Are Bees Territorial? Sometimes. If you are a male. And if you are big. I had not really thought in any systematic way about territoriality in bees until I was looking up information about the bee in this picture (Centris adani. Costa Rico, Tim McMahon collector). My literature poke revealed that colleague Gordon Frankie had published on this long ago in the 70s about territoriality in male C. adani. Off hand I can think of territorial males existing in at least some Anthidium, Xylocopa, Centris, Anthophora, Bombus. Makes me wonder if small bees might sometimes also be territorial but we just aren't observant enough to discover that fact. But, I would bet not, probably just a big bee thing. If you are territorial it has to be useful or why bother? Probably has to do with mating opportunities. Which leads to another weak observation: In general, highly territorial males are both praised and denigrated in human society. What is the intersection between those two thoughts? It feels fuzzy, ... but intriguing. If there is not a scientific paper there, there must be at least a novel. Perhaps a high end Romance Novel. ~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~

 

All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.

  

Photography Information:

Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

 

We Are Made One with What We Touch and See

 

We are resolved into the supreme air,

We are made one with what we touch and see,

With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,

With our young lives each spring impassioned tree

Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range

The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.

- Oscar Wilde

  

You can also follow us on Instagram - account = USGSBIML

 

Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen:

 

Best over all technical resource for photo stacking:

www.extreme-macro.co.uk/

 

Art Photo Book: Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World:

www.amazon.com/Bees-Up-Close-Pollinators-Around-World/dp/...

 

Free Field Guide to Bee Genera of Maryland:

bio2.elmira.edu/fieldbio/beesofmarylandbookversion1.pdf

 

Basic USGSBIML set up:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY

 

USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdmx_8zqvN4

 

Bees of Maryland Organized by Taxa with information on each Genus

www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/collections

 

PDF of Basic USGSBIML Photography Set Up:

  

Google Hangout Demonstration of Techniques:

plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo

or

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU

 

Excellent Technical Form on Stacking:

www.photomacrography.net/

 

Contact information:

Sam Droege

sdroege@usgs.gov

  

301 497 5840

Yes it looks a bit like some desert planet from Star Wars, perhaps Tatooine…

 

…but actually it is taken behind what now known as the Eastside Gallery in Berlin, then not open for the public, yes we trespassed, or I think we did???

 

…anyhow for some reason they kept a mountain of sand there for some reason, a giant docile caterpillar-shovel was close by… but no workers since it was either Saturday or Sunday…

 

…you can see the jagged edge of the mountain to the right, the edge that the machine had been munching away at…

 

…yes of cause I tilted the camera to get a more otherworldly look, the skies in the background is horizontal if you align the pick by gravitational rules :)

 

…yes it was snapped with my old analog systematic,

the year is probably around 2000-2002???

 

peace and Noise!

 

/ MushroomBrain Urban Sahara explorer

These cows had systematically moved people away from the riverside as they made their way towards the Viaduct. It was a blistering hot weekend. They stopped under a small group of trees in the shade. A few simply rested and others stepped into the river for refreshment.

 

Various points along the Monsal Trail, Derbyshire in the Wye Valley.

 

My Video on YouTube:

[4K] Monsal Dale. Headstone Viaduct and Waterfall. May 2020

youtu.be/fLyb_FsepzQ

 

Monsal Dale is in the Peak District National Park. It's a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation and part of a European project called Natura 2000.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=araK9j8mN9Y ✨ My Suggestion is to open Tomorrowland Live Worldwide Radio in a separate window, and listen, and enjoy all the artwork on Flickr. Enjoy! Իմ առաջարկն է բացել Tomorrowland Live Worldwide Radio-ն առանձին պատուհանով եւ լսել եւ վայելել Flickr-ի բոլոր նկարները: Վայելե՜ք... Mein Vorschlag ist, Tomorrowland Live Worldwide Radio in einem separaten Fenster zu öffnen, zuzuhören und alle Kunstwerke auf Flickr zu genießen. Genießen! Ma suggestion est d’ouvrir Tomorrowland Live Worldwide Radio dans une fenêtre séparée, d’écouter et de profiter de toutes les illustrations sur Flickr. Jouir! Mi sugerencia es abrir Tomorrowland Live Worldwide Radio en una ventana separada, y escuchar y disfrutar de todas las obras de arte en Flickr. ¡Disfrutar! Minha sugestão é abrir a Tomorrowland Live Worldwide Radio em uma janela separada, e ouvir, e desfrutar de toda a obra de arte no Flickr. Desfrutar!

Matchbox pinhole v3 + Fuji Superia X-Tra 800 (expired June 2006)

The GAZ M1 (“Эмка“/”Emka”) was a passenger car produced by the Soviet automaker GAZ between 1936 and 1943, at their plant in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia).

 

Systematic production ended in 1941, but the factory was able to continue assembling cars from existing inventory of parts and components until 1943. In total, 62,888 GAZ M1 automobiles were produced.

 

Much of the car’s production period coincided with the Great Patriotic War (World War II), and many, as they were commonly called, Emkas were used by the army as staff cars. Various special versions were produced such as the Gaz M - FAI and BA-20 armoured car models

 

The car has subsequently become an icon of its time in Russia, having been relatively popular, and featuring in film and photographic images of a defining period in the history of the Soviet Union.

he Soviet Union’s first passenger car had been the GAZ-A, produced between 1932 and 1936, and based on the Ford Model A (1927–31), built under license/technology sharing agreement with and using parts purchased from the American Ford Motor Company. It would be many years before passenger cars became available for private buyers in the Soviet Union, and passenger cars at this stage were produced for official and military use. By the time the GAZ-A was being produced in the Soviet Union, the western original Ford Model A was already becoming superseded in its western markets, and the politicians and Red army looked for a way to reduce dependence on imported components and replacement parts. The version of the Ford adapted for Soviet production was an open topped car which was unsuitable for the winter climate encountered in most of the country, and the cars were felt to be unreliable and insufficiently robust for the relatively harsh Russian conditions.

 

There had therefore been various attempts to modify the GAZ-A using locally designed elements, but the body structures in question had used traditional timber frames with panels attached, which were labour-intensive to produce and excessively prone to deform. In the US car body construction was changing radically during the later 1920s, using technology pioneered by Ambi Budd, for the production of all steel car bodies. The new approach used far more complicated steel pressings than had hitherto been possible, and the same new techniques were adopted by the more prosperous of the volume auto-makers in the west of Europe through the 1930s. GAZ’s western technology partner, Ford, took a conservative approach to these developments, but during the early 1930s they, too, would join in the switch to all-steel car bodies.

 

The Soviet Union was keen for the same technology to be applied at the GAZ plant in Gorky, exploiting the ten-year technology sharing agreement which had been signed with the Ford Motor Company in 1932, and which at this stage remained more or less intact. Work began in 1933/34 on a replacement for the GAZ-A, again using a (newer) Ford model as the basis. The model in question was the Ford Model B, which was becoming available with a wide range of different bodies in North America.

 

Specifically, the first prototype for the GAZ M-1 was based on the 1934 Ford Model B 40A four-door sedan. The prototype was powered by a four-cylinder engine, although it appears already to have been intended that production cars, like the Ford on which they were based, would use V8 units. Documentation was transferred by Ford in accordance with the terms of the technology sharing agreement and the first prototype was unveiled in February 1935. A major innovation for the manufacturer was the all-steel body, although at this stage the roof was still reinforced using timber side rails and was coated with synthetic “leatherette” fabric. In 1936 the M-1 replaced the GAZ-A on the manufacturer’s production lines, with the first two cars produced in March of that year and volume production starting in May. By the end of 1936 the plant had produced 2,524 GAZ M-1s, and in 1937 an M-1 was displayed in Paris at the International Artistic and technical exhibition of modern life. The letter ”M” was included in the car’s name as the plant's name included that of Vyacheslav Molotov.The development of the M-1 involved many changes to the Ford on which it was based, so that many came to view the Russian car as a separate model. The rather primitive Ford suspension was completely redesigned to cope with local conditions, and matched to strong steel wheels.[1] The V8 engine was based on the same technical drawings as those used for the Ford engine, but Ford has sent only drawings. The GAZ development team had not had access to the actual Ford engine as fitted in Detroit, and so any necessary interpretations of the technical drawings were their own. The GAZ engineers also redesigned the front wings which left the Russian car with a more elegant shape which provided better protection from the elements for the front suspension.The M-1 represented a huge advance over its predecessor in many respects. Most obviously, it came with a body that used the “all-steel” approach of the more modern western designs (despite retaining timber structural elements in the roof frame) and, unlike its predecessor, a permanent fixed roof. The chassis featured an “X” shaped cross member making it far stronger. The suspension was more modern and the road holding more sure-footed. Under the bonnet/hood the car came with automatic ignition, while the cabin featured front seats that could be adjusted, sun-visors, along with an electric fuel gauge, and windows which could be swiveled into an open position.The engine was more powerful and more durable. Maximum output rose from 40 PS (29 kW; 39 hp) to 50 PS (37 kW; 49 hp), supported by a compression ratio increased to 4.6:1 and a new carburetor design. The new engine came with a fuel pump whereas its predecessor had depended on a gravity driven fuel-feed system. The same engine was subsequently installed in the GAZ–MM light truck, an upgrade of the GAZ-AA.The three speed manual transmission now featured synchromesh in the upper two ratios,[1] and was the gear box that would be carried forward to the replacement GAZ Pobeda in the later 1940s.Most of the cars were painted black with a thin red stripe down each side. The seat covers were of thick cloth material coloured grey or brown, while the interior décor was characterised by painted metal, albeit combined with some wood trim.

Hotels at Soldeu, Canillo (parroquia), Vall d'Orient, Andorra, Pyrenees

 

More Soldeu & Canillo parroquia images: Follow the group links at right side.

 

.......

 

About this image:

 

* Full frame format 3x2 quality image

* Usage: Large format prints optional

* Motive is suitable as symbol pic

* "Andorra authentic" edition (10 years decade 2008-2018)

* "Andorra camis & rutes" active collection

* Advanced metadata functionality on dynamic websites or apps

* for large metadata-controlled business collections: photo-archives, travel agencies, tourism redactions

 

We offer 100.000+ photos of Andorra and North of Spain. The largest professional image catalog of Andorra from the newer history: all regions, all cities and villages, all times, all seasons, all weather(s). HighRes & HighColor GeoCoded stock-photo images including metadata in 4-5 languages. Prepared for an easy systematic organising of large image portfolios with advanced online / print-publishing as "Culture-GIS" (Geographic Info System). The big stockphoto collection from the Pyrenees.

 

More information about usage, tips, how-to, conditions: www.flickr.com/people/lutzmeyer/. Get quality, data consistency, stable organisation and PR environments: Professional stockphotos for exciting stories - docu, tales, mystic.

 

Ask for licence! lutz(at)lutz-meyer.com

 

(c) Lutz Meyer, all rights reserved. Do not use this photo without license.

