly disappearing over distant trees.

 

I would like to be able to simply say that, in that stunningly transformative, shape-shifting instant, I began to consciously understand and rationally confirm that all ancient mythologies were created by individuals who were, at the very least, completely exhausted. The truth, more complex in myriad ways, is that the experience was, to say the least, deeply unsettling.

 

I finally decided that it must have been an eagle or a hawk consuming prey. At the spring, I found nothing. Later, while no stranger to returning in the dark, it was the first time I could not find my basecamp.

 

Farfetched as it may initially seem, I have come to believe that what I saw was a condor: white underwings, smooth head, identifying 'shoulder patches', an inclination of the species to clean themselves by a water source after feeding.

 

Condors are, in fact, quite near the Snake Range and, if they are not visiting already, could be expected to do so in the near future. Condors are routinely capable of soaring 150-200 miles per day. The Vermillion Cliffs, the Arizona release site for Fish and Wildlife’s Condor Recovery Program, is 180 miles from the Snake Range; Zion National Park, where a released pair is nesting, is 140 miles; Milford, Utah, where condors have been sighted, is 75 miles. One condor flew 330 miles to Flaming Gorge, Wyoming. Others are confirmed to have flown 150 to 250 miles in all directions from Vermillion Cliffs.

 

So this rambling, convoluted, tale comes down to a quandary:

The brute, obliterating (and creative), vicissitudes of Nature and Time aside, what is a responsible individual or agency to do about all that relict trash?

 

Or, for that matter, about the oldest living individual trees on the planet; on top of everything else, poked and prodded, ravished and pillaged for decades by scientists and souvenir seekers -- yes, even in the National Park created to protect them. Even now.

 

On the short-term anthropocentric scale, both relict trash and ancient trees would seem to qualify as no more than curiosities. On the long-term philosophical scale, they would seem to be a choice between a fleeting past and a distant future; as choices go, probably the most gnarly kind considering that humans neither learn from history nor can predict the future.

 

The US Dept. of Fish and Wildlife thinks condors are more important than relict trash. Is relict trash more important than relict trees? Regardless, neither relict trash nor relict trees nor remnant condors can tell us anything we should not already well enough know.

 

As for me, I am well aware that all of the above, while wholly true, bears a striking resemblance to a shaggy dog story. For, as everyone knows, 'one person’s trash is another's treasure'.

 

To wit: Disintegrating in gracious, anonymous, solitude somewhere beneath the intense Nevada desert sun, a rusting sardine tin in the remnant bed behind its windowless cab, is Darwin’s Willys pickup. Now there is a treasure!

 

May it rust in peace...

 

Successful hunter in shallow water. Active in the summer season.

I was genuinely surprised how much thought, work, self-doubt and money it takes to put together an LRPS panel but it was worth the effort.

 

The ARPS might finish me off!

 

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Successfully escaping the confinements of adolescence.

Women & cars - A successful combination

2015 Bucharest Auto Show (October 2015)

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NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, on Tuesday, May 17, on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world test flight!

 

The purpose of the flight is to test and validate the super pressure balloon technology with the goal of long-duration flight (100+ days) at mid-latitudes. In addition, the gondola is carrying the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) gamma-ray telescope as a mission of opportunity.

 

Two hours and 8 minutes after lift-off, the 532,000-cubic-meter (18.8-million-cubic-foot) balloon reached its operational float altitude of 33.5 kilometers (110,000 feet) flying a trajectory taking it initially westward through southern Australia before entering into the eastward flowing winter stratospheric cyclone. NASA estimates the balloon will circumnavigate the globe about the southern hemisphere’s mid-latitudes once every one to three weeks, depending on wind speeds in the stratosphere.

 

Credit: NASA/Bill Rodman

 

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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

 

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Read more: go.nasa.gov/1rRvmv8