This video is about Lion Prides of East Africa, including mating rituals and lion cubs. It is the 3rd Episode of 25 videos entitled "Wildlife of East Africa – A Film Presentation Series."

 

The series features landscapes and wildlife of East Africa in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Locations include Maasai Mara, Ngorongoro, the Serengeti, Bwindi, Mabamba and Zanzibar.

 

In the Africa Wilds, lions are always present, often closer than 30 meters, and almost undetectable in the grass and rocks. But sometimes you get lucky, you can find them in all their splendour and glory.

 

150 years ago, lion populations were estimated at about 500,000. By the early 1960's that population was reduced to 250,000. Today, that figure is around 20,000.

 

The chili pepper (also chile pepper, chilli pepper, or simply chilli) from Nahuatl chīlli Nahuatl pronunciation: [ˈt͡ʃiːli] (About this sound listen)) is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. They are widely used in many cuisines to add spiciness to dishes. The substances that give chili peppers their intensity when ingested or applied topically are capsaicin and related compounds known as capsaicinoids.

 

Chili peppers originated in Mexico. After the Columbian Exchange, many cultivars of chili pepper spread across the world, used for both food and traditional medicine.

 

Worldwide in 2014, 32.3 million tonnes of green chili peppers and 3.8 million tonnes of dried chili peppers were produced. China is the world's largest producer of green chillies, providing half of the global total.

 

HISTORY

Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE. The most recent research shows that chili peppers were domesticated more than 6000 years ago in Mexico, in the region that extends across southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca to southeastern Veracruz, and were one of the first self-pollinating crops cultivated in Mexico, Central and parts of South America.

 

Peru is considered the country with the highest cultivated Capsicum diversity because it is a center of diversification where varieties of all five domesticates were introduced, grown, and consumed in pre-Columbian times. Bolivia is considered to be the country where the largest diversity of wild Capsicum peppers are consumed. Bolivian consumers distinguish two basic forms: ulupicas, species with small round fruits including C. eximium, C. cardenasii, C. eshbaughii, and C. caballeroi landraces; and arivivis with small elongated fruits including C. baccatum var. baccatum and C. chacoense varieties.

 

Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter them (in the Caribbean), and called them "peppers" because they, like black pepper of the Piper genus known in Europe, have a spicy, hot taste unlike other foodstuffs. Upon their introduction into Europe, chilies were grown as botanical curiosities in the gardens of Spanish and Portuguese monasteries. Christian monks experimented with the culinary potential of chili and discovered that their pungency offered a substitute for black peppercorns, which at the time were so costly that they were used as legal currency in some countries.

 

Chilies were cultivated around the globe after Indigenous people shared them with travelers. Diego Álvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chili peppers to Spain and first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494.

 

The spread of chili peppers to Asia was most likely a natural consequence of its introduction to Portuguese traders (Lisbon was a common port of call for Spanish ships sailing to and from the Americas) who, aware of its trade value, would have likely promoted its commerce in the Asian spice trade routes then dominated by Portuguese and Arab traders. It was introduced in India by the Portuguese towards the end of 15th century. Today chilies are an integral part of South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines.

 

The chili pepper features heavily in the cuisine of the Goan region of India, which was the site of a Portuguese colony (e.g., vindaloo, an Indian interpretation of a Portuguese dish). Chili peppers journeyed from India, through Central Asia and Turkey, to Hungary, where they became the national spice in the form of paprika.

 

An alternate, although not so plausible account (no obvious correlation between its dissemination in Asia and Spanish presence or trade routes), defended mostly by Spanish historians, was that from Mexico, at the time a Spanish colony, chili peppers spread into their other colony the Philippines and from there to India, China, Indonesia. To Japan, it was brought by the Portuguese missionaries in 1542, and then later, it was brought to Korea.

 

In 1995 archaeobotanist Hakon Hjelmqvist published an article in Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift claiming there was evidence for the presence of chili peppers in Europe in pre-Columbian times. According to Hjelmqvist, archaeologists at a dig in St Botulf in Lund found a Capsicum frutescens in a layer from the 13th century. Hjelmqvist thought it came from Asia. Hjelmqvist also said that Capsicum was described by the Greek Theophrastus (370–286 BCE) in his Historia Plantarum, and in other sources. Around the first century CE, the Roman poet Martialis (Martial) mentioned "Piperve crudum" (raw pepper) in Liber XI, XVIII, allegedly describing them as long and containing seeds (a description which seems to fit chili peppers - but could also fit the long pepper, which was well known to ancient Romans).

 

PRODUCTION

In 2014, world production of fresh green chillies and peppers was 33.2 million tonnes, led by China with 48% of the global total. Global production of dried chillies and peppers was about nine times less than for fresh production, led by India with 32% of the world total.

 

SPECIES AND CULTIVARS

The five domesticated species of chili peppers are as follows:

 

Capsicum annuum, which includes many common varieties such as bell peppers, wax, cayenne, jalapeños, chiltepin, and all forms of New Mexico chile.

Capsicum frutescens, which includes malagueta, tabasco and Thai peppers, piri piri, and Malawian Kambuzi

Capsicum chinense, which includes the hottest peppers such as the naga, habanero, Datil and Scotch bonnet

Capsicum pubescens, which includes the South American rocoto peppers

Capsicum baccatum, which includes the South American aji peppers

 

Though there are only a few commonly used species, there are many cultivars and methods of preparing chili peppers that have different names for culinary use. Green and red bell peppers, for example, are the same cultivar of C. annuum, immature peppers being green. In the same species are the jalapeño, the poblano (which when dried is referred to as ancho), New Mexico, serrano, and other cultivars.

 

Peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings: bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Most popular pepper varieties are seen as falling into one of these categories or as a cross between them.

 

INTENSITY

The substances that give chili peppers their pungency (spicy heat) when ingested or applied topically are capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) and several related chemicals, collectively called capsaicinoids. The quantity of capsaicin varies by variety, and on growing conditions. Water stressed peppers usually produce stronger pods. When a habanero plant is stressed, for example low water, the concentration of capsaicin increases in some parts of the fruit.

 

When peppers are consumed, capsaicin binds with pain receptors in the mouth and throat, potentially evoking pain via spinal relays to the brainstem and thalamus where heat and discomfort are perceived. The intensity of the "heat" of chili peppers is commonly reported in Scoville heat units (SHU). Historically, it was a measure of the dilution of an amount of chili extract added to sugar syrup before its heat becomes undetectable to a panel of tasters; the more it has to be diluted to be undetectable, the more powerful the variety, and therefore the higher the rating. The modern method is a quantitative analysis of SHU using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to directly measure the capsaicinoid content of a chili pepper variety. Pure capsaicin is a hydrophobic, colorless, odorless, and crystalline-to-waxy solid at room temperature, and measures 16,000,000 SHU.

 

USE

CULINARY USES

Chili pepper pods, which are berries, are used fresh or dried. Chilies are dried to preserve them for long periods of time, which may also be done by pickling.

 

Dried chilies are often ground into powders, although many Mexican dishes including variations on chiles rellenos use the entire chili. Dried whole chilies may be reconstituted before grinding to a paste. The chipotle is the smoked, dried, ripe jalapeño.

 

Many fresh chilies such as poblano have a tough outer skin that does not break down on cooking. Chilies are sometimes used whole or in large slices, by roasting, or other means of blistering or charring the skin, so as not to entirely cook the flesh beneath. When cooled, the skins will usually slip off easily.

 

The leaves of every species of Capsicum are edible. Though almost all other Solanaceous crops have toxins in their leaves, chili peppers do not. The leaves, which are mildly bitter and nowhere near as hot as the fruit, are cooked as greens in Filipino cuisine, where they are called dahon ng sili (literally "chili leaves"). They are used in the chicken soup tinola. In Korean cuisine, the leaves may be used in kimchi. In Japanese cuisine, the leaves are cooked as greens, and also cooked in tsukudani style for preservation.

 

Chili is by far the most important fruit in Bhutan. Local markets are never without chilies in different colors and sizes, in fresh and dried form. Bhutanese call this crop ema (in Dzongkha) or solo (in Sharchop). Chili is a staple fruit in Bhutan; the ema datsi recipe is entirely made of chili mixed with local cheese. Chili is also an important ingredient in almost all curries and food recipes in the country.

 

In India, most households always keep a stack of fresh hot green chilies at hand, and use them to flavor most curries and dry dishes. It is typically lightly fried with oil in the initial stages of preparation of the dish. Some states in India, such as Rajasthan, make entire dishes only by using spices and chilies.

 

Chilies are present in many cuisines. Some notable dishes other than the ones mentioned elsewhere in this article include:

 

Arrabbiata sauce from Italy is a tomato-based sauce for pasta always including dried hot chilies.

Puttanesca sauce is tomato-based with olives, capers, anchovy and, sometimes, chilies.

Paprikash from Hungary uses significant amounts of mild, ground, dried chilies, known as paprika, in a braised chicken dish.

Chiles en nogada from the Puebla region of Mexico uses fresh mild chilies stuffed with meat and covered with a creamy nut-thickened sauce.

Curry dishes usually contain fresh or dried chillies.

Kung pao chicken (Mandarin Chinese: 宫保鸡丁 gōng bǎo jī dīng) from the Sichuan region of China uses small hot dried chilies briefly fried in oil to add spice to the oil then used for frying.

Mole poblano from the city of Puebla in Mexico uses several varieties of dried chilies, nuts, spices, and fruits to produce a thick, dark sauce for poultry or other meats.

Nam phrik are traditional Thai chili pastes and sauces, prepared with chopped fresh or dry chilies, and additional ingredients such as fish sauce, lime juice, and herbs, but also fruit, meat or seafood.

'Nduja, a more typical example of Italian spicy specialty, from the region of Calabria, is a soft pork sausage made "hot" by the addition of the locally grown variety of jalapeño chili.

Paprykarz szczeciński is a Polish fish paste with rice, onion, tomato concentrate, vegetable oil, chili pepper powder and other spices.

Sambal terasi or sambal belacan is a traditional Indonesian and Malay hot condiment made by frying a mixture of mainly pounded dried chillies, with garlic, shallots, and fermented shrimp paste. It is customarily served with rice dishes and is especially popular when mixed with crunchy pan-roasted ikan teri or ikan bilis (sun-dried anchovies), when it is known as sambal teri or sambal ikan bilis. Various sambal variants existed in Indonesian archipelago, among others are sambal badjak, sambal oelek, sambal pete (prepared with green stinky beans) and sambal pencit (prepared with unripe green mango).

Som tam, a green papaya salad from Thai and Lao cuisine, traditionally has, as a key ingredient, a fistful of chopped fresh hot Thai chili, pounded in a mortar.

Fresh or dried chilies are often used to make hot sauce, a liquid condiment - usually bottled when commercially available - that adds spice to other dishes. Hot sauces are found in many cuisines including harissa from North Africa, chili oil from China (known as rāyu in Japan), and sriracha from Thailand.

Capsaicin is also the primary component in pepper spray, a less-than-lethal weapon.

 

PSYCHOLOGY

Psychologist Paul Rozin suggests that eating chilies is an example of a "constrained risk" like riding a roller coaster, in which extreme sensations like pain and fear can be enjoyed because individuals know that these sensations are not actually harmful. This method lets people experience extreme feelings without any risk of bodily harm.

 

MEDICINAL

Capsaicin, the chemical in chili peppers that makes them hot, is used as an analgesic in topical ointments, nasal sprays, and dermal patches to relieve pain.

 

PEPPER SPRAY

Capsaicin extracted from chilies is used in pepper spray as an irritant, a form of less-lethal weapon.

 

CROP DEFENSE

Conflicts between farmers and elephants have long been widespread in African and Asian countries, where elephants nightly destroy crops, raid grain houses, and sometimes kill people. Farmers have found the use of chilies effective in crop defense against elephants. Elephants do not like capsaicin, the chemical in chilies that makes them hot. Because the elephants have a large and sensitive olfactory and nasal system, the smell of the chili causes them discomfort and deters them from feeding on the crops. By planting a few rows of the pungent fruit around valuable crops, farmers create a buffer zone through which the elephants are reluctant to pass. Chilly-Dung Bombs are also used for this purpose. They are bricks made of mixing dung and chili, and are burned, creating a noxious smoke that keeps hungry elephants out of farmers' fields. This can lessen dangerous physical confrontation between people and elephants.

 

FOOD DEFENSE

Birds do not have the same sensitivity to capsaicin, because it targets a specific pain receptor in mammals. Chili peppers are eaten by birds living in the chili peppers' natural range, possibly contributing to seed dispersal and evolution of the protective capsaicin in chili peppers.

 

NUTRITIONAL VALUE

While red chilies contain large amounts of vitamin C (table), other species contain significant amounts of provitamin A beta-carotene. In addition, peppers are a rich source of vitamin B6

 

SPELLING AND USAGE

The three primary spellings are chili, chile and chilli, all of which are recognized by dictionaries.

 

Chili is widely used in historically Anglophone regions of the United States and Canada. However, it is also commonly used as a short name for chili con carne (literally "chili with meat"). Most versions are seasoned with chili powder, which can refer to pure dried, ground chili peppers, or to a mixture containing other spices.

Chile is the most common Spanish spelling in Mexico and several other Latin American countries, as well as some parts of the United States and Canada, which refers specifically to this plant and its fruit. In the Southwest United States (particularly New Mexico), chile also denotes a thick, spicy, un-vinegared sauce made from this fruit, available in red and green varieties, and served over the local food, while chili denotes the meat dish. The plural is chile or chiles.