 

White tailed Sea Eagle - Haliaeetus albicilla

  

While found across a very wide range, today breeding as far west as Greenland and Iceland across to as far east in Hokkaido, Japan, they are often scarce and very spottily distributed as a nesting species, mainly due to human activities. These have included habitat alterations and destruction of wetlands, about a hundred years of systematic persecution by humans (from the early 1800s to around World War II) followed by inadvertent poisonings and epidemics of nesting failures due to various manmade chemical pesticides and organic compounds, which have threatened eagles since roughly the 1950s and continue to be a potential concern. Due to this, the white-tailed eagle was considered endangered or extinct in several countries. However, some populations have recovered well due to some governmental protections and dedicated conservationists and naturalists protecting habitats and nesting sites and partially regulating poaching and pesticide usage, as well as careful reintroductions into parts of their former range. White-tailed eagles usually live most of the year near large bodies of open water, including both coastal saltwater areas and inland freshwater, and require an abundant food supply and old-growth trees or ample sea cliffs for nesting. They are considered a close cousin of the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), which occupies a similar niche in North America.

 

White-tailed eagles are of all ages typically perch in quite upright positions on exposed branch, rock or other vantage point, but tend to sit more horizontally on the ground or other level surfaces. They have an ample bill with a relatively high culmen, helping impart a relatively narrow and high crowned facial look, especially compared to Aquila eagles.

 

This eagle breeds in northern Europe and northern Asia. Their European range extends to as far west as southeastern Greenland, northern and eastern Iceland, and the reintroduced populations in some areas of Ireland and Scotland, particularly conserved coastal spots. In mainland Europe, often isolated outposts remain in coastal and western Norway (broadly), northern and southwestern Finland, eastern Sweden, southern Denmark (and some spots in the north),

islands of the Baltic Sea, western Austria, northeastern Germany, northern and eastern Poland, the Czech Republic, much of the east Baltic countries, the non-montane areas of the Ukraine, eastern Slovenia, central and southern Hungary (and adjacent northeastern Croatia),

 

White-tailed eagles may be found in varied habitat but usually are closely associated with water and generally occurs in lowland areas. Although mainly a lowland species, the species is known to live at elevations of 1,500 to 2,300 m (4,900 to 7,500 ft) so long as there is water access in some parts of Central Asia and Siberia. In coastal areas, the species may range from high sea cliffs down to low-lying islands and archipelagos. Especially in winter, many white-tailed eagles often frequent low coastal spots, estuaries and coastal marshes. Several studies have supported that coastal areas are preferred when available during winter. In many areas, white-tailed eagles can seem to switch freely between usually cliff habitat and wooded spots for nesting sites and the center of their home range habitat.

 

White-tailed eagles spend much of their day perched on trees or crags, and may often not move for hours. Perhaps up to 90% of a day may spend perched, especially if weather is poor. Also, they will alternate periods of soaring with perching, especially flying over water or well-watered areas, but do considerably less soaring on average than do golden eagles. Pairs regularly roost together, often near to their nest, either on a crag or tree or crevices, overhung ledges or small isolated trees on a crag.

 

Many studies have reflected that the primary foods of white-tailed eagles are fish and water birds.

 

In Britain, the opinion towards white-tailed eagles became negative in sync with the creation of farmland and commercial fishing, as it was quickly perceived that they were competitors for resources and could deplete the livelihood of flocks for shepherds (despite this being largely untrue) and game animals for gamekeepers. Therefore, laws were passed to facilitate their destruction. Already by the end of the 18th century, down from breeding in all appropriate habitat, the English population was down to only localized breeding, namely in the Isle of Wight, Lundy, Isle of Man and (probably) near Plymouth; within a couple decades the species only remained in the Lake District. Before the advent of firearms, few people in England and Scotland were highly motivated to kill eagles since this could be time-consuming and hazardous process, therefore the British government rose the bounty on eagles to a very high 5 shillings a head by the turn of the 18th century. Unfortunately, eyries in many coastal sites were found to be easily accessible so that destroying or selling eggs was common. Subsequent to systematic persecution, in Greenland 62% of eyries found to be "easily accessible" and only 13% foiled all attempts to reach them. Similar findings were found in sea cliff nests in Iceland, Norway and Scotland. White-tailed eagles are more vulnerable to direct persecution than golden eagles since most nests are highly accessible for white-tailed eagle but not for golden eagles which usually nest in mountainous, precipitously rocky terrain, in contrast to sea cliff nests of which 67-87% were found to be accessible. Before firearms were widely available in Scotland and Norway automatic traps were utilized wherein carrion was laid out to entice an eagle with a person hiding in a near subterranean trap waited until the eagle was distracted, at that point grabbing the eagle by the leg. Petrified by the darkness once drug below, white-tailed eagles apparently offer no resistance once caught. However, habitat had to be favorable and even when conditions were correct, success at capture as such was low. The main driver of declines before firearms and industrialized poisons was habitat alterations. After about the 1840s, firearms became available and declines accelerated considerably, by 1916 the last nesting pair in all of Britain attempted to raise a brood on the isle of Skye. While other ecological factors have been considered in this decline, stringent research has shown the extirpation here was fully correlated to intentional, rapacious predation by man. Many gamekeepers poisoned and shot eagles and destroyed nearly any nest they encountered. A few more enlightened landowners forbade the killing of eagles but there's evidence that the gamekeepers sometimes chose to destroy eagles regardless of the rule of law. On deer forest, eagles were tolerated later than in other British areas, but destructions accelerated there by the late 1800s. Also many white-tailed eagles were poisoned by shepherds who considered it enemy of the flock. Elsewhere in Europe, persecution rates in the 19th and 20th century were just as drastic. In Romania, more than 400 white-tailed eagles were killed in 2 decades by a single hunter. In Norway between 1959 and 1968, an average of 169 eagles were killed annually; with a maximum of 221 in 1961. Around the year 1860, an author estimated that about 400 were being killed annually throughout Germany. Between 1946 and 1972 in eastern Germany, a total of 194 dead white-tailed eagles were found, about half of them shot, after governmental protection of the species had been instituted there.

 

The first attempts at reintroduction in Scotland were in 1959 in Glen Etive, Argyll abortively and then a better informed but also ultimately unsuccessful attempt on Fair Isle in 1968. The isle of Rùm in the inner Hebrides was chosen for the first Scottish reintroduction because of its large size (10,600 ha (26,000 acres)) with access to the isle of Skye (where last native pair known in Britain last bred in 1916) and it is only 24 km (15 mi) from the mainland. Also Rùm hosts large seabird colonies that make for viable prey, including eider, shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis), auks and gulls; as well as one of the few in Britain of manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus). Furthermore, mainly as a source of carrion, were a population of around 1500 red deer and 200 feral goats; otters and gulls were also numerous and available to kleptoparasitize. The birds to be used for reintroduction were gathered as nestlings from western Norway, as this is the nearest native breeding population. The young eagles were either kept in high grade fowl cages or tethered all within reach of an artificial eyrie, cover and feeding stations. Direct human contact, which the naturally wild young eagles tended to shun anyway, is minimal short of veterinary care. Releases were carried by taking bird out tethered, wearing a leather hood to prevent imprinting and then releasing with a radio-monitor. Most of the eagles, despite no direct parenting, turned out to be competent hunters within a couple of weeks or do well at stealing meals, including from other released eagles. Despite some dying before release due to illness and some found dead subsequent to release, most survived. A total of 95 birds were received for the Rùm reintroductions and 82 were successfully released between 1975 and 1987. The white-tailed eagle now breeds throughout the Western Isles and the mainland coast of Wester Ross. However, a low reproductive output of reintroduced Scottish eagles was recorded in 1996, and it was advocated that additional releases were needed. In August 2008, an additional fifteen chicks raised in Norway were released at a secret location in Fife, in expectation of reintroducing the species to the east coast of Scotland as well. Breeding success of reintroduced birds in Scotland (from 1975-1985 & 1993-1998) is moderate compared overall in species, in 1982-1992: productivity was 0.38, with a mean fledgling number 1.61. In comparison, for the years 1993-2000, productivity was 0.61 and fledgling number was 1.48, while in 2000-2007, productivity was 0.7 and mean fledgling number 1.44. Overall in Britain, there are estimated 36 breeding pairs in 2006 and 40 in 2008. Juvenile survival rates are somewhat low overall compared to other areas. Reintroduction efforts succeeded in the Bohemia area of the Czech Republic as well, where the biologists similarly followed the guidelines of guarding of occupied eyries and provision of safe foods.

 

The white-tailed eagle is also being reintroduced to Ireland, where its Irish name of Iolar Mara (sea eagle) reflects its historic association with the island's long coast. The Irish program was begun in the summer of 2007. Fifteen to twenty young eagles from Norway are being released each spring into the Killarney National Park in the south-west of Ireland. This comprehensive project will last a number of years, with many more eagles being released.

 

Densities of white-tailed eagles have greatly increased in some parts of the range due to conservation efforts. Some threats still remain, notably illegal persecution by gamebird shooting and egg thieves in Scotland.

  

In a nation criminalising dissent, these two protesters committed their "crime" in broad daylight: they held a sign. Their simple placards directly challenge a government that prosecutes peaceful protesters under terror laws while remaining complicit in an assault that has systematically killed over 63,000 Palestinians. They acted in defiance of a state that ignores the deliberate weaponisation of starvation which created a confirmed famine in Gaza.

 

Their stance isn't radical; it reflects a powerful academic and human rights consensus. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, and even Israeli human rights groups have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide. The deep, weary but determined resolve on their faces is a silent testament to a profound moral clarity, a refusal to be silenced in the face of the gravest of all war crimes - genocide.

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Protest and the Price of Dissent: Palestine Action and the Criminalisation of Conscience

 

Parliament Square on Saturday, 6 September 2025 was a scene of quiet, almost solemn defiance. The air, usually thick with the noise of London traffic and crowds of tourists, was instead filled with a palpable tension, a shared gravity that emanated from the quiet determination of hundreds of protesters, many of them over 60 years old, some sitting on steps or stools and others lying on the grass.

 

They held not professionally printed banners, but handwritten cardboard signs, their messages stark against the historic grandeur of their surroundings. This was not a march of chants and slogans, but a silent vigil of civil disobedience, a deliberate and calculated act of defiance against the state.

 

On that day, my task was to photograph the protest against the proscription of the direct-action group Palestine Action. While not always agreeing entirely with the group’s methods, I could not help but be struck by the profound dedication etched on the faces of the individual protesters.

 

As they sat in silence, contemplating both the horrific gravity of the situation in Gaza and the enormity of the personal risk they were taking — courting arrest under terror laws for holding a simple placard — their expressions took on a quality not dissimilar to what war photographers once called the “thousand-yard stare.” It was a look of weary but deep and determined resolve, a silent testament to their readiness to face life-changing prosecution in the name of a principle.

 

This scene poses a profound and unsettling question for modern Britain. How did the United Kingdom, a nation that prides itself on its democratic traditions and the right to protest, arrive at a point where hundreds of its citizens — clergy, doctors, veterans, and the elderly — could be arrested under counter-terrorism legislation for an act of silent, peaceful protest?

 

The events of that September afternoon were the culmination of a complex and contentious series of developments, but their significance extends far beyond a single organisation or demonstration. The proscription of Palestine Action has become a critical juncture in the nation’s relationship with dissent, a test of the elasticity of free expression, and a stark examination of its obligations under international law in the face of Israel deliberately engineering a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

 

To understand what is at stake, one must unravel the threads that led to that moment: the identity of the movement, the state’s legal machinery of proscription, the confrontation in Parliament Square, and the political context that compelled so many to risk their liberty.

 

Direct Action and the State’s Response

 

Palestine Action, established in 2020, has never hidden its approach. Unlike traditional lobbying groups, it rejected appeals to political elites in favour of disrupting the physical infrastructure of complicity: factories producing parts for Israeli weapons systems, offices of arms manufacturers, and — eventually — military installations themselves.

 

Its tactics, while non-violent, were disruptive and confrontational. Red paint sprayed across buildings to symbolise blood, occupations that halted production, chains and locks on factory gates. For supporters, these were acts of conscience against a system enabling atrocities in Gaza. For the state, they were criminal disruptions of commerce.

 

That clash escalated steadily. In Oldham, a persistent campaign against Elbit Systems, a key manufacturer in the Israeli arms supply chain, culminated in the company abandoning its Ferranti site. Later actions targeted suppliers for F-35 fighter jets and other arms manufacturers.

 

These were no random acts of mindless vandalism but part of a deliberate strategy: to impose costs high enough that complicity in Israel’s war effort would become unsustainable.

The decisive rupture came in June 2025, when activists infiltrated RAF Brize Norton, Britain’s largest airbase, and sprayed red paint into the engines of refuelling aircraft linked to operations over Gaza.

 

For the activists, it was a desperate attempt to interrupt a supply chain of surveillance and logistical support to a state commiting genocide. For the government, it crossed a line: military assets had been attacked. Within days, the Home Secretary announced Palestine Action would be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

 

Proscription and the Expansion of “Terrorism”

 

Here lies the heart of the controversy. The Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism with unusual breadth, encompassing not only threats to life but also “serious damage to property” carried out for political or ideological aims. In this capacious definition, breaking a factory window or disabling a machine can be legally assimilated to mass murder.

 

By invoking this law, the government placed Palestine Action on the same legal footing as al-Qaeda or ISIS. Supporting it — even symbolically — became a serious offence.

Since July 2025, merely expressing support for the organization can carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

 

This is based on Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The specific offense is "recklessly expressing support for a proscribed organisation". However, according to Section 13 of the Act, a lower-level offence for actions like displaying hand held placards in support of a proscribed group carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or a fine of five thousand pounds or both.

 

Civil liberties groups and human rights bodies have denounced the proscription move as disproportionate. Their concern was not primarily whether Palestine Action’s tactics might violate existing criminal law. One might reasonably argue that they did unless they might sometimes be justified in the name of preventing a greater crime.

 

But reframing those actions as “terrorism” represented a dangerous category error. As many pointed out, terrorism has historically referred to violence against civilians. Expanding it to cover property damage risks draining the term of meaning. Worse, it arms the state with a stigma so powerful that it can delegitimise entire political positions without debate.

 

The implications go further. Proscription does not simply criminalise acts. It criminalises expressions of allegiance, conscience and even speech. To say “I support Palestine Action” is no longer an opinion but technically a serious crime. The state has moved from punishing deeds to punishing expressions of solidarity — a move with chilling consequences for democratic life.

 

Parliament Square: Civil Disobedience on Trial

 

It was this transformation that brought nearly 1,500 people into Parliament Square on 6 September. They knew what awaited them. Organisers announced in advance that protesters would hold signs reading: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” In doing so, they openly declared their intent to break the law.

 

The crowd was strikingly diverse. Retired doctors, clergy, war veterans, even an 83-year-old Anglican priest. Disabled activists came in wheelchairs; descendants of Holocaust survivors stood beside young students. This was not a hardened cadre of militants but a cross-section of society, many of whom had never before faced arrest.

 

At precisely 1 pm, the protesters all sat or lay down silently, cardboard signs raised. There was no chanting, no aggression — only a quiet insistence that they would not accept the criminalisation of conscience.

 

The police response was equally predictable. Hundreds of officers moved systematically through the crowd, arresting anyone displaying a sign. By the end of the day, nearly 900 people were detained under counter-terrorism law. It was one of the largest mass arrests in modern British history.

 

Official statements later alleged police were met with violence — officers punched, spat on, objects thrown. Yet independent observers, including Amnesty International, contradicted this. They reported a peaceful assembly disrupted by aggressive policing: batons drawn, protesters shoved, some bloodied.

 

www.amnesty.org/zh-hans/documents/eur45/0273/2025/en/

 

Video footage supported at least some of Amnesty's report.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZQGFrqCf5U&t=1283s

 

The two narratives were irreconcilable, but only one carried the weight and authority of the state.

 

The entire event unfolded as political theatre. The government proscribed a group, thereby creating a new crime. Protesters, convinced the law was unjust, announced their intent to commit that crime peacefully. The police, forewarned, staged a vast operation. Each side acted out its script. The spectacle allowed the state to present itself as defending order against extremism — while in reality silencing dissent.

 

The Humanitarian Context: Why Protesters Risked All

 

To see the Parliament Square protest as a parochial dispute over free speech is to miss its driving force. The demonstrators were not there merely to defend abstract principles. They were responding to what they, and a growing body of international experts, describe as a genocide in Gaza.

 

By September 2025, Gaza had descended into almost total collapse. Over 63,000 Palestinians had been killed, the majority of them women and children. More than 150,000 had been injured, many maimed for life. Entire neighbourhoods had been flattened. Famine was confirmed in August, with Israel continuing to impose and even tighten deliberate restrictions on food, water, and fuel, a strategy condemned by human rights groups as a major war crime. Hospitals lay in ruins. Ninety percent of the population had been displaced.

 

It is in this context that the term genocide has been applied. Legal scholars point not only to mass killings but also to the deliberate infliction of life-destroying conditions, accompanied by rhetoric from Israeli officials dehumanising Palestinians as “human animals.” In September 2025, the International Association of Genocide Scholars declared that Israel’s actions met the legal definition of genocide.

 

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde3eyzdr63o

 

Major NGOs, UN experts, and even Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem echoed that conclusion.

For the protesters, then, the question was not abstract but immediate: faced with what they saw as a genocide, could they in good conscience remain silent while their own government criminalised resistance to it? Their answer was to risk arrest, their placards making the moral connection explicit: opposing genocide meant supporting those who sought to stop it.

 

The Price of Dissent

 

The mass arrests in Parliament Square were not an isolated incident of law enforcement. They were the product of a broader trajectory: escalating tactics by a direct-action movement, a humanitarian catastrophe abroad, and a government determined to suppress dissent at home through the bluntest of instruments.

 

The official line insists that Palestine Action’s campaign constituted terrorism and thus warranted proscription. On this view, the arrests were simple enforcement of the law. Yet this account obscures the deeper reality: a precedent in which the state redefined non-lethal protest as terrorism, shifting from punishing actions to criminalising expressions of solidarity.

 

The cost is profound. Once speech and conscience themselves become suspect, dissent is no longer tolerated but pathologised. The chilling effect is already evident: individuals weigh not just whether to join a protest, but whether uttering support might expose them to years in prison. Terror laws, originally justified as a shield against mass violence, are recast as tools of political management.

 

The protesters understood this. That “thousand-yard stare” captured in their faces was not only the weight of potential arrest, but the knowledge of Gaza’s devastation, the famine and rubble, the deaths mounting daily. It was also the recognition that their own government had chosen to silence them rather than address its complicity.

 

In a functioning democracy, the question is not why citizens risk arrest for holding a handwritten cardboard sign. It is why a state finds it necessary to treat that act as a terror offence. The answer reveals a narrowing of democratic space, where conscience itself is deemed subversive. And that narrowing, history teaches, carries consequences not just for those arrested, but for the society that allows it.

Photographed at Shoreline Lake Park, Mountain View, California

 

===========================

From Wikipedia: The golden-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla) is a large American sparrow found in the western part of North America.

 

Systematics:

The golden-crowned sparrow is one of five species in the genus Zonotrichia, a group of large American sparrows. It has no subspecies. It is a sister species with, and very closely related to, the white-crowned sparrow; studies of mitochondrial DNA show the two evolved into separate species very recently in geologic time. The white-throated sparrow is a slightly more distant relative. Hybridization with both white-crowned and white-throated sparrows has been reported.

 

Ornithologist John Latham first described the species in his book General Synopsis of Birds in 1781, but he thought it was a variety of what he called the "black-crowned bunting" and neglected to give it a scientific name. That lapse was corrected in 1789, when Johann Friedrich Gmelin assigned it the name Emberiza atricapilla in the 13th edition of Systema naturae. Various authorities in the 1800s (including John James Audubon) placed it in the genus Fringilla, but many assigned it to its current genus, Zonotrichia, once William John Swainson had established that genus. Peter Simon Pallas described the same species in 1844 as Zonotrichia coronata and, for much of the 1800s, this was the name used by most authorities.

 

In the bird's scientific name, the genus name Zonotrichia is a compound word: the Greek zone means "band" or "girdle" and the Greek thrix or trikhos means "hair". The specific epithet atricapilla is Latin for "black-haired": ater meaning "black" and capillus, meaning "hair of the head".

 

Description:

 

The size and color of its crown patches help to determine a bird's status among its flock mates.

Measuring 15–18 cm (6–7 in) in length with a wingspan of 24.75 cm (9.74 in) and ranging from 19.0 to 35.4 g (0.67 to 1.25 oz) in mass, the adult golden-crowned sparrow is fairly large for an American sparrow. Like all Zonotrichia sparrows, it has a relatively long, square-tipped tail and a slightly peaked crown. Males and females are similarly plumaged, though males average slightly larger than females. Other than a plain gray nape, the adult's upperparts are grayish-brown, with broad brownish-black streaks on the back and scapulars, and an unstreaked rump. Its underparts are gray, slightly paler on the belly and buffier on the flanks. Its wings and tail are brown, and it shows two white wing bars. Its legs are pale brown, and its bill is dark, with the upper mandible darker than the lower. Its iris is brown.

 

In the breeding season, the golden-crowned sparrow has a broad yellow central crown stripe which becomes pale gray towards the back of the head.

 

Similar species:

Although its distinctive crown patches allow for easy identification of the adult golden-crowned sparrow in breeding plumage, an immature or non-breeding bird might be mistaken for a white-crowned or white-throated sparrow. It is distinguished from the former by its crown pattern and dusky (rather than pale pink or yellowish) bill, and from the latter by its larger size, plain throat, and lack of a buff-colored central crown stripe. A young or non-breeding bird may also resemble a female house sparrow, but can be distinguished by its larger size, darker plumage, longer tail and (usually) some amount of dull yellow feathering on its forehead.

 

Distribution and habitat:

The golden-crowned sparrow is common along the western edge of North America. It is a migratory species, breeding from north-central Alaska (including the Aleutian Islands as far west as Unimak Island) and central Yukon south to the northwestern corner of the US state of Washington, and wintering from southern coastal Alaska to northern Baja California. It has been recorded as a vagrant in Japan and Russia, and occasionally strays as far as the eastern coast of North America, from Nova Scotia to Florida. In the winter, it is generally found in brushy areas, (particularly chaparral), usually in dense shrubs.