Chilli was the original Romanization of the Náhuatl language word for the fruit (chīlli) and is the preferred British spelling according to the Oxford English Dictionary, although it also lists chile and chili as variants. Chilli (and its plural chillies) is the most common spelling in Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore and South Africa.

 

The name of the plant is almost certainly unrelated to that of Chile, the country, which has an uncertain etymology perhaps relating to local place names. Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are some of the Spanish-speaking countries where chilies are known as ají, a word of Taíno origin. Though pepper originally referred to the genus Piper, not Capsicum, the latter usage is included in English dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary (sense 2b of pepper) and Merriam-Webster. The word pepper is also commonly used in the botanical and culinary fields in the names of different types of chili plants and their fruits.

 

WIKIPEDIA

The stealthy Night Raider prowls the Brikverse to hunt down and disable lost convoys and vulnerable orbital stations. Its shrouded engines and angular design make it nearly undetectable to conventional sensor systems, allowing it to unleash a deadly surprise attack with its multiple cannons and armor-piercing missiles. The Rubrum Crucesignatis has a standing bounty on all Night Raiders, but its uncanny aptitude at hit-and-fade tactics have made it difficult to catch.

 

The Empire of Luchardsko is a cool-looking, if lore-light, faction created by Falk for Brikwars. One of my favorites.

Flatid Planthopper Nymph (Flatidae)

 

Camouflage comes in many different forms, but revolves around disrupting the normal body shape or outline so as to render the subject less visible, if not invisible.

 

Typically, we consider a subject blending into its existing surrounds as the "traditional" approach. Alternatively, a subject can be entirely visible, if not glaringly obvious, yet still remain undetectable against a backdrop it has created for itself.

 

The waxy fluff secretions of many of the Hemipteran hoppers serves many purposes (temperature regulation, hydration, waste disposal, protection, predation deterrent and escape mechanism). It is produced continuously from one nymphal instar to the next, but has to be completely replaced with each successive moult. Consequently, large amounts of the material breaks away and is shed conveniently creating a hard-to-miss blank canvas within which the nymph/s remain invisible in clear view.

 

(I have marked the nymph's head with a note (hover your mouse over the image) if that helps you get orientated.)

 

Pu'er, Yunnan, China

 

see comments for additional image (another individual) as well as another example of a different species....

"A highly accurate, undetectable, uninterceptable nuclear weapon."

 

Inspired by Moko.

The German Type 212 class, is a highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) for the German and Italian Navies. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP) system using Siemens proton exchange membrane (PEM) compressed hydrogen fuel cells. The submarine can operate at high speed on diesel power or switch to the AIP system for silent slow cruising, staying submerged for up to three weeks without surfacing and with no exhaust heat. The system is also said to be vibration-free, extremely quiet and virtually undetectable.

 

Type 212 is the first fuel cell propulsion system equipped submarine series.

 

Builders: Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) Kiel Germany.

 

Name U-34

Laid down December 2001

Launched July 2006

Commissioned 3 May 2007

 

On the Clyde for Joint Warrior 2016-1

Joint Warrior is a UK tri-Service multinational exercise that involves numerous warships, aircraft, marines and troops.

The stained glass windows from the old bombed-out Baltic Exchange in the City of London are now housed in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

 

How quickly we forget the names of those who died in that IRA bombing:

 

"At 9:20 pm on Friday 10 April 1992, the day after a general election unexpectedly returned the Conservative Party to power, a small truck pulled up in St Mary Axe, a narrow street in the heart of the City of London. Inside was a home-made explosive device, probably consisting of a mixture of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and sugar, and ignited by a commercially available detonator, mostly likely Semtex, the ‘plastic explosive’ designed for industrial use by Czech scientist Stanislav Brebera in 1966. Semtex, manufactured by the state-owned company Explosia (no, really) is conveniently pliable, moldable and almost undetectable. The other ingredients were commonly available. Although the majority of office workers had gone home, the resulting explosion killed three people, Danielle Carter (15), Paul Butt (29) and Thomas Casey (49). "

 

From an article in: The Morning News.

 

Remember them on Good Friday, 10 April 2009..

The German Type 212 class, is a highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) for the German and Italian Navies. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP) system using Siemens proton exchange membrane (PEM) compressed hydrogen fuel cells. The submarine can operate at high speed on diesel power or switch to the AIP system for silent slow cruising, staying submerged for up to three weeks without surfacing and with no exhaust heat. The system is also said to be vibration-free, extremely quiet and virtually undetectable.

 

Type 212 is the first fuel cell propulsion system equipped submarine series.

 

Builders: Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) Kiel Germany.

 

Name U-34

Laid down December 2001

Launched July 2006

Commissioned 3 May 2007

 

On the Clyde for Joint Warrior 2016-1

Joint Warrior is a UK tri-Service multinational exercise that involves numerous warships, aircraft, marines and troops.

"So if we shower regularly, we're undetectable!"

"Now you're not making any sense! How do we stop this thing!?"

 

Buttercup bounty in the foreground with the trees lit up this side of the teign whereas on the other side it is raining and the flanks of the hillside are undetectable.

Yellowstone National Park (Arapaho: Henihco'oo or Héetíhco'oo) is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone, widely held to be the first national park in the world, is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

 

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone.

 

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the Continental United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

 

The park is located at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, from which it takes its historical name. Near the end of the 18th century, French trappers named the river "Roche Jaune", which is probably a translation of the Hidatsa name "Mi tsi a-da-zi" (Rock Yellow River). Later, American trappers rendered the French name in English as "Yellow Stone". Although it is commonly believed that the river was named for the yellow rocks seen in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Native American name source is not clear.

 

The first detailed expedition to the Yellowstone area was the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition of 1869, which consisted of three privately funded explorers. The Folsom party followed the Yellowstone River to Yellowstone Lake. The members of the Folsom party kept a journal and based on the information it reported, a party of Montana residents organized the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition in 1870. It was headed by the surveyor-general of Montana Henry Washburn, and included Nathaniel P. Langford (who later became known as "National Park" Langford) and a U.S. Army detachment commanded by Lt. Gustavus Doane.

 

The expedition spent about a month exploring the region, collecting specimens and naming sites of interest. A Montana writer and lawyer named Cornelius Hedges, who had been a member of the Washburn expedition, proposed that the region should be set aside and protected as a national park; he wrote a number of detailed articles about his observations for the Helena Herald newspaper between 1870 and 1871. Hedges essentially restated comments made in October 1865 by acting Montana Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher, who had previously commented that the region should be protected. Others made similar suggestions. In an 1871 letter from Jay Cooke to Ferdinand V. Hayden, Cooke wrote that his friend, Congressman William D. Kelley had also suggested "Congress pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park forever".

 

By 1915, 1,000 automobiles per year were entering the park, resulting in conflicts with horses and horse-drawn transportation. Horse travel on roads was eventually prohibited.

 

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal relief agency for young men, played a major role between 1933 and 1942 in developing Yellowstone facilities. CCC projects included reforestation, campground development of many of the park's trails and campgrounds, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, and fire-fighting work. The CCC built the majority of the early visitor centers, campgrounds and the current system of park roads.

 

During World War II, tourist travel fell sharply, staffing was cut, and many facilities fell into disrepair. By the 1950s, visitation increased tremendously in Yellowstone and other national parks. To accommodate the increased visitation, park officials implemented Mission 66, an effort to modernize and expand park service facilities. Planned to be completed by 1966, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service, Mission 66 construction diverged from the traditional log cabin style with design features of a modern style. During the late 1980s, most construction styles in Yellowstone reverted to the more traditional designs. After the enormous forest fires of 1988 damaged much of Grant Village, structures there were rebuilt in the traditional style. The visitor center at Canyon Village, which opened in 2006, incorporates a more traditional design as well.

A large arch made of irregular-shaped natural stone over a road

 

The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake just west of Yellowstone at Hebgen Lake damaged roads and some structures in the park. In the northwest section of the park, new geysers were found, and many existing hot springs became turbid. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in recorded history.

 

In 1963, after several years of public controversy regarding the forced reduction of the elk population in Yellowstone, United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall appointed an advisory board to collect scientific data to inform future wildlife management of the national parks. In a paper known as the Leopold Report, the committee observed that culling programs at other national parks had been ineffective, and recommended management of Yellowstone's elk population.

 

The wildfires during the summer of 1988 were the largest in the history of the park. Approximately 793,880 acres (321,272 ha; 1,240 sq mi) or 36% of the parkland was impacted by the fires, leading to a systematic re-evaluation of fire management policies. The fire season of 1988 was considered normal until a combination of drought and heat by mid-July contributed to an extreme fire danger. On "Black Saturday", August 20, 1988, strong winds expanded the fires rapidly, and more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) burned.

 

The expansive cultural history of the park has been documented by the 1,000 archeological sites that have been discovered. The park has 1,106 historic structures and features, and of these Obsidian Cliff and five buildings have been designated National Historic Landmarks. Yellowstone was designated an International Biosphere Reserve on October 26, 1976, and a UN World Heritage Site on September 8, 1978. The park was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 1995 to 2003 due to the effects of tourism, infection of wildlife, and issues with invasive species. In 2010, Yellowstone National Park was honored with its own quarter under the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.

Heritage and Research Center

 

The Heritage and Research Center is located at Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance to the park. The center is home to the Yellowstone National Park's museum collection, archives, research library, historian, archeology lab, and herbarium. The Yellowstone National Park Archives maintain collections of historical records of Yellowstone and the National Park Service. The collection includes the administrative records of Yellowstone, as well as resource management records, records from major projects, and donated manuscripts and personal papers. The archives are affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration.

 

Approximately 96 percent of the land area of Yellowstone National Park is located within the state of Wyoming. Another three percent is within Montana, with the remaining one percent in Idaho. The park is 63 miles (101 km) north to south, and 54 miles (87 km) west to east by air. Yellowstone is 2,219,789 acres (898,317 ha; 3,468.420 sq mi) in area, larger than the states of Rhode Island or Delaware. Rivers and lakes cover five percent of the land area, with the largest water body being Yellowstone Lake at 87,040 acres (35,220 ha; 136.00 sq mi). Yellowstone Lake is up to 400 feet (120 m) deep and has 110 miles (180 km) of shoreline. At an elevation of 7,733 feet (2,357 m) above sea level, Yellowstone Lake is the largest high altitude lake in North America. Forests comprise 80 percent of the land area of the park; most of the rest is grassland.

 

The Continental Divide of North America runs diagonally through the southwestern part of the park. The divide is a topographic feature that separates Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean water drainages. About one third of the park lies on the west side of the divide. The origins of the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers are near each other but on opposite sides of the divide. As a result, the waters of the Snake River flow to the Pacific Ocean, while those of the Yellowstone find their way to the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The park sits on the Yellowstone Plateau, at an average elevation of 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. The plateau is bounded on nearly all sides by mountain ranges of the Middle Rocky Mountains, which range from 9,000 to 11,000 feet (2,700 to 3,400 m) in elevation. The highest point in the park is atop Eagle Peak (11,358 feet or 3,462 metres) and the lowest is along Reese Creek (5,282 feet or 1,610 metres). Nearby mountain ranges include the Gallatin Range to the northwest, the Beartooth Mountains in the north, the Absaroka Range to the east, and the Teton Range and the Madison Range to the southwest and west. The most prominent summit on the Yellowstone Plateau is Mount Washburn at 10,243 feet (3,122 m).

 

Yellowstone National Park has one of the world's largest petrified forests, trees which were long ago buried by ash and soil and transformed from wood to mineral materials. This ash and other volcanic debris, are believed to have come from the park area itself. This is largely due to the fact that Yellowstone is actually a massive caldera of a supervolcano. There are 290 waterfalls of at least 15 feet (4.6 m) in the park, the highest being the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River at 308 feet (94 m).

 

Three deep canyons are located in the park, cut through the volcanic tuff of the Yellowstone Plateau by rivers over the last 640,000 years. The Lewis River flows through Lewis Canyon in the south, and the Yellowstone River has carved two colorful canyons, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone in its journey north.

 

Yellowstone is at the northeastern end of the Snake River Plain, a great U-shaped arc through the mountains that extends from Boise, Idaho some 400 miles (640 km) to the west. This feature traces the route of the North American Plate over the last 17 million years as it was transported by plate tectonics across a stationary mantle hotspot. The landscape of present-day Yellowstone National Park is the most recent manifestation of this hotspot below the crust of the Earth.

 

The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 37 miles (60 km) long, 18 miles (29 km) wide, and 3 to 7 miles (5 to 12 km) deep. The current caldera was created by a cataclysmic eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago, which released more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 km³) of ash, rock and pyroclastic materials. This eruption was more than 1,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It produced a caldera nearly five eighths of a mile (1 km) deep and 45 by 28 miles (72 by 45 km) in area and deposited the Lava Creek Tuff, a welded tuff geologic formation. The most violent known eruption, which occurred 2.1 million years ago, ejected 588 cubic miles (2,450 km³) of volcanic material and created the rock formation known as the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff and created the Island Park Caldera. A smaller eruption ejected 67 cubic miles (280 km³) of material 1.3 million years ago, forming the Henry's Fork Caldera and depositing the Mesa Falls Tuff.

 

Each of the three climactic eruptions released vast amounts of ash that blanketed much of central North America, falling many hundreds of miles away. The amount of ash and gases released into the atmosphere probably caused significant impacts to world weather patterns and led to the extinction of some species, primarily in North America.

Wooden walkways allow visitors to closely approach the Grand Prismatic Spring.