 

Behavior:

The golden-crowned sparrow spends its winters in flocks with conspecifics, but also often with other sparrow species, especially white-crowned sparrows. Flock territories typically range in size from 15–20 acres (6.1–8.1 ha). Individual birds remain with the same flock for the entire winter and return to the same wintering site each year. Studies show that the golden-crowned sparrow's black and gold head stripes are used to signal social status in wintering flocks. Such signals help to reduce the incidence of confrontation between flock mates, thereby reducing such potential costs as injuries or the unnecessary expenditure of energy. The size and color of a bird's crown patches are better predictors of dominance (indicating which bird will avoid confrontation with another) than are the bird's size or sex. Birds with similarly sized gold crown patches are far more likely to engage in agonistic behavior than are those showing differences, and the outcomes of such confrontations can be predicted based on the color of their black stripes. This suggests that social status in this species involves more complexity than a single signal will allow, and that the multiple color patches allow a gradient of interactions between flock mates.

 

Feeding:

 

Immature birds lack the distinctive head stripes of adults.

Like other Zonotrichia sparrows, the golden-crowned sparrow feeds on the ground, where it forages by pecking and scratching. It also occasionally leaps into the air after insects or gleans them from foliage. Its diet, particularly in the winter, consists primarily of plant material; items include seeds, berries, flowers and buds, as well as the occasional crawling insect. The species is an important destroyer of weed seeds on the Pacific Slope, with various ryegrasses, fescues, bromes, pigweeds, chickweeds, mulleins, filarees, common knotweed and poison oak among its known food sources. Paired birds commonly forage together, with the male following the female.

 

The species shows two weight peaks each year: one in mid-winter, and a much higher one shortly before it begins its migration north in the spring. The latter elevated weight is maintained until the bird reaches its breeding grounds.

 

Breeding and lifespan:

The breeding season runs from late May through early August. Males on the breeding ground sing throughout the day from an exposed perch. The nest is a bulky cup built by the female. Located on the ground (or occasionally on a low branch), it is made of dried plant material and lined with hair, fine grasses and feathers. The female typically lays five eggs, though clutches of three tofive have been recorded. The eggs, which are pale green, oval and heavily spotted with reddish-brown, measure (0.65–0.67)×(0.80–0.82) mm (0.026×0.031 in). They are incubated by the female for 11–14 days. The young are altricial—born naked, blind and helpless—but fledge from the nest within 12 days. Both parents feed the young.

 

The oldest known golden-crowned sparrow lived at least 10 years and 6 months; it was banded as an adult one winter, and recaptured nine winters later.

  

_Z2A0073fFlkr

This is an old systematic camera shot from the 90´s I experimented with photographing miniatures in different surroundings in our garden, this little plastic fellow is in some sort of garden brick arrangement (also known as stone wall to some)

 

The miniature is from the MB / Games workshop collaboration war game for (younger kids) named space Crusade...

 

That is why it has even more extreme proportions than normal 40k figures at the time... 40k figures generally has hands the size of their heads an just a bit chunkier than the more slender human anatomy, actually the Eldar miniatures was the closest to real human anatomy and they were suppose to be aliens :)

 

These guys had an interesting feature that would have been handy for more figures at the time, they had interchangeable guns, this on is armed with a heavy weapon but you could change his gun for a bolter or plasma gun instead...

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ MushroomBrain a warrior in the 90ies

 

----

 

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Café Frequenters episode 242

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(March 1997, the 20th)

 

Hello Grand & Grand!

Thank you so much for lending me that bill, I promise that I will give you a refund of 205% when I make my first million on my art...

 

I have a new Letter from Stephan for Male-grand but I will send that to the Kingdom Hall, since it is in such a matter, so how is all well I am waiting for my dole cheque so I can start living my luxury life again, for two weeks and then be broke again!

 

Greetings and bless you and your god!

 

/ Johnny daughter of a son

 

Seri perdana bridge,in Putrajaya.

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Instagram:vanessafortin7671

www.instagram.com/vanessafortin7671

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www.facebook.com/VanessaFortinPhotographie/

 

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Yes again! It was sometimes hard to know if an image had successful since when you took an image there wasn’t a little screen on the backside, you actually just had to guess if the shot had been good! Also if one had limited means (dough) (dollars) (money) you just couldn’t afford to take more than one or two pictures… well photography was a bit tricker decades ago :) Peace and Noise! / Mushroombrain an out of focus blur

Since I kind of grew up on the both sides of Øresund the small gap of water between sweden and Denmark I have some Danish friends or had, this is one of my old friends Named: Jesper G.

 

but we usually called him:

 

"Jesper Jolle-mand Goathead asparagus oldemand-Bollemand J. jolly Klavierfinger the goat"

 

or some combination of those words, I think we did some roleplaying with my Swedish friends, yes now I remember we played Magic the gathering and some WH40k !

 

Oh the photo was taken by my old systematic Camera and me!

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ MushroomBrain once a gamer

This is two friends of mine, some two decades ago posing for my systematic Camera in the park...

 

The Blond one is Sue

The Brunette is Madde-Slajjne

 

I do remember that day, wine in the park with friends is always great...

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ Mushroombrain a Parking Friendship of red wine (and or white)

 

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Café Frequenters 223

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...Jean-pirlot was always the odd one out, how come, well he was just strange, not extreme in a ny way just strange not like his father a social-junkie, drinking wine at the cafés chatting with all people about politics or morals or jus anything!

 

..at parties Jean-pirlot would just sit an zip his wine in a corner...

except if anyone happened to put on the record Man-machine by Kraftwerk, then he would dance in front of the loudspeaker defending it from any one trying to change it, he would put it on repeat all night, until he passed out or got distracted long enough to change the music...

  

Systematic fishing haul of about 100 cormorants in a small lake

This is an abandoned building being teared down, the picture is take from the frames/pane of the non-existent window a wall is torn down and though that opening a backyard peeks...

 

I think this picture is taken in Germany probably in Rostock but it could just as well be Berlin???

 

...anyhow it is taken by my old systematic camera from back in the time when people used such :)

 

Peace, Noise and Rubble!

/ MushroomBrain the Urban ruin

 

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Café Frequenter episode 159

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God Moaning dear Uncle Thord!

Guess where I am? well I am at Floss drinking mourning coffee... Eh no Morning coffee at daytime.. I came to work today and expected to do a double once again according to my schedule, but when I came there, my boss said that I could take free today, since they had made a mistake in the schedule, and that I won´t have to work until Wednesday... Great, so I did some boring stuff at my bank and now I am here having a whole day in Copenhagen without anything to du but what ever suits me and my mood...

 

So here I am smocking a morning cigarette, drinking morning coffee and is planning to order a morning baguette!!!

 

...today I think that I will just wander across Copenhagen aimlessly and especially to places that is still not on my map since I was a youth... perhaps visit some café there or look in the vintage flea market second hand shops....

 

Perhaps I shall go to Ishøj? even though it was close to Vallensbæk and Alberslund I nver really explored that township as a kidling...

 

So you wonder why I haven sent you any of Jimmy´s adventures...

Well I am thinking of scrapping his, he is too dull, perhaps I should have a female working for PET instead or a Gay female spy?

 

...oh Thord Guess who just passed by? you know that blond tweek that usually hangs at your restaurant "jail house" he usually frequents my restaurant too, often at the evening with some very camp friends...

 

Ha, ha, he is nice, he always stops and have a chat with me when I meet him out...

 

well now I am gonna wander about, I decided that I will have my baguette somewhere else, perhaps in Ishøj?

 

Take care dear chef!

/ Johnny old and new in Copenhagen

My Website - Aaron Yeoman Photography

Also Follow Me at 500px * Getty Images * Twitter * Facebook * Google+

 

Lloyd's Building, Lime Street, London, England

 

Another image upload from London Open house weekend taken in the Lloyds building. This time taken from a different perspective to the other upload I did.

 

What really caught my eye in this is the repetition of the the spot lights, I wonder how many they used in this building. When editing this image I did have trouble balancing out the light coming in from the roof compared the the dark part of at the bottom (as I am sure many who have taken photos here before have found the same problem) however I think I have managed to balance it out right.

 

It seems that I have still got quite a few images from the open house weekend still the edit. I am also itching to get back out with my new camera as I have still got a few places I want to visit on my 'to do list.'

 

Anyway, hope you all have a great Friday and weekend.

 

Photo Details

Sony Alpha DSLR-A700

Sigma 10-20mm 1:4-5.6 EX DC HSM

RAW

f/8

10mm

ISO200

1/15s exposure

 

Software Used

Lightroom 4.1

Silver Efex Pro 2

 

Information

The Lloyd's building (also sometimes known as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London, and is located at 1, Lime Street, in the City of London, England.

 

It was designed by architect Richard Rogers and built between 1978 and 1986. Bovis was the management contractor for the scheme.[2] Like the Pompidou Centre (designed by Renzo Piano and Rogers), the building was innovative in having its services such as staircases, lifts, electrical power conduits and water pipes on the outside, leaving an uncluttered space inside. The twelve glass lifts were the first of their kind in the UK. Like the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the building was highly influenced by the work of Archigram in the 1950s and 1960s.

 

The building consists of three main towers and three service towers around a central, rectangular space. Its focal point is the large Underwriting Room on the ground floor, which houses the famous Lutine Bell. The Underwriting Room (often simply known as the Room) is overlooked by galleries, forming a 60 metres (197 ft) high atrium lit naturally through a huge barrel-vaulted glass roof. The first four galleries open onto the atrium space, and are connected by escalators through the middle of the structure. The higher floors are glassed-in, and can only be reached via the outside lifts.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd's_building

Systematic evaluation of the content of my toffee box.

I am *very* thorough.

 

Strobist:

ST-E2 triggering 2 580EX flashes, one camera left, one camera right, both through diffusers

This is me taking a "selfie" with my systematic camera in the park, I guess at the age of 18-20

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ MushroomBrain slim, brown and shady

Original Caption: Empty Housing In The Ghetto On Chicago's South Side Structures Such As This Have Been Systematically Vacated As A Result Of Fires, Vandalism Or Failure By Owners To Provide Basic Tenant Services. Then The Vacated Buildings, Often Substantially Salvageable, Are Razed And Replaced With Highrise Apartments Which Appeal To Few Members Of The Black Community And Almost None Of The Area's Previous Residents, 05/1973

 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-13712

 

Photographer: White, John H, 1945-

 

Subjects:

African-American

Chicago (Cook county, Illinois, United States)

Environmental Protection Agency

Project DOCUMERICA

 

Persistent URL: arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=556164

 

Repository: Still Picture Records Section, Special Media Archives Services Division (NWCS-S), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001.

 

For information about ordering reproductions of photographs held by the Still Picture Unit, visit: www.archives.gov/research/order/still-pictures.html

 

Reproductions may be ordered via an independent vendor. NARA maintains a list of vendors at www.archives.gov/research/order/vendors-photos-maps-dc.html

 

Access Restrictions: Unrestricted

Use Restrictions: Unrestricted

I'm systematically going through my groups and using them as subject matter. First I read their requirements so the picture is acceptable then I upload just to that group plus the camera group. So far this has been challenging although we all see patterns as photographers I'm not so good at recording them. It's been fun but some of the pictures on this group are amazing and well worth looking at.

Atelier de la Mécanique

Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles 2016

„Systematically open?“ – Walead Beshty, Elad Lassry, Zanele Muholi, Collier Schorr

Hoek van Holland , Rotterdam Area , Zuid-Holland , The Netherlands, Holland, Europe.

 

The Vulturine Guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum) is the largest extant guineafowl species. Systematically, Acryllium are only distantly related to other guineafowl genera. Their closest living relative, the White Breasted Guineafowl, Agelastes meleagrides inhabit primary forests in Central Africa. bird family, Numididae, and is the only member of the genus Acryllium. It is a resident breeder in northeast Africa, from southern Ethiopia through Kenya and just into northern Tanzania.

 

It breeds in dry and open habitats with scattered bushes and trees, such as savannah or grassland. It lays its usually 4-8 cream-coloured eggs in a well-hidden grass-lined scrape.

Vulturine Guineafowl is a large (61-71cm) bird with a round body and small head. It is longer in the wings, neck, legs and tail than other guineafowl. The adult has a bare blue face and black neck, and although all other guineafowl have unfeathered heads, this species looks particularly like a vulture because of the long bare neck and head.

 

The slim neck projects from a cape of long, glossy, blue and white hackles. The breast is cobalt blue, and the rest of the body plumage is black, finely spangled with white. The wings are short and rounded, and the tail is longer than others in the family Numididae.

 

The sexes are similar, although the female is usually slightly smaller than the male and with smaller tarsal spurs. Young birds are mainly grey-brown, with a duller blue breast and short hackles.

 

Vulturine Guineafowl is a gregarious species, forming flocks outside the breeding season typically of about 25 birds. This species' food is seeds and small invertebrates. This guineafowl is terrestrial, and will run rather than fly when alarmed. Despite the open habitat, it tends to keep to cover, and roosts in trees. It makes loud chink-chink-chink-chink-chink calls.

 

A Church is just a building, until it’s not; then it becomes a place of historical systematic traumatic experiences of young peoples living memories

This is a morning pic, taken with my systematic camera in the old days...

 

Me and my Danish friend who had come for a visit to Sweden (where I lived then) played Warhammer and RPG all night long only to wake up in the morning for some tea and then play some more, then later visiting other friends to play some magic...

 

on the table you can see, the snouty teapot, Some gaming miniatures and even a cardboard house used a scenery...

 

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Café Frequenters episode 131

.....................................................

 

Oh Lisa hello again, so soon, I forgot to send you some pages so I will do that now...

 

Interesting bonus information: Bud has been unfaithful with a celebrity on the company party...

Can´t tell you more than that so you will have to read the rest the pages I forgot to send in my last Letter...

 

Take care dear Lisa!

 

/ Johnny the wordy

 

...Jimmy had bent the bars on the Jail by pure force, the kit he was provided with was made in Taiwan, damned those saving cuts at SÄPO!

 

One would expect that they wold buy homegrown spy-equipment don´t you, Jimmy Thought to himself wile walking down the central street towards the café...

 

People stared at him, since after climbing out the barred he discovered that he was on the third floor and not at cellar-level like last time he had been taken to that awful place...

 

Gravity almost at an instant worked on the mass in his body and pulled him downwards towards the street, if he had had more time to think he would have used his coat as a parachute, but instead in got entangled to first a tiny hook that was sticking out on the masonry, then by a banner with the police logo waving proudly in the air all yellow and blue...

 

Then some instants later he landed chest first in to the street asphalt his lungs was inflated and his coat was ripped beyond recognition, that was really a pity, Jimmy thought that was such an expensive coat...

 

...anyhow back to the main storyline!!!

 

Jimmy was walking down the street being eyeballed by strange looking wrinkly elderly people...

 

He viciously eyeballed them back, and put a 5% unnoticeable energy-been shoot in to it that probably would give them a severe headache in about 10-15 min.

 

After walking for 7 min he was finally there at the café, He opened the door, the café was almost empty, well except for a you lad scribbling in his pad...

 

He tried to whisper: "the Demon can read your thoughts!"

 

the young lad stared at him then pretended not to notice him and scribbled some more...

 

Then He said in a louder steadier voice: "Don´t Tell The Demon his plans!"

 

some guy who had been working in the kitchen came out, looked like one of those spooky animals that lives on Madagascar...

 

Then he asked Jimmy if he wanted to buy a cup of coffee and Jimmy shook his head in NO!

 

Then the guy looked at Jimmy like he was some kind of Mongrel Tosser and when out in to his Kitchen again...

 

Jimmy made a last attempt on the Code, He screamed in manic fury: The Demon can´t pick the prettiest flowers!!!"

  

...ok they might never have left earth, but the were well travelled since a few times a month I switched country traveling from Sweden to Denmark and back, I had to pack all my little figures and all those heavy rule books, the Rouge Trader book, the two Realm of Chaos volumes, compilation and compendium and loads of White Dwarfs with extra rules... why, because I played the game with friends on both the sides of the Öresund pool...

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ MushroomBrain once a rogue trader (or GM) roaming the galaxy

  

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Café Frequenters episode 220

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Johnny was sitting at a local café in Copenhagen Denmark a very hip place, to hip for his style and the coffee was expensive and you couldn´t get an ordinary cup of coffee, so he settled for a latte...

 

He was was writing letters to his Goddess, his tiny and clumsy friend and then he felt observed...

 

He peeks around his shoulder and there was a very hip Dane standing all the latest fashion attire...

 

When the observer felt that he re-observed he said in Danish:

 

- You are from Sweden ain´t ya!

 

- Johnny replied in what he mostly felt as the most comfortable way when communicating with Danes, that is in a mix of Danish and Swedish avoiding any words that could be hard for a dane to comprehend...

He said:

 

- Hello I am Jonny and who are you and how did you know that I am a Swede?

 

- Hello I am Buller, do you mind if I sit down on this stool next to you, I saw you writing in Swedish, so I guessed that you are one of those...

 

- Sure be my guest sit down, I will leave soon anyway, I need to get the train for Vallensbæk before it is to dark...yeah Ok you guess was right,I guess I am a Swede, sort of...

 

- Yeah but what does Guess, mean and what are you gonna do in Vallensbæk? it is not a place a swede would go to, hardly any Dane not living there either...

 

- Yeah well, Vallensbæk is not my final destination, I am taking the bus 300s to Havebyen (the cottage village, where I kind of live, that is sometimes... better get there before it is to dark, since the murder there,you might have read about it in the paper?

 

- Oh there is a lot of kind offs in your life it seems... Yes I know the Rape-murder....but what are all the kind offs?

 

- Well I am not feeling as a Swede, I live there and I know the culture, I was even born there but I feel more at home here in Copenhagen, sometimes we go to England too, our family is from there, but I don´t like it very much, London is cool and all that but we spend most of our time in a tiny town called Skeggy or Skegness full of tourists in the summer and empty at winter... I have dual citizenships English-Swedish!

 

- Oh that is weird, so can I be frank and ask if you smoke pot?do you do speed?

 

- No I don´t, why do you wonder...

 

- Well I thought if you do use drugs, you might be more interested in the proposal I have for you... That is I wondered if you would be interested in being a courier, good money, just to go past the border as you already do quite often...

 

- Ha, Ha Mate, I would be the worst one for that job, the customs, they stop me every second time, they always pick me, so I would end up in prison in a jiffy, ha, ha, ha, but thanks for the offer... gotta dish now, my train is leaving in 5 mini.

Bye!

 

Jimmy ripped the page out of the typewriter and curled it up...

 

he thought to himself: why can´t I get this writing business right, I will start over tomorrow, now for some whiskey!

  

While hiking around the Jardín Botanico in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, I noticed these cactus fruits being systematically harvested by ants. They would chew off a small piece and carry it away. Quite fascinating. The cactus are from the Opuntia family. These may be the same variety that are sold in the market: Tasty to eat or use for an agua fresco. They are called tunas.

THE EASTERN GRAY/EASTERN GREY SQUIRREL (SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS)

  

By Paul Williams

  

The Grey (or Gray) squirrel, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Cute and fluffy little funsters or destructive critters who ruin trees, kill bird chicks and trees and damage our homes... oh and it's their fault we lost our native Red squirrels as well!

  

OK

  

I get it and I see both sides of the story of course. For my part, I am a nature, wildlife and landscape photographer who prefers the company of animals and natural beauty to fellow humans who are systematically plundering Mother Earth's resources and killing off her beautiful creatures at an alarming rate! I believe there is a natural order of things, creatures kill other creatures to survive, they adapt to situations and when mankind encroaches on their territory to make a fast buck, those animals sometimes adapt to survive and the order changes.

  

That is the balance of nature which is ever changing and affected by us..... the dumbest of the great apes. Some species are driven out by others, some may be destined to become extinct, the fittest will survive, and sometime a species will need intervention and help from mankind in order to survive... usually as a direct consequence of mankind's own actions in destroying the animal kingdom's natural habitat of course.

  

I adore these little fellas and at almost sixty years old, I never grew up knowing red squirrels at all. I've seen reds in Scotland and black squirrels in Stanley Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, but in my beloved home country of England I have always known and loved the cute little Greys. They visit my garden and give me hours, days, weeks of happiness and wonderful photographic opportunities, and I see them in Parks and forests all around me, so it's time to offer up an insight into the Grey squirrel, much loved, much hated... a sort of Marmite rodent if you will.

  

WHAT EXACTLY IS A SQUIRREL?

  

The word 'Squirrel', was first recorded in 1327 and hails from the Anglo-Norman word 'Esquirel', from old French 'Escurel', which was a reflex for the Latin word 'Sciurus'.The Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is also known as the Eastern Grey squirrel or simply grey squirrel depending on the region of the world it is found. It is a tree squirrel, of the squirrel family Sciuridae including over one hundred arboreal species native to all continents of the world other than Antarctica and Oceania. Tree squirrels live mostly in trees, apart from the flying squirrel. The best known genus is Sciurus, containing most of the bushy tailed squirrels which are found in Europe, North America, temperate Asia as well as central and south America.

  

The scientific classification for the Eastern Grey is:

  

KINGDOM: ANIMALIA PHYLUM: CHORDATA CLASS: MAMMALIA ORDER: RODENTIA FAMILY: SCIURIDAE GENUS: SCIURUS SUBGENUS: SCIURUS SPECIES: SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS

  

They were first noted by German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist - Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788.

  

A mammal and rodent, predominantly herbivorous they are none the less an omnivore with a life span of between two and ten years. They can grow to 70cm in length and weigh up to 8kg. There are more than two hundred and sixty species of worldwide squirrel, the smallest being the African pygmy squirrel at just 10cm in length, whereas the Indian giant squirrel is three feet long! The oldest fossil of a squirrel, Hesperopetes, dates back to the late Eocene epoch period Chadronian period of 40-35 million years ago. The tree squirrels rotate their ankles by 180 degrees, so that the hind paws pointy backwards gripping tree bark which enables them to descend a tree headfirst.

  

Originally native to Eastern and Midwestern United States of America, they were first introduced into the United Kingdom in 1876 in Henbury Park, Macclesfield in Cheshire when Victorian banker Thomas V. Brocklehurst released a pair of Greys that he brought back from a business trip to America after their attraction as pets had waned. Victorians had a penchant for collecting exotic animals and birds of the world, but trends came and went and subsequently animals were simply discarded into the wilderness. There are early records of greys released near Denbighshire in north Wales from private collections. Later introduced to several regions in the UK, they quickly settled and spread, colonizing an area of three hundred miles in a quarter of a century between Argyll and Stirlingshire in Scotland.