 

A subsequent caldera-forming eruption occurred about 160,000 years ago. It formed the relatively small caldera that contains the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. Since the last supereruption, a series of smaller eruptive cycles between 640,000 and 70,000 years ago, has nearly filled in the Yellowstone Caldera with >80 different eruptions of rhyolitic lavas such as those that can be seen at Obsidian Cliffs and basaltic lavas which can be viewed at Sheepeater Cliff. Lava strata are most easily seen at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where the Yellowstone River continues to carve into the ancient lava flows. The canyon is a classic V-shaped valley, indicative of river-type erosion rather than erosion caused by glaciation.

 

Each eruption is part of an eruptive cycle that climaxes with the partial collapse of the roof of the volcano's partially emptied magma chamber. This creates a collapsed depression, called a caldera, and releases vast amounts of volcanic material, usually through fissures that ring the caldera. The time between the last three cataclysmic eruptions in the Yellowstone area has ranged from 600,000 to 800,000 years, but the small number of such climactic eruptions cannot be used to make an accurate prediction for future volcanic events.

 

The most famous geyser in the park, and perhaps the world, is Old Faithful Geyser, located in Upper Geyser Basin. Castle Geyser, Lion Geyser and Beehive Geyser are in the same basin. The park contains the largest active geyser in the world—Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin. A study that was completed in 2011 found that at least 1283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone. Of these, an average of 465 are active in a given year. Yellowstone contains at least 10,000 geothermal features altogether. Half the geothermal features and two-thirds of the world's geysers are concentrated in Yellowstone.

 

In May 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park, and the University of Utah created the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), a partnership for long-term monitoring of the geological processes of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, for disseminating information concerning the potential hazards of this geologically active region.

 

In 2003, changes at the Norris Geyser Basin resulted in the temporary closure of some trails in the basin. New fumaroles were observed, and several geysers showed enhanced activity and increasing water temperatures. Several geysers became so hot that they were transformed into purely steaming features; the water had become superheated and they could no longer erupt normally. This coincided with the release of reports of a multiple year United States Geological Survey research project which mapped the bottom of Yellowstone Lake and identified a structural dome that had uplifted at some time in the past. Research indicated that these uplifts posed no immediate threat of a volcanic eruption, since they may have developed long ago, and there had been no temperature increase found near the uplifts. On March 10, 2004, a biologist discovered 5 dead bison which apparently had inhaled toxic geothermal gases trapped in the Norris Geyser Basin by a seasonal atmospheric inversion. This was closely followed by an upsurge of earthquake activity in April 2004. In 2006, it was reported that the Mallard Lake Dome and the Sour Creek Dome— areas that have long been known to show significant changes in their ground movement— had risen at a rate of 1.5 to 2.4 inches (3.8 to 6.1 cm) per year from mid–2004 through 2006. As of late 2007, the uplift has continued at a reduced rate. These events inspired a great deal of media attention and speculation about the geologic future of the region. Experts responded to the conjecture by informing the public that there was no increased risk of a volcanic eruption in the near future. However, these changes demonstrate the dynamic nature of the Yellowstone hydrothermal system.

 

Yellowstone experiences thousands of small earthquakes every year, virtually all of which are undetectable to people. There have been six earthquakes with at least magnitude 6 or greater in historical times, including a 7.5‑magnitude quake that struck just outside the northwest boundary of the park in 1959. This quake triggered a huge landslide, which caused a partial dam collapse on Hebgen Lake; immediately downstream, the sediment from the landslide dammed the river and created a new lake, known as Earthquake Lake. Twenty-eight people were killed, and property damage was extensive in the immediate region. The earthquake caused some geysers in the northwestern section of the park to erupt, large cracks in the ground formed and emitted steam, and some hot springs that normally have clear water turned muddy. A 6.1‑magnitude earthquake struck inside the park on June 30, 1975, but damage was minimal.

 

For three months in 1985, 3,000 minor earthquakes were detected in the northwestern section of the park, during what has been referred to as an earthquake swarm, and has been attributed to minor subsidence of the Yellowstone caldera. Beginning on April 30, 2007, 16 small earthquakes with magnitudes up to 2.7 occurred in the Yellowstone Caldera for several days. These swarms of earthquakes are common, and there have been 70 such swarms between 1983 and 2008. In December 2008, over 250 earthquakes were measured over a four-day span under Yellowstone Lake, the largest measuring a magnitude of 3.9. In January 2010, more than 250 earthquakes were detected over a two-day period. Seismic activity in Yellowstone National Park continues and is reported hourly by the Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

On March 30, 2014, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck almost the very middle of Yellowstone near the Norris Basin at 6.34am; reports indicated no damage. This was the biggest earthquake to hit the park since February 22, 1980.

 

Over 1,700 species of trees and other vascular plants are native to the park. Another 170 species are considered to be exotic species and are non-native. Of the eight conifer tree species documented, Lodgepole Pine forests cover 80% of the total forested areas. Other conifers, such as Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir and Whitebark Pine, are found in scattered groves throughout the park. As of 2007, the whitebark pine is threatened by a fungus known as white pine blister rust; however, this is mostly confined to forests well to the north and west. In Yellowstone, about seven percent of the whitebark pine species have been impacted with the fungus, compared to nearly complete infestations in northwestern Montana. Quaking Aspen and willows are the most common species of deciduous trees. The aspen forests have declined significantly since the early 20th century, but scientists at Oregon State University attribute recent recovery of the aspen to the reintroduction of wolves which has changed the grazing habits of local elk.

 

There are dozens of species of flowering plants that have been identified, most of which bloom between the months of May and September. The Yellowstone Sand Verbena is a rare flowering plant found only in Yellowstone. It is closely related to species usually found in much warmer climates, making the sand verbena an enigma. The estimated 8,000 examples of this rare flowering plant all make their home in the sandy soils on the shores of Yellowstone Lake, well above the waterline.

 

In Yellowstone's hot waters, bacteria form mats of bizarre shapes consisting of trillions of individuals. These bacteria are some of the most primitive life forms on earth. Flies and other arthropods live on the mats, even in the middle of the bitterly cold winters. Initially, scientists thought that microbes there gained sustenance only from sulfur. In 2005 researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered that the sustenance for at least some of the diverse hyperthermophilic species is molecular hydrogen.

 

Thermus aquaticus is a bacterium found in the Yellowstone hot springs that produces an important enzyme (Taq polymerase) that is easily replicated in the lab and is useful in replicating DNA as part of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process. The retrieval of these bacteria can be achieved with no impact to the ecosystem. Other bacteria in the Yellowstone hot springs may also prove useful to scientists who are searching for cures for various diseases.

 

Non-native plants sometimes threaten native species by using up nutrient resources. Though exotic species are most commonly found in areas with the greatest human visitation, such as near roads and at major tourist areas, they have also spread into the backcountry. Generally, most exotic species are controlled by pulling the plants out of the soil or by spraying, both of which are time consuming and expensive.

  

Yellowstone is widely considered to be the finest megafauna wildlife habitat in the lower 48 states. There are almost 60 species of mammals in the park, including the gray wolf, the threatened lynx, and grizzly bears. Other large mammals include the bison (often referred to as buffalo), black bear, elk, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion.

Bison graze near a hot spring

 

The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the largest public herd of American bison in the United States. The relatively large bison populations are a concern for ranchers, who fear that the species can transmit bovine diseases to their domesticated cousins. In fact, about half of Yellowstone's bison have been exposed to brucellosis, a bacterial disease that came to North America with European cattle that may cause cattle to miscarry. The disease has little effect on park bison, and no reported case of transmission from wild bison to domestic livestock has been filed. However, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has stated that bison are the "likely source" of the spread of the disease in cattle in Wyoming and North Dakota. Elk also carry the disease and are believed to have transmitted the infection to horses and cattle. Bison once numbered between 30 and 60 million individuals throughout North America, and Yellowstone remains one of their last strongholds. Their populations had increased from less than 50 in the park in 1902 to 4,000 by 2003. The Yellowstone Park bison herd reached a peak in 2005 with 4,900 animals. Despite a summer estimated population of 4,700 in 2007, the number dropped to 3,000 in 2008 after a harsh winter and controversial brucellosis management sending hundreds to slaughter. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Henry Mountains bison herd of Utah, at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota and on Elk Island in Alberta.

Elk Mother Nursing Her Calf

 

To combat the perceived threat of brucellosis transmission to cattle, national park personnel regularly harass bison herds back into the park when they venture outside of the area's borders. During the winter of 1996–97, the bison herd was so large that 1,079 bison that had exited the park were shot or sent to slaughter. Animal rights activists argue that this is a cruel practice and that the possibility for disease transmission is not as great as some ranchers maintain. Ecologists point out that the bison are merely traveling to seasonal grazing areas that lie within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that have been converted to cattle grazing, some of which are within National Forests and are leased to private ranchers. APHIS has stated that with vaccinations and other means, brucellosis can be eliminated from the bison and elk herds throughout Yellowstone.

A reintroduced northwestern wolf in Yellowstone National Park

 

Starting in 1914, in an effort to protect elk populations, the U.S. Congress appropriated funds to be used for the purposes of "destroying wolves, prairie dogs, and other animals injurious to agriculture and animal husbandry" on public lands. Park Service hunters carried out these orders, and by 1926 they had killed 136 wolves, and wolves were virtually eliminated from Yellowstone. Further exterminations continued until the National Park Service ended the practice in 1935. With the passing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the wolf was one of the first mammal species listed. After the wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone, the coyote then became the park's top canine predator. However, the coyote is not able to bring down large animals, and the result of this lack of a top predator on these populations was a marked increase in lame and sick megafauna.

Bison in Yellowstone National Park

 

By the 1990s, the Federal government had reversed its views on wolves. In a controversial decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which oversees threatened and endangered species), northwestern wolves, imported from Canada, were reintroduced into the park. Reintroduction efforts have been successful with populations remaining relatively stable. A survey conducted in 2005 reported that there were 13 wolf packs, totaling 118 individuals in Yellowstone and 326 in the entire ecosystem. These park figures were lower than those reported in 2004 but may be attributable to wolf migration to other nearby areas as suggested by the substantial increase in the Montana population during that interval. Almost all the wolves documented were descended from the 66 wolves reintroduced in 1995–96. The recovery of populations throughout the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho has been so successful that on February 27, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population from the endangered species list.

 

An estimated 600 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with more than half of the population living within Yellowstone. The grizzly is currently listed as a threatened species, however the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that they intend to take it off the endangered species list for the Yellowstone region but will likely keep it listed in areas where it has not yet recovered fully. Opponents of delisting the grizzly are concerned that states might once again allow hunting and that better conservation measures need to be implemented to ensure a sustainable population. Black bears are common in the park and were a park symbol due to visitor interaction with the bears starting in 1910. Feeding and close contact with bears has not been permitted since the 1960s to reduce their desire for human foods. Yellowstone is one of the few places in the United States where black bears can be seen coexisting with grizzly bears. Black bear observations occur most often in the park's northern ranges and in the Bechler area which is in the park's southwestern corner.

 

Population figures for elk are in excess of 30,000—the largest population of any large mammal species in Yellowstone. The northern herd has decreased enormously since the mid‑1990s; this has been attributed to wolf predation and causal effects such as elk using more forested regions to evade predation, consequently making it harder for researchers to accurately count them. The northern herd migrates west into southwestern Montana in the winter. The southern herd migrates southward, and the majority of these elk winter on the National Elk Refuge, immediately southeast of Grand Teton National Park. The southern herd migration is the largest mammalian migration remaining in the U.S. outside of Alaska.

 

In 2003 the tracks of one female lynx and her cub were spotted and followed for over 2 miles (3.2 km). Fecal material and other evidence obtained were tested and confirmed to be those of a lynx. No visual confirmation was made, however. Lynx have not been seen in Yellowstone since 1998, though DNA taken from hair samples obtained in 2001 confirmed that lynx were at least transient to the park. Other less commonly seen mammals include the mountain lion and wolverine. The mountain lion has an estimated population of only 25 individuals parkwide. The wolverine is another rare park mammal, and accurate population figures for this species are not known. These uncommon and rare mammals provide insight into the health of protected lands such as Yellowstone and help managers make determinations as to how best to preserve habitats.

 

Eighteen species of fish live in Yellowstone, including the core range of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout—a fish highly sought by anglers. The Yellowstone cutthroat trout has faced several threats since the 1980s, including the suspected illegal introduction into Yellowstone Lake of lake trout, an invasive species which consume the smaller cutthroat trout. Although lake trout were established in Shoshone and Lewis lakes in the Snake River drainage from U.S. Government stocking operations in 1890, it was never officially introduced into the Yellowstone River drainage. The cutthroat trout has also faced an ongoing drought, as well as the accidental introduction of a parasite—whirling disease—which causes a terminal nervous system disease in younger fish. Since 2001, all native sport fish species caught in Yellowstone waterways are subject to a catch and release law. Yellowstone is also home to six species of reptiles, such as the painted turtle and Prairie rattlesnake, and four species of amphibians, including the Boreal Chorus Frog.

 

311 species of birds have been reported, almost half of which nest in Yellowstone. As of 1999, twenty-six pairs of nesting bald eagles have been documented. Extremely rare sightings of whooping cranes have been recorded, however only three examples of this species are known to live in the Rocky Mountains, out of 385 known worldwide. Other birds, considered to be species of special concern because of their rarity in Yellowstone, include the common loon, harlequin duck, osprey, peregrine falcon and the trumpeter swan.