  

Introductions of the Greys between 1902 and 1929 (the year of the last recorded introduction), included: Regent’s Park in London, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Hampshire. Grey Squirrels spread into Gloucestershire and eastern Wiltshire with animals coming directly from the United States or from Woburn. One hundred greys were released in Richmond Park in Surrey in 1902, Ninety one into Regent’s Park between 1905 and 1907 and a further ten New Jersey imported greys were introduced into Woburn Park in Bedfordshire.

  

Predators include hawks, weasels, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, domestic and feral cats, snakes, owls, and dogs, African harrier-hawks in Africa and... oh yes, Mankind pretty much everywhere who despise, mistreat, cull or eat it .

  

FACTS, MYTHS AND THAT POXY PARAPOX!

  

The massive decline in native red squirrels blamed upon the spread of the invasive greys has always been perhaps a little harsh as reds were already in a steep decline due to loss of habitat and disease and thus the greys simply took over the areas where the reds were dwindling. It's also a fact that reds were also seen as a plague, branded as pests who killed birds and damaged trees and the culling of reds almost brought them to the brink of extinction. Licenses to kill reds could still be obtained up until the seventies!

  

Reds suffered at the hands of mankind thanks to a combination of agricultural deforestation also linked with war and fuel needs which caused extinction in Southern Scotland and Ireland by the early eighteenth century, way before greys had been introduced. Harsh winters killed off the less hardy red population in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

  

Greys are more adept at finding food and adapting to locations and environments, but also carry the squirrel poxvirus (SQPV) which although not particularly harmful to them, is a serious infection for the reds.

  

Parapox in red squirrels causes swollen lesions around the mouth, eyes, ears and nose also the front paws and sometimes genitals and skin ulcers and kills a red within fifteen days. There is no definitive correlation between the spread of the virus and the spread of the Greys, it actually arrived in several areas before the greys began to colonize there. An epidemic virus was observed in Red squirrels from at least 1900 with isolation attempts failing, and the first case of Parapox in the UK was in 1980 in the county of Norfolk. Greys cannot transmit the virus to reds via saliva or faeces, but reds can between each other from bodily secretions and at animal feeders in gardens. The transmission from greys to reds is though to come from parasites. Eight to ten per cent of reds survive the virus, and there is some evidence that reds are slowly building an evolved resistance.

  

Greys are seen as pests to forest land, stripping bark from trees during May and June, and are also capable of destroying household bins, water pipes, causing roof damage not to mention taking eggs and killing young chicks of ground nesting and songbird populations. They also take from bird feeders and there is a whole industry for creating squirrel proof feeders these days.

  

THE CULLING OF GREY SQUIRRELS

  

Grey squirrels have limited legal protection and can be legally controlled all year round by a variety of methods including shooting and trapping. Methods of trapping and killing include Drey poking and shooting, Tunnel trapping using spring traps set in accordance with BASC’s trapping pest mammals code of practice. They can also be shot using a shotgun or powerful air rifle or up until September 30th 2014 poisoned by Warfarin (Now outlawed).

  

Whilst professional trapping and extermination is hopefully done as humanely as possible, there have been cases, many of them where cost savings have been gained by battering the squirrels to death! Grey squirrels are trapped in ghastly metal contraptions for hours and hours, wearing themselves out frantically trying to escape by gnawing at the metals bars. They bite the floor and scratch at them with their claws and do not get a moments peace or rest through absolute fear. Once the traps are retrieved, each squirrel, terrified will be thrown into a sack and smacked on the head countless times with a blunt instrument. When a mother is slaughtered, her babies who are totally dependent on her, will die a slow death of thirst and starvation.

  

There is an argument for the control of Greys on many grounds but also a counter argument that Culling does not work, and has not on countless times where, once a population of greys have been culled, the nearest group will move back in and claim the land. The university of Bristol concluded that there was little evidence that culling greys to save red squirrels was effective, and that perhaps finding a way of boosting red squirrel immunity to the poxvirus or planting areas of yew trees where reds are known to thrive and spending money on research into positive moves might be a better option.

  

In Ireland, the re-introduction of the Pine marten, a species made extinct originally by the very same land owners who also wish to do the same to the grey squirrel, has seen the rapid demise of the grey and the reintroction of the native reds. Red squirrels are smaller and more nimble than their grey counterparts, and as such can get to the very ends of tree branches where neither the pine martins, nor more importantly the heavier greys can, thus surviving and thriving. As a result in Ireland, the grey squirrel population has crashed in approximately 9,000 km2 of its former range and the reds has become common once more after a thirty year absence... oh and Pine Martens are protected again!

  

In Scotland, Pine Martens exist in areas where Red squirrels thrive, and greys do not. So perhaps there is a lesson here, as in England where there are no pine martens, the greys are prolific breeders. So there is an argument against the barbarity of shooting and poisoning greys, and if, as so many believe, the greys MUST be controlled, how about a more humane and natural method that nature intended.. with re-introduction of predators. Just a thought!

  

So a few facts and figures on the greys and to wrap up, from a purely personal perspective I love these little guys, as I do almost every creature in nature other than those eight legged beasties that shall not be named and for which I have a deep and powerful phobia that borders on paranoia!

  

I could no more harm an animal deliberately than eat a McDonald's McRib (Once saw how they are made and let me just say... eeeuuuuuwwwww!!).

  

They are small, cute, cuddly, furry, they photograph beautifully, have great personality and make me smile. They trust me enough to take food from my hand in parks, and I can't bare the though of ugly, hairy land owners sticking a shotgun in their face and blowing them away! I appreciate they can be a pest, a problem, a menace, that their PR managers might have a bit of a problem winning you over when they flay small chicks alive on your lawn or decimate the songbird population by stealing their eggs.... and perhaps there is a need to keep the population under control and try and re-establish the red population.....

  

Yep I get that....

  

I just hope we can solve the problem more humanely to create a peaceful coexistence of the reds and greys in different areas. A man can dream can't he.

  

Paul Williams June 18th 2021

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, at 14:00pm on Monday 20th January 2020, on a beautifully sunny afternoon off Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road in the grounds of St James's Park.

  

Situated in the City Of Westminster, the Park spans twenty three Hectares and is the oldest of the Royal Parks of London, with a variety of visiting and nesting birds that include Ducks, Canada Geese and Pelicans.

  

Here we see, Sciurus Carolinensis (Eastern Gray Squirrel or Grey Squirrel), a tree squirrel native to North America and first introduced to the UK in the 1870's.

  

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Nikon D850 Hand held with Sigma OS Optical Stabilization enabled on normal setting. Focal length 175mm Shutter speed: 1/400s Aperture f/8.0 ISO800 Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). NEF RAW L (14 bit uncompressed) Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Auto ISO 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points.AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode: Shutter priority mode. Matrix metering. White balance on: Auto1 (8510K). Colour space: RGB. Vignette control: Normal. Picture control: Auto (Sharpening A +1/Clarity A+1)

  

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS. Lee SW150 MKI filter holder with MK2 light shield and custom made velcro fitting for the Sigma lens. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

    

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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 29.35s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 0m 17.88s

ALTITUDE: 45.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF: 94.5MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 44.70MB

    

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.

   

Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1.1 million human beings were systematically starved and murdered between 1942 and 1945. The death toll includes 960,000 Jews (865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival).

 

Social media is busy today with the hashtag #Auschwitz75 but the concentration camp in southern Poland wasn't actually liberated by the Red Army until 27 January 1945.

 

"Red Army soldiers from the 322nd Rifle Division arrived at Auschwitz on 27 January 1945 at 15:00. 231 Red Army soldiers died in the fighting around Monowitz camp, Birkenau and Auschwitz I as well as the towns of Oświęcim and Brzezinka. For most of the survivors, there was no definite moment of liberation. After the death march away from the camp, the SS guards had left.

 

About 7,000 prisoners had been left behind, most of whom were seriously ill due to the effects of their imprisonment. Most of those left behind were middle-aged adults or children younger than 15. Red Army soldiers also found 600 corpses, 370,000 men's suits, 837,000 articles of women's clothing, and 7.7 short tons (7.0 t) of human hair. At Monowitz concentration camp, there were about 800 survivors and the camp was liberated also on 27 January by the Soviet 60th Army, part of the First Ukrainian Front.

 

Battle-hardened soldiers who were used to death were shocked by the Nazis' treatment of prisoners. Red Army general Vasilii Petrenko, commander of the 107th Infantry Division, remarked, "I who saw people dying every day was shocked by the Nazis’ indescribable hatred toward the inmates who had turned into living skeletons. I read about the Nazis’ treatment of Jews in various leaflets, but there was nothing about the Nazis’ treatment of women, children, and old men. It was in Auschwitz that I found out about the fate of the Jews." In a few articles in Soviet newspapers such as Pravda, following Soviet propaganda, failed to mention Jews in their articles on the liberation."

April 14. Marks the anfal remembrance day. On this day, the Kurdish people remember the cruel and systematically planned extermination operation of the Iraqi baath regime under the leadership of the dictator Saddam Hussein, who massacred over 180.000 people in Kurdistan between 1986 and 1988 and destroyed thousands of villages Became. The Peak of the offensive was the poison gas attack on halabja, where 5.000 people were murdered.

 

May all the victims whose only crime was their identity, may rest in peace. We will never forget you.

 

ذكرى مجزرة الأنفال

 

الأنفال (بالكوردية: کارەساتی ئەنفال) هي إحدى عمليات الإبادة جماعية التي قام بها النظام العراقي السابق برئاسة الرئيس صدام حسين سنة 1988 ضد الكورد في إقليم كوردستان شمالي العراق وقد اوكلت قيادة الحملة إلى علي حسن المجيد الذي كان يشغل منصب امين سر مكتب الشمال لحزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي وبمثابة الحاكم العسكري للمنطقة وكان وزير الدفاع العراقي الاسبق سلطان هاشم كان القائد العسكري للحملة وقد اعتبرت الحكومة العراقية انذاك الكورد مصدر تهديد لها وقد سميت الحملة بالأنفال نسبة للسورة رقم 8 من القرآن الكريم. و(الأنفال) تعني الغنائم أو الأسلاب، والسورة تتحدث عن تقسيم الغنائم بين المسلمين بعد معركة بدر في العام الثاني من الهجرة. استخدمت البيانات العسكرية خلال الحملة الآية رقم 11 قام بتنفيذ تلك الحملة قوات الفيلقين الأول والخامس في كركوك وأربيل مع قوات منتخبة من الحرس الجمهوري بالإضافة إلى قوات الجيش الشعبي وافواج مايسمى بالدفاع الوطني التي شكلهاالنظام العراقي .

  

وقف لحظة فكر ببطئ الان تأمل معي:-

داعش تسمي الكورد بالمرتدين:- السؤال من هو المرتد؟؟؟

المرتد هم من ترك دينه وأصبح تابعا لدين أخر.

السؤال هل نحن خرجنا من الاسلام الشعب الكوردي 90% مسلمين.

أذا هم يقتلون أناس يشهدون الشهادتين.

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قف مرة أخرى فكر ببطئ الان تأمل معي:-

البعثيون سموا الكورد ب (إنفال):- السؤال مامعنى أنفال؟؟؟

الانفال يعني (كافر) أي الذي لايؤمن بالله ورسوله.

السؤال الكورد المسلمون الا يؤمنون بالله ورسوله.

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أسمع لهذه القصة المهمة:-(ملخص قصة تحت الحديث)

 

الصحابي أسامة بن زيد (رضي الله عنه) يقول:-

بعثنا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إلى الحرقة فصبَّحنا القوم فهزمناهم ولحقت أنا ورجل من الأنصار رجلا منهم فلما غشيناه قال: لا إله إلا الله فكفَّ الأنصاري فطعنته برمحي حتى قتلته فلما قدمنا بلغ النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فقال: "يا أسامة أقتلته بعد ما قال لا إله إلا الله؟!" قلت: كان متعوذا فما زال يكررها حتى تمنيت أني لم أكن أسلمت قبل ذلك اليوم. [رواه البخاري (4269) ومسلم

 

===ملخص القصة أن الرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام بعث الصحابي اسامة بن زيد في حرب على قوم فأنتصر المسلمون ففي المعركة واثناء الصراع تصارع أسامة مع نصراني وقبل أن يقتله تشهد النصراني بالشهادة ولكن أسامة قد قتله ظنا منه بأنه يقولها خوفا وعندما تكلم للرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام عن امر قال يا أسامة قتلت الرجل بعدما تشهد بالأسلام وظل يكررها الى أن يقول أسامة تمنيت لو أني لم أكن قد أسلمت قبل هذا مشهد.

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تصور الان نصراني في المعركة وهو عدو ويقتل بالمسلمين ولكن قبل موته تشهد خوفا فحرم الرسول دمه وهو عدو في الحرب فكيف بمن أتى للدنيا مسلما ويصلي ويصوم ويتشهد بالاسلام كيف يقال له مرتد أو يقال له أنفال؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟؟

 

Capture One: NT 24 (-Sharpen)

This is an old one a took in an old iat the time industrial area with loads of abandoned old industrial building, I lived close by so I would often go for a walk there and enjoy the ruin-romantic area this beauty quite taller than most of his sort is completely overgrown by plant foliage...

 

The photo is taken with my old systematic camera probably in the end of the 90ies

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ MushroomBrain a organic foliage reproducing living thoughts

 

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Café Frequenters Episode 219

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(a story of fiction and reality)

 

all Jimmies senses where severely skewed from now on....

 

He could as if from a distant hear his mouth babbling a lot if gibberish, when he said something she liked she would by machine loosen his mechanic straight-jacket for only to tighten it again slowly slowly...

 

His enhancements was now completely out of batteries...

He was just a little fly trapped in a black windows sticky net...

 

...then again flies would normally just buzz as they met their demise, Jimmy was like a tsunami of words, he could not keep a though straight just talk on and on and on...

 

- So, Jimmy, are you scared?

 

- No Madame, right now all fear is cleared from my memory, but I´ll tell you when I really was scared, I was scared when I was kept as a prisoner of war in that village in Vietnam, I also wondered what had happened to my dear beloved friend Smudge, did you know his real name was Pete,or Peter or was it Petrus,anyway his last name was burger, ha, ha, ha Smudge-Burger what a name...He was such a rookie when it all started...

 

- So Jimmy we all know that there was a lot of drugs around in Nam, did you ever use...

 

- My Lady, Madam, I have never been a druggie, me and Smudge kept clear of that stuff, those who did too much drugs, their reactions were either slow or they kept firing on imaginary enemies, there was a lot of drug-related friendly-fire incidents, Bleach, he was just in the bushes to defecate, he went back and Jones though he was a Mutant-viet-cong with arms like an Indian Goddess all over, he tried to fire his shooter, but then he "saw" that it had been infested by a tiny imp and he dropped it, and pulled his Gurkha-butcha-butcha big knife...

Oh, That sight it wasn´t pretty, poor bleach, we had to bury the pieces...

 

-So Jimmy you relationship to this Smudge was very close, how close? is he the only one you have ever cared for, did you have a sexual or romantic relationship, did you love him?

 

Jimmy had a clear moment, what was she asking him, was she implying that he was a puff, the anger grew inside Jimmy he resisted the drugs, finally he got his babbling mouth to stop... he started perspirate heavily, his muscles tightened and the vice-straight-suite-machine tightened to punish him...

 

Then he noticed a squeaking sound from one of the mech-joints... he thought if I focus all my power in to this one arm, I might break it but I might break loose and then he could rip off the rest of the torture device...

 

Despite the immense pain, Jimmy did as he thought, one arm was now free...

 

but then a mechanical syringe penetrated his veins from the side and all the sudden all was black again!

 

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Hello Maud, here comes the next episode, I heard that Thanos got married, I always thought he was one of us? Well soon Tarkan will Marry too! ha, ha, ha...

Oh don´t you miss the old days at the pub? when they ended every night with that tune and setting fire to the bar-table...

 

not like most other places where they would just push the mod out of the door, but instead a nice little show...

 

Don´t you miss the old days, just tell me if you want to do a small revisit to the past some day...then we could pretend that we were back in the golden days, with Lisa and her claw-fingers and all that fun....

 

Hugs!

 

/ Johnny living in the past!

M5 Upton Warren 05/04/2022

This is me, a self-portrait taken with my old systematic film camera, I guess I was around 20 years old when I snapped it...

 

This was My friend Sue´s favorite picture of me because I looked like Brad Pit on it according to her... (she liked B.P.)

 

The Jumper or pullover I do remember quite clearly it was a hemp-product I bought it somewhere close to studiestræde in Copenhagen on a sale in the hemp product shop...

 

I remember I gave it away years later to someone who really loved it (can´t remember who)

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ Brad Pit, Eh I mean MushroomBrain

 

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Café Frequenters episode 272

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He came back later with his walker he had mounted arms on it since he took it from the tunnel system in Bulgaria...

 

Then he walked it to the point where he had last fled...

 

Then datta-datta-datta he started the mini-gun splinters of wood was flying through the air...

...the old house was totally holed then he ran out of ammo, well only to the mini-gun the flamer had a full canister of hyper-flammable ammo left...

 

Jimmy Though: this hell gets a really fitting end burning in hellfire....

 

Then he stood there watching the flames for a while, He remembered his childhood at the Saint Hans bonfire, no wait it wasn´t his memory it was Johnny´s!

06 September 2013

  

Metering Mode: Spot

Exposure Bias Value: 0

Exposure Time: 30 sec

ISO Speed Ratings: 3200

F-number: 3.5

Focal Length: 24mm

  

Nikon D700 + Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S Nikkor Wide Angle Zoom Lens on a Gitzo Series 5 Systematic 3 Section Long Tripod GT5532LS + Wimberley WH-200 Gimbal Head + MH-01 Pro: Monopod Head with B2-Pro II

  

for more pictures please visit the links below:

  

www.flickr.com/photos/cvsarabo

  

www.facebook.com/Phonatic13

  

500px.com/Phonatic

Watch for Blog Entry Soon!

Flair's marriage to Beems has been a volatile one. Two years ago Beems was arrested for punching her husband in the face during a domestic dispute, WCNC.com reported.

 

Assault charges were later dropped for lack of evidence.

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........***** All images are copyrighted by their respective authors ........

 

Kinsey (Alfred Charles Kinsey..June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956) is generally regarded as the father of sexology, the systematic, scientific study of human sexuality. He initially became interested in the different forms of sexual practices around 1933, after discussing the topic extensively with a colleague, Robert Kroc.

 

It is likely that Kinsey's study of the variations in mating practices among gall wasps led him to wonder how widely varied sexual practices among humans were.

 

During this work, he developed a scale measuring sexual orientation, now known as the Kinsey Scale which ranges from 0 to 6, where 0 is exclusively heterosexual and 6 is exclusively homosexual; a rating of X, for asexual, was added later by Kinsey's associates.

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.....item 1).... Kinsey and sexology ... The Kinsey Reports ... Main article: Kinsey Reports

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_Reports

 

In 1935, Kinsey delivered a lecture to a faculty discussion group at Indiana University, his first public discussion of the topic, wherein he attacked the "widespread ignorance of sexual structure and physiology" and promoted his view that "delayed marriage" (that is, delayed sexual experience) was psychologically harmful. Kinsey obtained research funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, which enabled him to inquire into human sexual behavior. His Kinsey Reports—starting with the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948, followed in 1953 by Sexual Behavior in the Human Female—reached the top of bestseller lists and turned Kinsey into an instant celebrity. Articles about him appeared in magazines such as Time, Life, Look, and McCall's. Kinsey's reports, which led to a storm of controversy, are regarded by many as an enabler of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Indiana University's president Herman B Wells defended Kinsey's research in what became a well-known test of academic freedom.

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img code photo....

 

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/72/Kinsey-Male....

 

The 1948 first edition of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, the first of the two Kinsey reports.

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img code photo.....TIME Magazine....

 

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Time-19...

 

Detail of Time cover, August 24, 1953. Under Kinsey's name, the caption reads "Reflections in the mirror of Venus."

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.....item 2).... website ... PBS.org ... Kinsey in the News

 

Sexual Behavior in the Human Male | Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

 

www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kinsey/sfeature/sf_response_female....

  

----- Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953)

 

In the five years between the releases of Kinsey's two reports, America completed its evolution from postwar victor to Cold War combatant. With the spectre of nuclear destruction hovering over the world, individuals like Senator Joseph McCarthy parlayed fears of Communism into political power and personal attacks on those in the opposition, who were smeared as un-American. A middle-class ideal of security and family life emerged in this domestic revival.

 

At a time when American society seemed under attack, Kinsey's report on women was received like another torch on the bonfire. Although some welcomed the report as a necessary tool for education and understanding, outrage crested over the report's implications for American womanhood. A congressional committee launched an investigation into Kinsey's and his funders' possible connections to the Communist Party, and the Indiana professor soon lost his research funding.

 

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----- Time, August 17, 1953

 

Kinsey for Lutherans

 

With Dr. Alfred Kinsey's new book Sexual Behavior in the Human Female almost ready for publication, Missouri Synod Lutherans are preparing a kind of Kinsey report of their own. In 1950 the church's Triennial Convention appropriated $25,000 for a 25-man research team to investigate Biblical references and Christian teaching on marriage and family life and what Lutherans think and do about it... Among the preliminary findings:

 

Only 16% of young Lutheran bachelors (age 16-20) admit to sexual intercourse (whereas Kinsey found that, among non-churchgoing Protestants in the same age bracket, 90% of grade-school-level males, 80% at high-school-level and 45% at college level had premarital intercourse)...

 

64% of married Lutherans, but only 36% of the clergy, approve the use of contraceptive devices...

 

There was disagreement between laymen and clergy on what causes family dissension. Said the laity: finances, in-laws and disputes over child-training. Said the clergy: drink, sex, and religion.

 

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----- Newsweek, August 24, 1953

 

...Kinsey's report on men was hailed with enthusiasm by some physiologists and philosophers and attacked with equal fervor by others. Any individual's attitude depended on whether he accepted Kinsey's basic notion that man's biological behavior is dictated by biological needs and subject to the same biological rules that govern lower animals...