 

As wildfire is a natural part of most ecosystems, plants that are indigenous to Yellowstone have adapted in a variety of ways. Douglas-fir have a thick bark which protects the inner section of the tree from most fires. Lodgepole Pines —the most common tree species in the park— generally have cones that are only opened by the heat of fire. Their seeds are held in place by a tough resin, and fire assists in melting the resin, allowing the seeds to disperse. Fire clears out dead and downed wood, providing fewer obstacles for lodgepole pines to flourish. Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Whitebark Pine, and other species tend to grow in colder and moister areas, where fire is less likely to occur. Aspen trees sprout new growth from their roots, and even if a severe fire kills the tree above ground, the roots often survive unharmed because they are insulated from the heat by soil. The National Park Service estimates that in natural conditions, grasslands in Yellowstone burned an average of every 20 to 25 years, while forests in the park would experience fire about every 300 years.

 

About thirty-five natural forest fires are ignited each year by lightning, while another six to ten are started by people— in most cases by accident. Yellowstone National Park has three fire lookout towers, each staffed by trained fire fighters. The easiest one to reach is atop Mount Washburn, though it is closed to the public. The park also monitors fire from the air and relies on visitor reports of smoke and/or flames. Fire towers are staffed almost continuously from late June to mid-September— the primary fire season. Fires burn with the greatest intensity in the late afternoon and evening. Few fires burn more than 100 acres (40 ha), and the vast majority of fires reach only a little over an acre (0.5 ha) before they burn themselves out. Fire management focuses on monitoring dead and down wood quantities, soil and tree moisture, and the weather, to determine those areas most vulnerable to fire should one ignite. Current policy is to suppress all human caused fires and to evaluate natural fires, examining the benefit or detriment they may pose on the ecosystem. If a fire is considered to be an immediate threat to people and structures, or will burn out of control, then fire suppression is performed.

 

In an effort to minimize the chances of out of control fires and threats to people and structures, park employees do more than just monitor the potential for fire. Controlled burns are prescribed fires which are deliberately started to remove dead timber under conditions which allow fire fighters an opportunity to carefully control where and how much wood is consumed. Natural fires are sometimes considered prescribed fires if they are left to burn. In Yellowstone, unlike some other parks, there have been very few fires deliberately started by employees as prescribed burns. However, over the last 30 years, over 300 natural fires have been allowed to burn naturally. In addition, fire fighters remove dead and down wood and other hazards from areas where they will be a potential fire threat to lives and property, reducing the chances of fire danger in these areas. Fire monitors also regulate fire through educational services to the public and have been known to temporarily ban campfires from campgrounds during periods of high fire danger. The common notion in early United States land management policies was that all forest fires were bad. Fire was seen as a purely destructive force and there was little understanding that it was an integral part of the ecosystem. Consequently, until the 1970s, when a better understanding of wildfire was developed, all fires were suppressed. This led to an increase in dead and dying forests, which would later provide the fuel load for fires that would be much harder, and in some cases, impossible to control. Fire Management Plans were implemented, detailing that natural fires should be allowed to burn if they posed no immediate threat to lives and property.

 

1988 started with a wet spring season although by summer, drought began moving in throughout the northern Rockies, creating the driest year on record to that point. Grasses and plants which grew well in the early summer from the abundant spring moisture produced plenty of grass, which soon turned to dry tinder. The National Park Service began firefighting efforts to keep the fires under control, but the extreme drought made suppression difficult. Between July 15 and 21, 1988, fires quickly spread from 8,500 acres (3,400 ha; 13.3 sq mi) throughout the entire Yellowstone region, which included areas outside the park, to 99,000 acres (40,000 ha; 155 sq mi) on the park land alone. By the end of the month, the fires were out of control. Large fires burned together, and on August 20, 1988, the single worst day of the fires, more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) were consumed. Seven large fires were responsible for 95% of the 793,000 acres (321,000 ha; 1,239 sq mi) that were burned over the next couple of months. A total of 25,000 firefighters and U.S. military forces participated in the suppression efforts, at a cost of 120 million dollars. By the time winter brought snow that helped extinguish the last flames, the fires had destroyed 67 structures and caused several million dollars in damage. Though no civilian lives were lost, two personnel associated with the firefighting efforts were killed.

 

Contrary to media reports and speculation at the time, the fires killed very few park animals— surveys indicated that only about 345 elk (of an estimated 40,000–50,000), 36 deer, 12 moose, 6 black bears, and 9 bison had perished. Changes in fire management policies were implemented by land management agencies throughout the United States, based on knowledge gained from the 1988 fires and the evaluation of scientists and experts from various fields. By 1992, Yellowstone had adopted a new fire management plan which observed stricter guidelines for the management of natural fires.

 

from Wikipedia

  

The German Type 212 class, is a highly advanced design of non-nuclear submarine developed by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW) for the German and Italian Navies. It features diesel propulsion and an additional air-independent propulsion (AIP) system using Siemens proton exchange membrane (PEM) compressed hydrogen fuel cells. The submarine can operate at high speed on diesel power or switch to the AIP system for silent slow cruising, staying submerged for up to three weeks without surfacing and with no exhaust heat. The system is also said to be vibration-free, extremely quiet and virtually undetectable.

 

Type 212 is the first fuel cell propulsion system equipped submarine series.

 

Builders: Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) Kiel Germany.

 

Name U-34

Laid down December 2001

Launched July 2006

Commissioned 3 May 2007

 

On the Clyde for Joint Warrior 2016-1

Joint Warrior is a UK tri-Service multinational exercise that involves numerous warships, aircraft, marines and troops.

Dashed off to a dark site last night for what might be the last shot at Neowise before we get socked in by weather and it departs. Barely cleared enough to slip in 17 min. of 30 sec. exposures. Stacking is just a standard star stack. I worked up a comet only stack but there was no obvious difference. I think it is bright enough to saturate a short series of frames and make the relative motion undetectable. Shot with a William Optics Redcat and Canon Ra, cropped for target and to eliminate most of the annoying clouds.

NGC 2146 is a disrupted barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Camelopardalis. It was discovered in 1876 by German astronomer Friedrich Winnecke, who was known for his work on comets, asteroids, and double stars. The galaxy is classified as SB(s)ab pec, indicating a barred spiral galaxy with tightly wound arms, and no ring around the central bulge. The "pec" descriptor refers to the "peculiar" appearance of the spiral arms, one of which is markedly stretched and inclined to the galactic plane by nearly 45*. Very high star formation rate (SFR) and densities within both spiral arms resembling large stellar trails suggest the galaxy recently merged with one or two substantial dwarf satellites, and is presently reforming into a larger object. Some sources suggest that NGC 2146 may have interacted with a nearby small galaxy, NGC 2146a, however that seems unlikely because the small galaxy's spiral structure appears quite well preserved. Aside from its disrupted aspect and starburst activity, NGC 2146 is also distinctive due to its conspicuous dust lanes extending across the background glow of the galactic core. Spectroscopy of the central region reveals widening of spectral lines. This indicates a high velocity dispersion of the stars in the nucleus due to the presence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Absence of an active galactic nucleus means thet the central SMBH is not presently accreting matter.

 

Assuming its measured redshift of 0.00298 is caused exclusively by the expansion of space (Hubble Flow), NGC 2146 would lie at a distance of 41.3 Mly. However, the median value of 16 redshift-independent distance measurements is 17.40 Mpc, or 56.72 Mly. The two distance estimates differ because the measured redshift actually results from the combined motion due to Hubble Flow and the object's "peculiar velocity" through space. When available in a statistically valid number of measurements, redshift-independent estimates are generally regarded as more accurate for nearby galaxies, closer than approximately 140 Mly. From the apparent magnitude and angular size, accepting the distance of 56.72 Mly, we can derive the galaxy's actual diameter of 97,000 ly and absolute magnitude of -20.64. NGC 2146 is some 20-30% smaller, and about 15% less bright than the Milky Way.

 

Chandra CXC HIPS X-ray sky survey (SIMBAD) shows numerous X-ray sources within the NGC 2146 core, in the spiral arms, and in its halo. While it is possible that some of the sources may be local to the Milky Way, clustering of the sources around NGC 2146 suggests that most are of extragalactic origin.

 

The most common mechanism for X-ray emission in astronomical objects involves very hot ionized gases at temperatures of millions to hundreds of millions Kelvin (K). Stellar coronas, especially in young blue giants, emit X-rays, though they are regarded as relatively weak sources. Stronger emissions come from "X-ray binaries", "cataclysmic variable stars", supernova remnants, and hot gas clouds around stellar nurseries. Still stronger localized X-ray emissions are "ultra-luminous X-ray sources" or ULX. These are produced by actively accreting intermediate mass black holes (IMBH), usually identified in galactic disks, and by central supermassive black holes (SMBH) which define "active galactic nuclei" (AGN). By far the most powerful, but very diffuse, sources of X-rays are galaxy clusters.

 

While it is logical to expect numerous X-ray emissions in an actively merging starburst galaxy with accelerated stellar evolution, NGC 2146 has no identified ultra-luminous X-ray sources and no active galactic nucleus. This does not imply the galaxy contains no intermediate or supermassive black holes, but merely that they are not actively accreting.

 

On closer inspection, the attached image records a number of small, faint background galaxies, but only two of these have identifiers associated with measurable data. Based on a subjective estimate of their angular size and apparent brightness, the rest probably lie at approximate distances between 1 and 2 Bly. The image also records a single quasar (QSO) at a light travel distance (lookback time) of 9.2 Bly.

 

The distinctly blue galaxy Gaia DR3 1140883127890416128 may belong to a class of special objects: "Blue Compact Dwarf" galaxies (BCDs), which are field dwarf galaxies with inexplicably high star formation rates. BCDs are rare local versions of the "Faint Blue Galaxies" (FBGs), the most common galaxy type at redshifts between 0.1 and 2, but which are undetectable with small instruments. I estimate the apparent magnitude of this object around 20.5 and angular size at 0.15 arcmin. Unfortunately, no redshift information or color photometry is available in extragalactic databases, and the suspected nature of this galaxy can not be confirmed. For additional details on BCDs and FBGs please see section 32, Dwarf Galaxies, subsections 6 and 7 here:

www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...

  

Image Details:

Remote Takahashi TOA 150x1105 mm

OSC 31x300 sec, 2x drizzle, 40% linear crop, 26x17'

Software:

DSS, XnView, StarNet++ v2, StarTools v1.8

Extragalactic Cosmological Calculator v2

www.cloudynights.com/gallery/image/123530-extragalactic-c...

  

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Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

NAe São Paulo is a Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier currently in service with the Brazilian Navy. São Paulo was first commissioned in 1963 by the French Navy as Foch and was transferred in 2000 to Brazil, where she became the new flagship of the Brazilian Navy. In December 2014 it was announced that São Paulo will be expected to continue active service until 2039, at which time the vessel will be nearly 80 years old.

 

From this carrier, the Marinha do Brasil operates its only fixed-wing aircraft, and these were initially A-4 Skyhawks. In 1997 Brazil negotiated a $70 million contract for purchase of 20 A-4KU and three TA-4KU Skyhawks from Kuwait. The Kuwaiti Skyhawks, modified A-4Ms and TA-4Js delivered in 1977, were among the last of those models built by Douglas. The Kuwaiti Skyhawks were selected by Brazil because of low flight time, excellent physical condition, and a favorable price tag. The Brazilian Navy Re-designated AF-1 and AF-1A Falcões (Hawks), the ex-Kuwaiti Skyhawks arrived in Arraial do Cabo on 5 September 1998.

 

Anyway, the Skyhawks' life span was limited and in 2005 the Brazilian Navy started looking for a potential replacement, while the AF-1s were to kept operational due to limited military budgets. On 14 April 2009, Brazlian aircraft manufacturer EMBRAER signed a contract to modernize 12 Skyhawks, nine AF-1s (single-seat) and three AF-1As (two-seat). This upgrade will restore the operating capacity of the Navy 1st Intercept and Attack Plane Squadron (VF-1). The program includes restoring the aircraft and their current systems, as well as implementing new avionics, radar, power production, and autonomous oxygen generating systems. The first of the 12 modified Skyhawks was delivered on 27 May 2015. EMBRAER stated that the modifications would allow the aircraft to remain operational until 2025, by which time a successor was to be fully operational.

 

Several replacement candidates were evaluated under Brazil's F-X2 fighter program together with the Air Force which was looking to replace its Northrop F‐5EM and Dassault Mirage 2000C aircraft. In October 2008, Brazil selected three finalists: the Dassault Rafale, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, and the SAAB JAS 39 Gripen. The Brazilian Air Force initially planned to procure at least 36 and possibly up to 120 aircraft later, while the Brazilian Navy was looking for 24 aircraft (20 single seater and 4 two-seaters with dual controls) until 2025.

 

In February 2009, SAAB submitted a tender, and on 5 January 2010, reports claimed that the final evaluation report placed the Gripen ahead of other contenders; the decisive factor was reportedly lower unit and operational costs, the most compact size and the Swedish manufacturer's willingness to accept EMBRAER as a technological partner for the aircraft's further development, especially for the navalized version.

 

Amid delays due to financial constraints, President Dilma Rousseff announced in December 2011 the Gripen NG's selection and the start of a joint Swedish-Brazilian joint venture called SABRA. Argentina and Ecuador were interested in procuring Gripens from or through Brazil, and Mexico and Argenitina were potential export targets for SABRA's navalized Gripen derivative that was tailored to the Marinha do Brasil's needs.

 

The respective SABRA aircraft was appropriately christened "Grifo" and the development of thei 4th generation fighter started immediately after closing the cooperation deal in 2011. While based on the SAAB 39, the Grifo became a very different aircraft, due to several factors. The major influence was the carrier operation capability, which called for major structural modifications and enforcements as well as special equipment like foldable wings, a strengthened landing gear, an arrester hook and a new engine that would better cope with the naval environment than the Swedish RM 12 engine, a derivative of the General Electric F404-400.