 

...[In the Female Report], in concise and easy-to-read language, Kinsey batters at some contemporary ideas about the female's slower sex responsiveness, her earlier sex development, her greater extent of erogenous (sexually sensitive) zones, and her emotional reactions in sex relations... one thing strikes Dr. Kinsey as outstanding: "... the range of variation [of sex behavior] in the female far exceeds the range of variation in the male."

 

...The slow destruction of the double standard of sex behavior, Kinsey reasons, has resulted from freer consideration of sex matters in our times: the "emancipation" of the female, increased knowledge of contraception, anonymity of persons living in urban areas, control of venereal infection, draft armies which allow American men and women to observe foreign cultures, and drives against organized prostitution (which have drastically reduced the frequency of male contacts with prostitutes, and increased, correspondingly, the frequency of contacts with females not for direct hire.)

 

Controversy Coming

 

The female volume is bound to be a controversial book. Kinsey and his associates have made a contribution to man's limited scientific knowledge of human sex behavior. By presenting an immense mass of evidence, gathered by empirical investigation, they have given their concepts a certain statistical validity, but it is subject to limitations and possibly misinterpretations imposed by a purely materialistic approach.

 

Inevitably, the new book will bring protests from those who perceive the workings of morality as opposed to plain animal desire in sex and from scientists who may not approve of the doctor's method of collecting his case histories...

 

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----- Time, August 31, 1953

 

K-Day

 

In London last week, the world's biggest daily, the tabloid Mirror (circ. 4,432,700), got out its three-inch type for a single banner headline: WOMEN... K-day -- the prearranged release date for a summary of [Dr. Alfred Kinsey's] book on Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (Time, Aug. 24) -- set off the biggest and raciest commotion the world's press had seen in years...

 

Hearst papers generally gave the story maximum play, while simultaneously cluck-clucking on their editorial pages. Hearst's New York tabloid, the Daily Mirror, which seldom passes up any story with a sex angle, explained to its readers that it ran this "supposedly... scientific effort [because] we felt we could not become overpious and fail to publish it." Scripps-Howard editors had local option on how to handle the story, e.g., the San Francisco News ran only an explanation of why it was leaving Kinsey out ("This is adult reading"), while Denver's Rocky Mountain News cut out the data on the teenage petting. Other editors had more trouble figuring out euphemisms for Kinsey's clinical explanations...

 

Some editors did their best to keep the story going, with follow-ups on what women thought about Kinsey. Many readers were indignant. The Great Bend, Kans. Tribune got so many protests "from religious groups and... individual readers" that it stopped a five-installment series with the first and swore off: "No more Kinsey."

 

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----- Collier's, September 18, 1953

 

How DR. KINSEY'S Report on Women May HELP YOUR MARRIAGE

 

by [marriage counselor] Dr. Emily Hartshorne Mudd with Bill Davidson

 

...For the first time, as a result of [Kinsey's] work we have facts based on they systematic observation of large numbers of people; previous pioneers in the field -- mainly Sigmund Freud and Havelock Ellis-- had instead given detailed reports on individual cases. With the publication this month of the new Kinsey Report on the sexual behavior of 5,940 women, we professionals are buttressed by even more scientific fact, by additional statistically valid averages and patterns...

 

Education is Urgently Needed

 

Besides using the Kinsey Report on women as a yardstick for the average (as we did with the first report) we will also use it more broadly -- to educate people. Such education is badly needed. We have actually had hundreds of cases where neither the husband nor the wife realized that women are capable of any sexual response. There are many wives who consider their husbands unfaithful because they are aroused by outside stimulation, such as pictures of other women. Dr. Kinsey's new report will show these brooding wives that nearly all men react strongly to nudity, thoughts of other experiences and so on -- and that their mental stimulations help the man respond to his wife as his immediate love object...

 

It's not surprising that Dr. Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female is being described as one of the most controversial books of our age. Fundamentally, it is a magnificent piece of basic research which will be used by scholars for years to come as a jumping-off place for further studies. It and its companion volume give us the fullest set of facts we have at the moment on the subject of human sexual behavior. We still don't understand the implications of some of the facts; others may be disproved later on; and we may never find a practical application for much of the material. But the book should make us at least review some of the codes and mores that were set up before we knew the facts.

 

Certainly the new Kinsey Report should bring happiness to far more people than it may hurt, and it could even change important aspects of our culture. Several of my colleagues have commented, "Don't be surprised if in the next few years you see a quiet revolution in America, with more and more thinking parents encouraging their children to marry very young -- to spare them the frustration of having no permissible sex outlet during the peak years of their desires."

 

If this and other significant changes do take place in our culture, it will be difficult to believe that people once asked: "Why would an important scientist like Dr. Kinsey spend fifteen years of his life studying a distasteful subject like sex?"

 

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Letters to the Editor

  

----- Time, September 7, 1953

 

Can't buy our Aug. 24 Time: our newsstands sold out. All holier-than-thous want to read your report on Kinsey's book. Be prepared for indignant letters to the editor.

Captain and Mrs. C. N. Beecham

Wichita, Kansas

 

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----- Time, September 14, 1953

 

You are to be complimented on giving such a comprehensive account... Dr. Kinsey feels that the information he has gathered will help people to plan for happier marriages. I believe he is right...

Elizabeth Rosser

Chicago, Illinois

 

Any man who could get that much straight forward information from one, let alone nearly 6,000 women, should be Time's Man of the Year.

R. C. Tomlinson

West Orange, New Jersey

 

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----- Collier's, October 16, 1953

 

I want to commend you on your article... I have been married 19 years and my husband took at least half of those years to learn a few of the things that Kinsey sets down so clearly. Thank you for a fearless article and one which I am sure will help people.

(Name withheld)

De Kalb, Illinois

 

I am no prude or saint, and Alfred C. Kinsey can publish his report on Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, but why your magazine should stoop to the low level of publishing a summary of this report is beyond me.

Loren A. Bates

Jackson, Mississippi

 

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----- Look, October 20, 1953

 

I read the article on Dr. Kinsey's report with disgust. He takes a so-called survey of a few American women with bad morals and sets them up as an example of typical American womanhood...

Mrs. Chester Lyons

Cedar Lake, Indiana

 

Dr. Kinsey is to be congratulated for pioneering in the study of a perilous subject: woman. His work will serve as a kicking-off point for hundreds of scientific studies. Yet, I wonder if anyone will ever succeed in categorizing these unpredictable creatures.

Bill Smith

Chicago, Illinois

 

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----- Collier's, October 30, 1953

 

I think congratulations are in order to Dr. Emily Hartshorne Mudd and Bill Davidson for showing the proper relationship between the book and education. Instead of merely reviewing the findings, they have made them practical for education by showing the information workable.

Mrs. James Knowles

Detroit, Michigan

 

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.....item 3).... Daily News ... NYDailyNews.com ... www.nydailynews.com/news/national

 

Pro wrestler Ric Flair calls cops after wife beats him up

 

Flair, a force in the ring for 45 years, called police Monday night to ask for help in dealing with his abusive wife, Jacqueline Bains Beems, police say.

 

Comments (8)

BY MEGHAN NEAL / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

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img code photo ... Pro wrestler Ric Flair and wife, Jacqueline Bains Beems

 

assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1104046.1340908524!/...

 

Pro wrestler Ric Flair at the Beverly Hills premier of ‘The Wrestler’ in 2008. (Photo by Jason Merritt/FilmMagic)

 

Photo credits: JASON MERRITT / FILMMAGIC

 

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Thursday, June 28, 2012, 2:40 PM

 

www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pro-wrestler-ric-flair-...

 

Champion wrestler Ric Flair, a force in the ring for 45 years, reportedly called police Monday after he was assaulted by his wife - again.

 

Flair called police Monday night to ask for help in dealing with his abusive wife, Jacqueline Bains Beems, police say.

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img code photo ... Jacqueline Bains Beems mug shot:

 

assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1104048!/img/httpIma...

 

Jacqueline Bains Beems mug shot: She has been arrested twice for assulting her professional wrestler husband, Ric Flair.

 

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Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police went to the couple's North Carolina condo. No arrests were made and no one was brought to the hospital, according to the police report.

 

Flair's marriage to Beems has been a volatile one. Two years ago Beems was arrested for punching her husband in the face during a domestic dispute, WCNC.com reported. Assault charges were later dropped for lack of evidence.

 

At that time Flair's agent said in a statement, "Ric has done nothing wrong. Ric finds this incident unsettling and is committed to correcting any issues in his personal life," the Global Post reported.

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Ric Flair looks on while awaiting the entrance of Hulk Hogan during the 2009 Hulkamania Tour in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

 

Photo credits: PAUL KANE / GETTY IMAGES

 

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The couple married in 2010 and met in 2004 during one of Flair's appearances in Chicago.

 

Under the wrestling name "Nature Boy" Flair, the 6-foot-1, 243-pound fighter has won 30 different titles and was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame twice. He continues to wrestle part-time for WWE.

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A limber-legged Verdin continues his systematic defoliation of the desert flowers. Tucson, AZ

Ordered whole

Nature of things

Intuitive essence

Más / More tikorphotography.com | Facebook

This is my tiny sister, this photo must have been one of the last I took while we were living at the "district of Holma"

 

My sister is probably 16 at this photo, since I was 18 when I moved to my own flat,,,

 

we both moved from mum at almost the same time...

 

this is the door to our public laundry room some blocks away from our house... I knew my sister was doing laundry, so I went past the windows and saw her... by amazing logic I figured out that at some point she must leave the cellar and since it was only that single door I prepared my systematic Camera and waited like some sort of predator for my pray...

 

...and right I was, a snap taken off my unprepared kid-sister entering the cellar door to find me snapping her with my cam...

 

If I would have had a gun and if I was a bounty hunter and she had a prize on her head and I was hired, then she would be dead...

 

Luckily it was just her paparazzi brother!

 

Peace and Noise!

 

/ MushroomBrain the sibling

 

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Café Frequenters Episode 218

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Hello Mr. White!

We are in Lincoln, yes one of those lucky days when we got to escape "dog-shit-city" as Grandpa calls Skeggy...

 

We have done all of our christmas shopping now, I only have a few £ left,just enough to buy a skate with chips at a Chip shop next to the train station...

 

Just before we came in here, I was in the pound-store across the street and Guess what I found, an annual Transformer album comic, with Ultra Magnus and Galvatron on the outside...

Imagine my luck, but it rendered me broke...

 

The other Johnny is beside me, he tells me to scribble down these lines; Hello Pale underling, I am in the U.K one of your and the other Johnny´s homelands, I have bought really flashy Norton mech, but a lesser human like you wouldn´t know what it is, it is Motor stuff... when I come home to Sweden I will make you in to a shopping bag with Johnny´s big Rope... I enjoyed that game, didn´t you???

 

Helllo White it is me again the real Johnny... Now we need to got to the train, I didn´t have time to finish my skate, do you think I can get it as a doggy-bag?

 

The other Johnny just wanted to say that the Chip-shop-chef is a really ugly bastard, orange-ginger hair, bulging eyes and unshaven and looks like a nut-house escapee... I don´t know why I am writing this, but he told me to... Bye!

 

/ Johnny out of dog-shit

Systematic position:

Phylum Chordata

Subphylum Vertebrata

Class Aves; Reptilia (in cladistic sense)

Order Passeriformes

Family Turdidae

Genus Turdus

Species Turdus migratorius