 

Additionally, the mission focus of air superiority with additional attack capabilities was reversed, and the need for excellent low speed handling for carrier approaches was requested.

 

This led to a complelety different aircraft layout, with the SAAB 39's instable canard design being changed into a conservative aircraft with conventional tailplanes. The nose section was shortened in order to provide the pilot with a better field of view, while the more powerful F414-EPE afterburning turbofan was moved slightly forward due to CG reasons, resulting in a slightly shortened rear fuselage.

 

A mock-up of the new aircraft for the Brazlian Navy was presented and approved in early 2012, and the government placed an official order for two prototypes. Even though the Grifo appeared like a completely different aircraft, it shared a lot of elements with the SAAB 39, so that development time and costs could be reduced to a minimum - and the first prototype, internally designated EMB 391-001, made its maiden flight in early 2013. The second aircraft followed 3 months later.

 

The Grifo's equipment includes an AN/APG-79 active electronically scanned array (AESA), capable of executing simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks, and providing higher quality high-resolution ground mapping at long standoff ranges. The AESA radar can also detect smaller targets, such as inbound missiles, and can track air targets beyond the range of the aircraft's air-to-air missiles, which include the AIM-9 Sidewinder for close range and the AIM-120 AMRAAM for medium range.

 

The Grifo features, like the Gripen fighter, an advanced and integrated electronic warfare suite, capable of operating in an undetectable passive mode or to actively jam hostile radar; a missile approach warning system passively detects and tracks incoming missiles.

 

The Grifo can be tailored to specific missions through external sensor pods, e .g. for reconnaissance and target designation. These include Rafael's LITENING targeting pod, Saab's Modular Reconnaissance Pod System or Thales' Digital Joint Reconnaissance Pod. On the Brazilian Navy's request the Grifo is also designed that it can be equipped with an aerial refueling system (ARS) or "buddy store" for the refueling of other aircraft, filling the tactical airborne tanker role.

 

The two prototypes completed a thorough test program until summer 2015 and subsequently went on a sales tour in South America and Asia. In the meantime, serial production started at EMBRAER's Gavião Peixoto in November 2015. The first serial machines, now officially designated AF-2A, arrived at the Brazilian Navy's São Pedro da Aldeia air base where a new Intercept and Attack Plane Squadron, VF-2 'Arquieros' (Archers) was founded. The squadron became operational in April 2016 and Grifos embarked on NAe São Paulo for the first time in September 2016, serving alongside the venerable AF-1.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Payload: 5,300 kg (11,700 lb)

Length: 13,54 m (44 ft 4 in)

Wingspan (incl. wing tip launch rails): 8.32 m (27 ft 2 in)

Height: 4.25 m (13 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 30.0 m² (323 ft²)

Empty weight: 6,800 kg[330] (14,990 lb)

Loaded weight: 8,500 kg (18,700 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 14,000 kg (31,000 lb)

Wheel track: 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in)

Powerplant:

1 × General Electric F414-EPE afterburning turbofan with

a dry thrust of 54 kN (12,100 lbf) and 85 kN (19,100 lbf) with afterburner

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 2 (2,204 km/h (1,190 kn; 1,370 mph) at high altitude

Combat radius: 800 km (497 mi, 432 nmi)

Ferry range: 3,200 km (1,983 mi) with drop tanks

Service ceiling: 15,240 m (50,000 ft)

Wing loading: 283 kg/m² (58 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.97

Maximum g-load: +9 g

 

Armament:

1× 27 mm Mauser BK-27 Revolver cannon with 120 rounds

Eight hardpoints (three on each wing and two under fuselage)

for a wide range of guide and unguided ordnance of up to 14,330 lb (6.5 t)

  

The kit and its assembly:

The fictional Grifo is the result of a generic idea of converting a canard layout aircraft like the Saab Viggen into a conventional design. The Viggen was actually a serious candidate, but then I found an Italeri Gripen in the stash without a real purpose (it had been cheap, though), and with Brazil's real world procurement as background, the more conservative Grifo was born.

 

I wanted to use as many OOB Gripen parts as possible, and there are actually only a few external donations involved – with the outlook of converting further Gripens this way. You never know… ;)

 

Work started with the wings, which were cut off of the fuselage shell. Having the landing gear retract into the fuselage (much like the X-29) is a convenient detail of the Gripen, making the wing transplantation easier than on a Viggen where the wells have to be moved, too.

 

The original canard attachment points were faired over/hidden. The pointed Gripen nose with its pitot was cut off and replaced by a shorter, more stocky nose tip - from an F-4 Phantom II IIRC. Once the fuselage was completed, the wings were mounted, closer to the air intakes. This went smoothly, only some gaps on the undersides had to be filled.

 

Once the wings were in place I had to make a decision concerning the stabilizers. Despite the plan to use as many OOB parts as possible I found the OOB canards to be too sharply swept and considered several donation options.

I eventually settled for the most unique option: the stabilizers are actually main wings from a (rather malformed) Italeri/Dragon 1:200 F-117 that comes as a set with the B-2 bomber. A part of the F-117’s fuselage flank was cut off and taken over to the Grifo, too, so that these create ‘muscular’ bulges.

 

The stabilizers were mounted on scratched consoles/trailing wing root extensions that were somewhat inspired by the F-16’s tail design – putting the stabilizers directly onto the fuselage would have looked awkward, and with this solution I was able to extend the Gripen’s BWB-design all along the fuselage. As a side effect these consoles also offered a plausible place for rearward chaff dispensers.

 

The rear fuselage was shortened by 3mm, too – through the shorter nose and the wings further forward, the rest of the aircraft looked rather tail-heavy. While 3mm does not sound much, it helped with overall proportions.

 

The cannon fairing and the OOB pylons were taken over, as well as the cockpit interior. For carrier operations, several details were added, though: folding wing mechanism seams were engraved on the wings and an arrester hook with a fairing added under the tail section, flanked by new stabilizer fins.

 

The landing gear was basically taken OOB, too, but lengthened with styrene inserts for a higher stance: the main struts are now 2mm longer, while the front strut is 3mm taller. The latter was reversed, so that a catapult hook could be added to the front side, and slightly bigger wheels were mounted, too, so that the Grifo now has a rather stalky stance with a nose-up attitude. Simple, but effective!

 

The Sidewinders were taken OOB while the pair of AGM-84 Harpoon comes from Italeri’s 1:72 NATO weapons set.

 

Painting and markings:

I used the contemporary AF-1 paint scheme in three shades of grey as benchmark. These are FS 36187 (RAF Ocean Grey), FS 36307 (Flint Grey) and FS 36515 (Canadian Voodoo Grey) - sourced from a painting guide from Brazilian decal manufacturer FCM and backed by other knowledgeable sources from the region, too. And while the Ocean Grey appears a bit dark, I think that overall the colors are authentic. All paints are Modelmaster enamels.

 

After basic painting a light black ink wash was applied and panels highlighted through dry-brushing with lighter tones.

 

The cockpit interior was painted in Neutral Grey (FS 36173), while the landing gear became all-white.

The Brazilian Navy markings had to be improvised - there are 1:72 AF-1 decals available, but either not obtainable or prohibitively expensive - or both. Therefore I rather improvised, with basic Brazilian Navy markings from a vintage FCM Decal sheet for various Brazilian aircraft.

 

The respective roundels and codes actually belong to helicopters, and I had to wing it somehow. Unfortunately, the old FCM decals turned out to be ...old. Brittle and very delicate, application was already messy and they did not adhere well to the model. To make matters worse the acrylic varnish turned cloudy, so that a lot of paintwork repair had to be done - not helping much with a satisfactory kit finish. :(

  

Another interesting conversion – I am amazed how purposeful the Grifo looks. It reminds me with its high stance of a modern A-4 Skyhawk (what it somehow is), and there’s also some Super Étendard in it, esp. in the profile? At some point before painting it also had a somewhat Chinese look - maybe because the top view and the wing planform reminds of the classic MiG-21…? The wings might have been placed 3-4mm further backwards, since it is always difficult to judge proportions while work is still, but the Grifo looks convincingly like a real aircraft (model).

 

Aeronaves bonita! :D

The stealthy Night Raider prowls the Brikverse to hunt down and disable lost convoys and vulnerable orbital stations. Its shrouded engines and angular design make it nearly undetectable to conventional sensor systems, allowing it to unleash a deadly surprise attack with its multiple cannons and armor-piercing missiles. The Rubrum Crucesignatis has a standing bounty on all Night Raiders, but its uncanny aptitude at hit-and-fade tactics have made it difficult to catch.

 

The Empire of Luchardsko is a cool-looking, if lore-light, faction created by Falk for Brikwars. One of my favorites.

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THESE ARE NOT CUSTARD APPLES

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A common green Sugar Apple and a red 'Kampong Mauve' Sugar Apple have grown on separate branches of a single tree. The tree was a 'Kampong Mauve' Sugar Apple tree before it nearly died from a cold. When the tree came back to life few years later, it grew branches above and below a possible and almost undetectable graft joint.

 

Annona squamosa

Family Annonaceae

The Hurst Grove, Rockledge, Florida, USA.

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The links below can help clarify the widespread confusion about Annona nomenclatures;

 

Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Apple

  

Custard Apple (Annona reticulata)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custard_Apple

  

Cherimoya (Annona cherimola)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya

  

Atemoya (Annona squamosa X Annona cherimola)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atemoya

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Soryu: (Whispering) “No, of course they do not know I am here. My skills are totally awesome. I am invisible and quite undetectable.”

 

“AHEM…”

 

This sweet little dress is a total dream. Teeny tiny rosebud print, puff sleeves, eight pink pearly buttons at the cuff (there is one missing in the middle of the left side), ruffled hem and collar, and scalloped lace at the collar and cuffs. Not to mention the most adorable dolly silhouette ever. Zips in back.

 

No label, appears handmade.

 

As mentioned, one of the eight buttons is missing on the left cuff. Also, there was a green marker mark just below the collar overlay in front when I photographed the dress. Through the miracle of modern chemistry I have almost entirely removed it. It is very, very faint now and, between the faintness and the fact that it just peeks out from under the collar, is virtually undetectable. (My camera lens just broke and it will be a week before I get a new one and can post a picture- but really, it's not even an issue anymore).

 

Taken at historic Empire Mine in Grass Valley, CA, heart of Gold Country.

 

From my blog All In The Golden Afternoon

Deperming, or degaussing, is a procedure for erasing the permanent magnetism from ships and submarines to camouflage them against magnetic detection vessels and enemy marine mines.

 

A sea-going metal-hulled ship or submarine, by its very nature, develops a magnetic signature as it travels due to a magneto-mechanical interaction with the Earth's magnetic field. This signature can be exploited by magnetic mines, or facilitate the detection of a submarine by ships or aircraft with magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) equipment. Navies use the deperming procedure, in conjunction with degaussing, as a countermeasure against this.

 

Specialized deperming facilities, such as the United States Navy's Lambert's Point Deperming Station are used to perform the procedure. Heavy gauge copper cables are wrapped around the hull and superstructure of the vessel, and very high electrical currents (as high as 4000 amps) are pulsed through the cables. This has the effect of "resetting" the ship's magnetic signature. It is also possible to assign a specific signature that is best suited to the particular area of the world in which the ship will operate. Over time the deperm will begin to degrade and the procedure must be redone periodically to maintain the desired effect.

 

During World War II the United States Navy commissioned a specialized class of degaussing ships that were capable of performing this function. One of them, USS Deperm (ADG-10), was named after the procedure.

 

Researcher Jacques Vallée describes a procedure on board the USS Engstrom (DE-50), which was docked alongside the Eldridge in 1943. The operation involved the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field on board the ship in order to deperm or degauss it, with the goal of rendering the ship undetectable or "invisible" to magnetically-fused undersea mines and torpedoes. This system was invented by a Canadian, and the Royal Navy and other navies used it widely during WWII. British ships of the era often included such degaussing systems built into the upper decks (the conduits are still visible on the deck of HMS Belfast (C35) in London, for example). Degaussing is still used today. However, it has absolutely no effect on visible light or radar. Vallée speculates that accounts of the USS Engstrom’s degaussing might have been garbled and confabulated in subsequent retellings, and that these accounts may have influenced the story of the so-called "Philadelphia Experiment".

 

According to Vallée, a Navy veteran who served on board the USS Engstrom noted that the Eldridge might indeed have travelled from Philadelphia to Norfolk and back again in a single day at a time when merchant ships could not: by use of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Chesapeake Bay, which at the time was open only to naval vessels.Use of that channel was kept quiet: German submarines had ravaged shipping along the East Coast during Operation Drumbeat, and thus military ships unable to protect themselves were secretly moved via canals to avoid the threat. It should be noted that this same veteran claims to be the man that Allende witnessed “disappearing” at a bar. He claims that when the fight broke out, friendly barmaids whisked him out the back door of the bar before the police arrived, because he was under age for drinking. They then covered for him by claiming that he had disappeared.

 

The USS Eldridge was not commissioned until August 27, 1943, and it remained in port in New York City until September 1943. The October experiment allegedly took place while the ship was on its first shakedown cruise in the Bahamas, although proponents of the story claim that the ship's logs might have been falsified, or else still be classified.

 

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) stated in September 1996 that "ONR has never conducted investigations on radar invisibility, either in 1943 or at any other time". Pointing out that the ONR was not established until 1946

 

The claims of the Philadelphia experiment contradict the known laws of physics. Magnetic fields cannot bend light waves according to Maxwell's equations. While Einstein's theory of general relativity shows that light waves can be bent near the surface of an extremely massive object such as the sun or a black hole, current human technology cannot manipulate the astronomical amounts of matter needed to do this.

 

No Unified Field Theory currently exists, although it is still a subject of ongoing research. William Moore's book on the "Philadelphia Experiment" claims that Albert Einstein completed, and subsequently destroyed, a theory before his death. Moore bases this on Carl Allen's letter to Jessup in which Allen refers to a conversation between Einstein and Bertrand Russell acknowledging that the theory had been solved, but that man was not ready for it.

 

Also, shortly before his death in 1943, Nikola Tesla supposedly claimed to have completed some kind of a "Unified Field Theory". It was never published.

 

These claims are completely at odds with modern physics. While it is true that Einstein attempted to unify gravity with electromagnetism based on classical physics, his geometric approaches called classical unified field theories ignored the modern developments of quantum theory and the discovery of the strong nuclear force and weak nuclear force. Most physicists consider his overall approach to be unsuccessful. Attempts by recent scientists focus on the development of a quantum theory that includes gravitation. It should be noted however that even if a unified field theory were discovered, it still would not present a practical engineering method to bend light waves around a large object like a battleship.

 

While very limited "invisibility cloaks" have recently been developed using metamaterial, these are unrelated to theories linking electromagnetism with gravity.

Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in nature. Metamaterials usually gain their properties from structure rather than composition, using small inhomogeneities to create effective macroscopic behavior

The story begins in June of 1943, with the Destroyer Escort, U.S.S. Eldridge, DE-173, being fitted with tons of experimental electronic equipment. This included, according to one source, two massive generators of 75 KVA each, mounted where the forward gun turret would have been, distributing their power through four magnetic coils mounted on the deck. Three RF transmitters (2 megawatt CW each, mounted on the deck), three thousand “6L6” power amplifier tubes (used to drive the field coils of the two generators), special synchronizing and modulation circuits, and a host of other specialized hardware were employed to generate massive electromagnetic fields which, when properly configured, would be able to bend light and radio waves around the ship, thus making it invisible to enemy observers.

At 0900 hours, on July 22nd, 1943, the power to the generators was turned on, and the massive electromagnetic fields started to build up. A greenish fog was seen to slowly envelop the ship, concealing it from view. Then the fog itself is said to have disappeared, taking the U.S.S. Eldridge with it, leaving only undisturbed water where the ship had been anchored only moments before.

 

The elite officers of the U.S. Navy and scientists involved gazed in awe at their greatest achievement: the ship and crew were not only radar invisible but invisible to the eye as well! Everything worked as planned, and about fifteen minutes later they ordered the men to shut down the generators. The greenish fog slowly reappeared, and the U.S.S. Eldridge began to re-materialize as the fog subsided, but it was evident to all that something had gone wrong.

 

When boarded by personnel from shore, the crewmembers above decks were disoriented and nauseous. The U.S. Navy removed the crew from that original experiment, and shortly afterward, obtained another crew for a second experiment. In the end, the U.S. Navy decided that they only wanted to achieve radar invisibility, and the equipment was altered.

On the 28th of October in 1943, at 17:15, the final test on the U.S.S. Eldridge was performed. The electromagnetic field generators were turned on again, and the U.S.S. Eldridge became nearly invisible. Only a faint outline of the hull remained visible in the water. Everything was fine for the first few seconds, and then, in a blinding blue flash, the ship completely vanished. Within seconds it reappeared hundreds of miles away, in Norfolk, Virginia, and was seen for several minutes. The U.S.S. Eldridge then disappeared from Norfolk as mysteriously as it had arrived, and reappeared back in Philadelphia Naval Yard. This time most of the sailors were violently sick. Some of the crew were simply “missing” never to return. Some of the crew went crazy. The strangest result of all of this experiment was that five men were found fused to the metal within the ship’s structure.

The men that survived were never the same again. Those that lived were discharged as “mentally unfit” for duty, regardless of their true condition.

community-2.webtv.net/SkyVessel/0time/

Yellowstone National Park (Arapaho: Henihco'oo or Héetíhco'oo) is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone, widely held to be the first national park in the world, is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

 

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone.

 

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the Continental United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

 

The park is located at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, from which it takes its historical name. Near the end of the 18th century, French trappers named the river "Roche Jaune", which is probably a translation of the Hidatsa name "Mi tsi a-da-zi" (Rock Yellow River). Later, American trappers rendered the French name in English as "Yellow Stone". Although it is commonly believed that the river was named for the yellow rocks seen in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Native American name source is not clear.

 

The first detailed expedition to the Yellowstone area was the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition of 1869, which consisted of three privately funded explorers. The Folsom party followed the Yellowstone River to Yellowstone Lake. The members of the Folsom party kept a journal and based on the information it reported, a party of Montana residents organized the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition in 1870. It was headed by the surveyor-general of Montana Henry Washburn, and included Nathaniel P. Langford (who later became known as "National Park" Langford) and a U.S. Army detachment commanded by Lt. Gustavus Doane.

 

The expedition spent about a month exploring the region, collecting specimens and naming sites of interest. A Montana writer and lawyer named Cornelius Hedges, who had been a member of the Washburn expedition, proposed that the region should be set aside and protected as a national park; he wrote a number of detailed articles about his observations for the Helena Herald newspaper between 1870 and 1871. Hedges essentially restated comments made in October 1865 by acting Montana Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher, who had previously commented that the region should be protected. Others made similar suggestions. In an 1871 letter from Jay Cooke to Ferdinand V. Hayden, Cooke wrote that his friend, Congressman William D. Kelley had also suggested "Congress pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park forever".

 

By 1915, 1,000 automobiles per year were entering the park, resulting in conflicts with horses and horse-drawn transportation. Horse travel on roads was eventually prohibited.

 

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal relief agency for young men, played a major role between 1933 and 1942 in developing Yellowstone facilities. CCC projects included reforestation, campground development of many of the park's trails and campgrounds, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, and fire-fighting work. The CCC built the majority of the early visitor centers, campgrounds and the current system of park roads.

 

During World War II, tourist travel fell sharply, staffing was cut, and many facilities fell into disrepair. By the 1950s, visitation increased tremendously in Yellowstone and other national parks. To accommodate the increased visitation, park officials implemented Mission 66, an effort to modernize and expand park service facilities. Planned to be completed by 1966, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service, Mission 66 construction diverged from the traditional log cabin style with design features of a modern style. During the late 1980s, most construction styles in Yellowstone reverted to the more traditional designs. After the enormous forest fires of 1988 damaged much of Grant Village, structures there were rebuilt in the traditional style. The visitor center at Canyon Village, which opened in 2006, incorporates a more traditional design as well.

A large arch made of irregular-shaped natural stone over a road

 

The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake just west of Yellowstone at Hebgen Lake damaged roads and some structures in the park. In the northwest section of the park, new geysers were found, and many existing hot springs became turbid. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in recorded history.

 

In 1963, after several years of public controversy regarding the forced reduction of the elk population in Yellowstone, United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall appointed an advisory board to collect scientific data to inform future wildlife management of the national parks. In a paper known as the Leopold Report, the committee observed that culling programs at other national parks had been ineffective, and recommended management of Yellowstone's elk population.

 

The wildfires during the summer of 1988 were the largest in the history of the park. Approximately 793,880 acres (321,272 ha; 1,240 sq mi) or 36% of the parkland was impacted by the fires, leading to a systematic re-evaluation of fire management policies. The fire season of 1988 was considered normal until a combination of drought and heat by mid-July contributed to an extreme fire danger. On "Black Saturday", August 20, 1988, strong winds expanded the fires rapidly, and more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) burned.

 

The expansive cultural history of the park has been documented by the 1,000 archeological sites that have been discovered. The park has 1,106 historic structures and features, and of these Obsidian Cliff and five buildings have been designated National Historic Landmarks. Yellowstone was designated an International Biosphere Reserve on October 26, 1976, and a UN World Heritage Site on September 8, 1978. The park was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 1995 to 2003 due to the effects of tourism, infection of wildlife, and issues with invasive species. In 2010, Yellowstone National Park was honored with its own quarter under the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.

Heritage and Research Center

 

The Heritage and Research Center is located at Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance to the park. The center is home to the Yellowstone National Park's museum collection, archives, research library, historian, archeology lab, and herbarium. The Yellowstone National Park Archives maintain collections of historical records of Yellowstone and the National Park Service. The collection includes the administrative records of Yellowstone, as well as resource management records, records from major projects, and donated manuscripts and personal papers. The archives are affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration.

 

Approximately 96 percent of the land area of Yellowstone National Park is located within the state of Wyoming. Another three percent is within Montana, with the remaining one percent in Idaho. The park is 63 miles (101 km) north to south, and 54 miles (87 km) west to east by air. Yellowstone is 2,219,789 acres (898,317 ha; 3,468.420 sq mi) in area, larger than the states of Rhode Island or Delaware. Rivers and lakes cover five percent of the land area, with the largest water body being Yellowstone Lake at 87,040 acres (35,220 ha; 136.00 sq mi). Yellowstone Lake is up to 400 feet (120 m) deep and has 110 miles (180 km) of shoreline. At an elevation of 7,733 feet (2,357 m) above sea level, Yellowstone Lake is the largest high altitude lake in North America. Forests comprise 80 percent of the land area of the park; most of the rest is grassland.

 

The Continental Divide of North America runs diagonally through the southwestern part of the park. The divide is a topographic feature that separates Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean water drainages. About one third of the park lies on the west side of the divide. The origins of the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers are near each other but on opposite sides of the divide. As a result, the waters of the Snake River flow to the Pacific Ocean, while those of the Yellowstone find their way to the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The park sits on the Yellowstone Plateau, at an average elevation of 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. The plateau is bounded on nearly all sides by mountain ranges of the Middle Rocky Mountains, which range from 9,000 to 11,000 feet (2,700 to 3,400 m) in elevation. The highest point in the park is atop Eagle Peak (11,358 feet or 3,462 metres) and the lowest is along Reese Creek (5,282 feet or 1,610 metres). Nearby mountain ranges include the Gallatin Range to the northwest, the Beartooth Mountains in the north, the Absaroka Range to the east, and the Teton Range and the Madison Range to the southwest and west. The most prominent summit on the Yellowstone Plateau is Mount Washburn at 10,243 feet (3,122 m).

 

Yellowstone National Park has one of the world's largest petrified forests, trees which were long ago buried by ash and soil and transformed from wood to mineral materials. This ash and other volcanic debris, are believed to have come from the park area itself. This is largely due to the fact that Yellowstone is actually a massive caldera of a supervolcano. There are 290 waterfalls of at least 15 feet (4.6 m) in the park, the highest being the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River at 308 feet (94 m).

 

Three deep canyons are located in the park, cut through the volcanic tuff of the Yellowstone Plateau by rivers over the last 640,000 years. The Lewis River flows through Lewis Canyon in the south, and the Yellowstone River has carved two colorful canyons, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone in its journey north.

 

Yellowstone is at the northeastern end of the Snake River Plain, a great U-shaped arc through the mountains that extends from Boise, Idaho some 400 miles (640 km) to the west. This feature traces the route of the North American Plate over the last 17 million years as it was transported by plate tectonics across a stationary mantle hotspot. The landscape of present-day Yellowstone National Park is the most recent manifestation of this hotspot below the crust of the Earth.

 

The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 37 miles (60 km) long, 18 miles (29 km) wide, and 3 to 7 miles (5 to 12 km) deep. The current caldera was created by a cataclysmic eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago, which released more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 km³) of ash, rock and pyroclastic materials. This eruption was more than 1,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It produced a caldera nearly five eighths of a mile (1 km) deep and 45 by 28 miles (72 by 45 km) in area and deposited the Lava Creek Tuff, a welded tuff geologic formation. The most violent known eruption, which occurred 2.1 million years ago, ejected 588 cubic miles (2,450 km³) of volcanic material and created the rock formation known as the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff and created the Island Park Caldera. A smaller eruption ejected 67 cubic miles (280 km³) of material 1.3 million years ago, forming the Henry's Fork Caldera and depositing the Mesa Falls Tuff.

 

Each of the three climactic eruptions released vast amounts of ash that blanketed much of central North America, falling many hundreds of miles away. The amount of ash and gases released into the atmosphere probably caused significant impacts to world weather patterns and led to the extinction of some species, primarily in North America.

Wooden walkways allow visitors to closely approach the Grand Prismatic Spring.

 

A subsequent caldera-forming eruption occurred about 160,000 years ago. It formed the relatively small caldera that contains the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. Since the last supereruption, a series of smaller eruptive cycles between 640,000 and 70,000 years ago, has nearly filled in the Yellowstone Caldera with >80 different eruptions of rhyolitic lavas such as those that can be seen at Obsidian Cliffs and basaltic lavas which can be viewed at Sheepeater Cliff. Lava strata are most easily seen at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where the Yellowstone River continues to carve into the ancient lava flows. The canyon is a classic V-shaped valley, indicative of river-type erosion rather than erosion caused by glaciation.

 

Each eruption is part of an eruptive cycle that climaxes with the partial collapse of the roof of the volcano's partially emptied magma chamber. This creates a collapsed depression, called a caldera, and releases vast amounts of volcanic material, usually through fissures that ring the caldera. The time between the last three cataclysmic eruptions in the Yellowstone area has ranged from 600,000 to 800,000 years, but the small number of such climactic eruptions cannot be used to make an accurate prediction for future volcanic events.

 

The most famous geyser in the park, and perhaps the world, is Old Faithful Geyser, located in Upper Geyser Basin. Castle Geyser, Lion Geyser and Beehive Geyser are in the same basin. The park contains the largest active geyser in the world—Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin. A study that was completed in 2011 found that at least 1283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone. Of these, an average of 465 are active in a given year. Yellowstone contains at least 10,000 geothermal features altogether. Half the geothermal features and two-thirds of the world's geysers are concentrated in Yellowstone.

 

In May 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park, and the University of Utah created the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), a partnership for long-term monitoring of the geological processes of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, for disseminating information concerning the potential hazards of this geologically active region.

 

In 2003, changes at the Norris Geyser Basin resulted in the temporary closure of some trails in the basin. New fumaroles were observed, and several geysers showed enhanced activity and increasing water temperatures. Several geysers became so hot that they were transformed into purely steaming features; the water had become superheated and they could no longer erupt normally. This coincided with the release of reports of a multiple year United States Geological Survey research project which mapped the bottom of Yellowstone Lake and identified a structural dome that had uplifted at some time in the past. Research indicated that these uplifts posed no immediate threat of a volcanic eruption, since they may have developed long ago, and there had been no temperature increase found near the uplifts. On March 10, 2004, a biologist discovered 5 dead bison which apparently had inhaled toxic geothermal gases trapped in the Norris Geyser Basin by a seasonal atmospheric inversion. This was closely followed by an upsurge of earthquake activity in April 2004. In 2006, it was reported that the Mallard Lake Dome and the Sour Creek Dome— areas that have long been known to show significant changes in their ground movement— had risen at a rate of 1.5 to 2.4 inches (3.8 to 6.1 cm) per year from mid–2004 through 2006. As of late 2007, the uplift has continued at a reduced rate. These events inspired a great deal of media attention and speculation about the geologic future of the region. Experts responded to the conjecture by informing the public that there was no increased risk of a volcanic eruption in the near future. However, these changes demonstrate the dynamic nature of the Yellowstone hydrothermal system.

 

Yellowstone experiences thousands of small earthquakes every year, virtually all of which are undetectable to people. There have been six earthquakes with at least magnitude 6 or greater in historical times, including a 7.5‑magnitude quake that struck just outside the northwest boundary of the park in 1959. This quake triggered a huge landslide, which caused a partial dam collapse on Hebgen Lake; immediately downstream, the sediment from the landslide dammed the river and created a new lake, known as Earthquake Lake. Twenty-eight people were killed, and property damage was extensive in the immediate region. The earthquake caused some geysers in the northwestern section of the park to erupt, large cracks in the ground formed and emitted steam, and some hot springs that normally have clear water turned muddy. A 6.1‑magnitude earthquake struck inside the park on June 30, 1975, but damage was minimal.

 

For three months in 1985, 3,000 minor earthquakes were detected in the northwestern section of the park, during what has been referred to as an earthquake swarm, and has been attributed to minor subsidence of the Yellowstone caldera. Beginning on April 30, 2007, 16 small earthquakes with magnitudes up to 2.7 occurred in the Yellowstone Caldera for several days. These swarms of earthquakes are common, and there have been 70 such swarms between 1983 and 2008. In December 2008, over 250 earthquakes were measured over a four-day span under Yellowstone Lake, the largest measuring a magnitude of 3.9. In January 2010, more than 250 earthquakes were detected over a two-day period. Seismic activity in Yellowstone National Park continues and is reported hourly by the Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

On March 30, 2014, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck almost the very middle of Yellowstone near the Norris Basin at 6.34am; reports indicated no damage. This was the biggest earthquake to hit the park since February 22, 1980.

 

Over 1,700 species of trees and other vascular plants are native to the park. Another 170 species are considered to be exotic species and are non-native. Of the eight conifer tree species documented, Lodgepole Pine forests cover 80% of the total forested areas. Other conifers, such as Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir and Whitebark Pine, are found in scattered groves throughout the park. As of 2007, the whitebark pine is threatened by a fungus known as white pine blister rust; however, this is mostly confined to forests well to the north and west. In Yellowstone, about seven percent of the whitebark pine species have been impacted with the fungus, compared to nearly complete infestations in northwestern Montana. Quaking Aspen and willows are the most common species of deciduous trees. The aspen forests have declined significantly since the early 20th century, but scientists at Oregon State University attribute recent recovery of the aspen to the reintroduction of wolves which has changed the grazing habits of local elk.

 

There are dozens of species of flowering plants that have been identified, most of which bloom between the months of May and September. The Yellowstone Sand Verbena is a rare flowering plant found only in Yellowstone. It is closely related to species usually found in much warmer climates, making the sand verbena an enigma. The estimated 8,000 examples of this rare flowering plant all make their home in the sandy soils on the shores of Yellowstone Lake, well above the waterline.

 

In Yellowstone's hot waters, bacteria form mats of bizarre shapes consisting of trillions of individuals. These bacteria are some of the most primitive life forms on earth. Flies and other arthropods live on the mats, even in the middle of the bitterly cold winters. Initially, scientists thought that microbes there gained sustenance only from sulfur. In 2005 researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered that the sustenance for at least some of the diverse hyperthermophilic species is molecular hydrogen.

 

Thermus aquaticus is a bacterium found in the Yellowstone hot springs that produces an important enzyme (Taq polymerase) that is easily replicated in the lab and is useful in replicating DNA as part of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process. The retrieval of these bacteria can be achieved with no impact to the ecosystem. Other bacteria in the Yellowstone hot springs may also prove useful to scientists who are searching for cures for various diseases.

 

Non-native plants sometimes threaten native species by using up nutrient resources. Though exotic species are most commonly found in areas with the greatest human visitation, such as near roads and at major tourist areas, they have also spread into the backcountry. Generally, most exotic species are controlled by pulling the plants out of the soil or by spraying, both of which are time consuming and expensive.

  

Yellowstone is widely considered to be the finest megafauna wildlife habitat in the lower 48 states. There are almost 60 species of mammals in the park, including the gray wolf, the threatened lynx, and grizzly bears. Other large mammals include the bison (often referred to as buffalo), black bear, elk, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion.

Bison graze near a hot spring

 

The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the largest public herd of American bison in the United States. The relatively large bison populations are a concern for ranchers, who fear that the species can transmit bovine diseases to their domesticated cousins. In fact, about half of Yellowstone's bison have been exposed to brucellosis, a bacterial disease that came to North America with European cattle that may cause cattle to miscarry. The disease has little effect on park bison, and no reported case of transmission from wild bison to domestic livestock has been filed. However, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has stated that bison are the "likely source" of the spread of the disease in cattle in Wyoming and North Dakota. Elk also carry the disease and are believed to have transmitted the infection to horses and cattle. Bison once numbered between 30 and 60 million individuals throughout North America, and Yellowstone remains one of their last strongholds. Their populations had increased from less than 50 in the park in 1902 to 4,000 by 2003. The Yellowstone Park bison herd reached a peak in 2005 with 4,900 animals. Despite a summer estimated population of 4,700 in 2007, the number dropped to 3,000 in 2008 after a harsh winter and controversial brucellosis management sending hundreds to slaughter. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Henry Mountains bison herd of Utah, at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota and on Elk Island in Alberta.

Elk Mother Nursing Her Calf

 

To combat the perceived threat of brucellosis transmission to cattle, national park personnel regularly harass bison herds back into the park when they venture outside of the area's borders. During the winter of 1996–97, the bison herd was so large that 1,079 bison that had exited the park were shot or sent to slaughter. Animal rights activists argue that this is a cruel practice and that the possibility for disease transmission is not as great as some ranchers maintain. Ecologists point out that the bison are merely traveling to seasonal grazing areas that lie within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that have been converted to cattle grazing, some of which are within National Forests and are leased to private ranchers. APHIS has stated that with vaccinations and other means, brucellosis can be eliminated from the bison and elk herds throughout Yellowstone.

A reintroduced northwestern wolf in Yellowstone National Park

 

Starting in 1914, in an effort to protect elk populations, the U.S. Congress appropriated funds to be used for the purposes of "destroying wolves, prairie dogs, and other animals injurious to agriculture and animal husbandry" on public lands. Park Service hunters carried out these orders, and by 1926 they had killed 136 wolves, and wolves were virtually eliminated from Yellowstone. Further exterminations continued until the National Park Service ended the practice in 1935. With the passing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the wolf was one of the first mammal species listed. After the wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone, the coyote then became the park's top canine predator. However, the coyote is not able to bring down large animals, and the result of this lack of a top predator on these populations was a marked increase in lame and sick megafauna.

Bison in Yellowstone National Park

 

By the 1990s, the Federal government had reversed its views on wolves. In a controversial decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which oversees threatened and endangered species), northwestern wolves, imported from Canada, were reintroduced into the park. Reintroduction efforts have been successful with populations remaining relatively stable. A survey conducted in 2005 reported that there were 13 wolf packs, totaling 118 individuals in Yellowstone and 326 in the entire ecosystem. These park figures were lower than those reported in 2004 but may be attributable to wolf migration to other nearby areas as suggested by the substantial increase in the Montana population during that interval. Almost all the wolves documented were descended from the 66 wolves reintroduced in 1995–96. The recovery of populations throughout the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho has been so successful that on February 27, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population from the endangered species list.

 

An estimated 600 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with more than half of the population living within Yellowstone. The grizzly is currently listed as a threatened species, however the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that they intend to take it off the endangered species list for the Yellowstone region but will likely keep it listed in areas where it has not yet recovered fully. Opponents of delisting the grizzly are concerned that states might once again allow hunting and that better conservation measures need to be implemented to ensure a sustainable population. Black bears are common in the park and were a park symbol due to visitor interaction with the bears starting in 1910. Feeding and close contact with bears has not been permitted since the 1960s to reduce their desire for human foods. Yellowstone is one of the few places in the United States where black bears can be seen coexisting with grizzly bears. Black bear observations occur most often in the park's northern ranges and in the Bechler area which is in the park's southwestern corner.

 

Population figures for elk are in excess of 30,000—the largest population of any large mammal species in Yellowstone. The northern herd has decreased enormously since the mid‑1990s; this has been attributed to wolf predation and causal effects such as elk using more forested regions to evade predation, consequently making it harder for researchers to accurately count them. The northern herd migrates west into southwestern Montana in the winter. The southern herd migrates southward, and the majority of these elk winter on the National Elk Refuge, immediately southeast of Grand Teton National Park. The southern herd migration is the largest mammalian migration remaining in the U.S. outside of Alaska.

 

In 2003 the tracks of one female lynx and her cub were spotted and followed for over 2 miles (3.2 km). Fecal material and other evidence obtained were tested and confirmed to be those of a lynx. No visual confirmation was made, however. Lynx have not been seen in Yellowstone since 1998, though DNA taken from hair samples obtained in 2001 confirmed that lynx were at least transient to the park. Other less commonly seen mammals include the mountain lion and wolverine. The mountain lion has an estimated population of only 25 individuals parkwide. The wolverine is another rare park mammal, and accurate population figures for this species are not known. These uncommon and rare mammals provide insight into the health of protected lands such as Yellowstone and help managers make determinations as to how best to preserve habitats.

 

Eighteen species of fish live in Yellowstone, including the core range of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout—a fish highly sought by anglers. The Yellowstone cutthroat trout has faced several threats since the 1980s, including the suspected illegal introduction into Yellowstone Lake of lake trout, an invasive species which consume the smaller cutthroat trout. Although lake trout were established in Shoshone and Lewis lakes in the Snake River drainage from U.S. Government stocking operations in 1890, it was never officially introduced into the Yellowstone River drainage. The cutthroat trout has also faced an ongoing drought, as well as the accidental introduction of a parasite—whirling disease—which causes a terminal nervous system disease in younger fish. Since 2001, all native sport fish species caught in Yellowstone waterways are subject to a catch and release law. Yellowstone is also home to six species of reptiles, such as the painted turtle and Prairie rattlesnake, and four species of amphibians, including the Boreal Chorus Frog.

 

311 species of birds have been reported, almost half of which nest in Yellowstone. As of 1999, twenty-six pairs of nesting bald eagles have been documented. Extremely rare sightings of whooping cranes have been recorded, however only three examples of this species are known to live in the Rocky Mountains, out of 385 known worldwide. Other birds, considered to be species of special concern because of their rarity in Yellowstone, include the common loon, harlequin duck, osprey, peregrine falcon and the trumpeter swan.

 

As wildfire is a natural part of most ecosystems, plants that are indigenous to Yellowstone have adapted in a variety of ways. Douglas-fir have a thick bark which protects the inner section of the tree from most fires. Lodgepole Pines —the most common tree species in the park— generally have cones that are only opened by the heat of fire. Their seeds are held in place by a tough resin, and fire assists in melting the resin, allowing the seeds to disperse. Fire clears out dead and downed wood, providing fewer obstacles for lodgepole pines to flourish. Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Whitebark Pine, and other species tend to grow in colder and moister areas, where fire is less likely to occur. Aspen trees sprout new growth from their roots, and even if a severe fire kills the tree above ground, the roots often survive unharmed because they are insulated from the heat by soil. The National Park Service estimates that in natural conditions, grasslands in Yellowstone burned an average of every 20 to 25 years, while forests in the park would experience fire about every 300 years.

 

About thirty-five natural forest fires are ignited each year by lightning, while another six to ten are started by people— in most cases by accident. Yellowstone National Park has three fire lookout towers, each staffed by trained fire fighters. The easiest one to reach is atop Mount Washburn, though it is closed to the public. The park also monitors fire from the air and relies on visitor reports of smoke and/or flames. Fire towers are staffed almost continuously from late June to mid-September— the primary fire season. Fires burn with the greatest intensity in the late afternoon and evening. Few fires burn more than 100 acres (40 ha), and the vast majority of fires reach only a little over an acre (0.5 ha) before they burn themselves out. Fire management focuses on monitoring dead and down wood quantities, soil and tree moisture, and the weather, to determine those areas most vulnerable to fire should one ignite. Current policy is to suppress all human caused fires and to evaluate natural fires, examining the benefit or detriment they may pose on the ecosystem. If a fire is considered to be an immediate threat to people and structures, or will burn out of control, then fire suppression is performed.

 

In an effort to minimize the chances of out of control fires and threats to people and structures, park employees do more than just monitor the potential for fire. Controlled burns are prescribed fires which are deliberately started to remove dead timber under conditions which allow fire fighters an opportunity to carefully control where and how much wood is consumed. Natural fires are sometimes considered prescribed fires if they are left to burn. In Yellowstone, unlike some other parks, there have been very few fires deliberately started by employees as prescribed burns. However, over the last 30 years, over 300 natural fires have been allowed to burn naturally. In addition, fire fighters remove dead and down wood and other hazards from areas where they will be a potential fire threat to lives and property, reducing the chances of fire danger in these areas. Fire monitors also regulate fire through educational services to the public and have been known to temporarily ban campfires from campgrounds during periods of high fire danger. The common notion in early United States land management policies was that all forest fires were bad. Fire was seen as a purely destructive force and there was little understanding that it was an integral part of the ecosystem. Consequently, until the 1970s, when a better understanding of wildfire was developed, all fires were suppressed. This led to an increase in dead and dying forests, which would later provide the fuel load for fires that would be much harder, and in some cases, impossible to control. Fire Management Plans were implemented, detailing that natural fires should be allowed to burn if they posed no immediate threat to lives and property.

 

1988 started with a wet spring season although by summer, drought began moving in throughout the northern Rockies, creating the driest year on record to that point. Grasses and plants which grew well in the early summer from the abundant spring moisture produced plenty of grass, which soon turned to dry tinder. The National Park Service began firefighting efforts to keep the fires under control, but the extreme drought made suppression difficult. Between July 15 and 21, 1988, fires quickly spread from 8,500 acres (3,400 ha; 13.3 sq mi) throughout the entire Yellowstone region, which included areas outside the park, to 99,000 acres (40,000 ha; 155 sq mi) on the park land alone. By the end of the month, the fires were out of control. Large fires burned together, and on August 20, 1988, the single worst day of the fires, more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) were consumed. Seven large fires were responsible for 95% of the 793,000 acres (321,000 ha; 1,239 sq mi) that were burned over the next couple of months. A total of 25,000 firefighters and U.S. military forces participated in the suppression efforts, at a cost of 120 million dollars. By the time winter brought snow that helped extinguish the last flames, the fires had destroyed 67 structures and caused several million dollars in damage. Though no civilian lives were lost, two personnel associated with the firefighting efforts were killed.

 

Contrary to media reports and speculation at the time, the fires killed very few park animals— surveys indicated that only about 345 elk (of an estimated 40,000–50,000), 36 deer, 12 moose, 6 black bears, and 9 bison had perished. Changes in fire management policies were implemented by land management agencies throughout the United States, based on knowledge gained from the 1988 fires and the evaluation of scientists and experts from various fields. By 1992, Yellowstone had adopted a new fire management plan which observed stricter guidelines for the management of natural fires.

 

from Wikipedia

  

I'm a ghost - murmurs the old man sitting on the bench in that square - a motionless shadow, invisible, undetectable to the human eye- He repeats it again. And another. And again. Then, the group of young people passes in front of him. They laugh, they talk loud, they push each other, they pass the bottle. Soon the laughter is lost inside the square. The old man gets up, and begins a slow retreat in the opposite direction, until he disappears down the street, as ghosts disappear in the streets of towns.

The trademark ship of bounty hunter Kilvane Frost. Outfitted with plasma cannons, seeker missiles, fission missiles, and rear-deploying seismic charges and V.II Sabotage droids. Two hyper-computing droids run the ship's technological systems, including two high-powered scrambling devices that render the ship undetectable on radar and immune to targeting systems. Four thruster-type engines give the Manta unrivaled speed and maneuverability for a ship of its size.

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I thinned the end of the tail section and strengthened the housing around the engines. I also altered the wing sections and gave the whole ship a "new coat of paint" to incorporate more of a stealth look while still maintaining the Centuri feel. Sorry for the bad picture quality; the electrical plates give a lot of reflective surface to the ship - which looks awesome in person but reflects too much light back at the camera.

 

Comments and criticism welcome! :D

Ronin

 

atelier ying nyc

 

Odd that I am doing a few series on Flickr: of cameras, humidors and risotto but I suppose it just falls in line with my biorhythm.

 

I think sage, arborio rice and authentic stock are (slightly) overrated As essential to a good Rissotto.

 

The key ingredients in this one are: a splendid thick chewy country slab bacon from Sylvia's in Harlem (from a breakfast of slab bacon, grits, candied yams and eggs), Sweet peas, corn, cheese, chestnuts, gremolata and a good dose of freshly grated nutmeg. I do miss the splash of wine and a rich meat broth. And an extremely subtle grating kimchee would add the undetectable yet sour tang that this dish needs.

 

The second part of this photo is just my wandering notes: a copy of Francois de Menil's custom construction to adapt for a UFO camera I'm thinking about.

 

Design, text and drawing are copyright 2013 by David Lo.

"Je aayaa se vinnaayaa, je vinnaayaa se aayaa (The self is the knower, and the knower is the self)".

(Acharanga - 1/5/5)

 

"In this sentence, the word soul/self is used as a subjective as well as an objective.

In reality, the soul is non-verbal.

A word cannot be synonymous with the soul.

The soul is unknowable, invisible, undetectable, imperceptible and of non-corporeal existence.

He who knows is knowledge; the self does not become a knower with knowledge as an unrelated instrument.

The very self develops knowledge, and all the objects stand (reflected) in the knowledge.

In the absence of the self there cannot be (any) knowledge; therefore, knowledge is the self..."

(The Concept Of Embodied Soul And Liberated Soul In Jain Philosophy by Dr. Mahavir Saran Jain - more at www.herenow4u.net/index.php?id=67938 )

 

This picture was shot at sunset under Gwalior Fort where 24 Jain thirthankara (saint) rockcut statues are overlooking the city of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh since the seventh century a.d...

View On Black

 

"One of us is tender, one of us is not." — Typhoid Mary

 

Character History

 

Typhoid Mary is the main alias of one of the Kingpin's deadliest enforcers. As a mutant, Typhoid Mary displays low-level psychic abilities, which include the capacity to ignite small fires, move small objects, and disturb the minds of others.

 

In combination to her powers, she also possesses a highly fractured psyche, which usually manifests at least two main personas: the innocent "Mary" and the vicious "Typhoid Mary".

 

During a mission to emotionally destroy the Kingpin's nemesis, Daredevil, Typhoid Mary fell in love with her target. The distressful relationship she has developed with the Kingpin and Daredevil usually leads her to alternate between helping and hurting both of them.

 

In a desperate crusade to have her personalities integrated, Typhoid Mary has interacted with many other super human agents and organizations whom she could relate with, including Wolverine, the Ghost Rider, Spider-Man, Deadpool, and the Sisterhood of Mutants.

 

More prominently, during her quest to cure her mind, she joined the Initiative as a secret agent named Mutant Zero and found specialized help.

 

Eventually, she was neglected by the Initiative and resumed her toxic affairs with Daredevil and the Kingpin.

 

Thanks to the Kingpin, who had become the mayor of New York City, Typhoid Mary found her divergent personalities integrated.

 

Their relationship eventually evolved beyond the years of violence into a respectful romance and they have married each other.

 

At the Kingpin's side, Typhoid Mary assisted him in his rise against super heroes, as well as provided support during his fall from office. Together, they sought for happiness away from Daredevil.

 

Their destination ultimately came to be Krakoa, the mutant-exclusive nation in which Typhoid Mary had rights to citizenship.

 

Mary and Typhoid

 

Mary Walker was born to parents who were always fighting and her father would beat them. One night, Mary retreated deeply into her mind and a new alter ego emerged to attack him. After that incident, her father never touched her again; she was protected.

 

Mary's need to protect herself led to her second persona developing latent powers of subtle mind control, telekinesis, and pyrokinesis. Her paranormal abilities are of mutant nature and first manifested when she found a dead pigeon which she involuntary burned and reanimated.

 

The fires that young Mary accidentally caused in her house escalated the domestic violence in the family. Moreover, around her early years, Mary developed an extreme sense of faith in Catholic imagery.

 

As a fascinating psychiatric case, Mary became the interest of researchers and spent most of her life institutionalized. Since infancy, in the Mary persona, she was sweet and cooperative, but also fragile, sickly, and prone to epilepsy. She was unaware of her second identity, which in contrast was violent and uncontrollable, with no symptoms of sickness.

 

Running a constant fever, the disturbed persona became known as Typhoid Mary. The only interest Typhoid ever showed in the mental institution regarded the development of her psychic abilities. Due to her exceptional condition, Mary Walker fell to the clutches of a group of researchers who performed damaging psychic brainwashing to weaponize sleeper agents linked to Project Psyche, the ninth instalment of Weapon Plus.

 

At some point, when institutionalized at the Creed Psychiatrist Hospital, Mary met the lethal Elektra, who broke her free from the facility.

 

Some time later, the free Mary became well known as a successful stage actress with a promising career ahead of herself. One more time, she disappeared, which was assumed to be Typhoid Mary's fault. She went into crime and eventually met Matt Murdock, before he became Daredevil.

 

He was there to attack a criminal named Angelo at the brothel where Mary worked. To his surprise, the girls working there defended him. In the heat of the fighting, Murdock lashed out, knocking Mary out the window. At that moment, Mary vowed that she would never allow a man to hurt her again. She became Typhoid Mary.

 

Woman Without Fear

 

In Chicago, Typhoid Mary built herself a reputation in robbery and blackmailing. Her activities led her to New York City, where she became a deadly vigilante and a criminal murder. This got her involved in the underworld affairs of the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk.

 

The Kingpin was impressed by Typhoid Mary's history and abilities and put word on the street for her to contact him. He hired her to seduce and emotionally destroy his archnemesis Daredevil.

 

Typhoid Mary accepted the offer and introduced herself to Daredevil in his blind civilian identity, Matt Murdock, in a hospital for blind patients where she claimed she volunteered at. Having fabricated a story about her father being a blind man she used to nurse, Typhoid soon gained Murdock's trust as Mary. To become closer to him, Mary helped the kid Tyrone Janson recover from an accident that had blinded him.

 

Very rapidly, Typhoid Mary was able to make Murdock ignore his long time love, Karen Page and focus his attention on her. Simultaneously, she tormented Daredevil as Typhoid Mary in order to confuse him. However, the Mary persona started to become infatuated with Daredevil in the process.

 

Typhoid Mary performed other missions for the Kingpin, such as threatening agents of the legal system to do his wishes in judicial battles against Murdock. Slowly, the Kingpin started to be intrigued by Typhoid Mary as well.

 

When discussing her plans with the Kingpin, she took the opportunity to manipulate him into starting a romance with her as well. However, her mental stability suffered with this scheme, and she ended up in conflict between her two personalities.

 

During a battle with Daredevil, her psyche collapsed and she reverted to Mary; unable to hurt him, she was forced to flee. The Kingpin grew impatient and ordered her to finish her machinations immediately.

 

Realizing that the Mary persona could ruin her, Typhoid Mary recruited Bullet, Ammo, and the Wildboys to join her in destroying Daredevil. Her last recruit was Bushwacker.

 

They violently struck at Daredevil, leaving him physically and psychologically vulnerable to Typhoid Mary. Tragically, she executed his apparent murder by throwing him off a bridge.

 

Mary's decision to kill Daredevil infuriated the Kingpin, degrading their toxic relationship. As a result of so much turmoil, Mary finally became aware of her condition and of Typhoid Mary's existence.

 

Eventually, the suicidal Mary made it to the location where Daredevil's body was, only to find him alive. Murdock finally realized that Mary and Typhoid Mary were the same woman. She rescued him and brought him to a hospital, where she tormented Karen Page with the revelation that she was his lover.

 

Amidst a demonic inferno in the city, Typhoid Mary forged an alliance with the Prince of Lies, Mephisto, to exert her control over the Kingpin and fight Daredevil. With the end of the demonic invasion, Typhoid Mary, as usual, disappeared with no trace.

 

The Termination of Typhoid Mary

 

In order to gather information on the group of children known as the Power Pack, Doctor Doom was able to assign Typhoid Mary to perform the mission, learning about her existence from the Kingpin's intelligence.

 

Once again, she pretended to be a specialist in caring for blind individuals and make her way into being hired a school teacher. She lured Power Pack into an activity in Central Park. She soon gained their trust and was introduced to their father, the scientist James Power.

 

Simultaneously, she also got involved with the eldest child in Power Pack, Alex Power. She was able to create tension between father and son, psionically suggesting a rivalry between them.

 

Having fragilized the familial bonds in Power Pack, Typhoid Mary contacted Alex informing him she had been captured by a villain. As he met her, she had his father at her mercy. The rest of Power Pack was able to save their loved brother and father.

 

Her mission was apparently a failure. However, in the end, Typhoid Mary revealed that her real intentions all along were to manipulate Doctor Doom in exposing his fragilities to her by playing with the paternal relationship of Power Pack.

 

Soon after, Typhoid Mary tormented the creature known as Lifeform after he had clashed with Daredevil.

 

Eventually, Typhoid Mary resumed her alliance with the Kingpin, acting as his bodyguard. This coincided with the return of Fisk's former assassin, Bullseye.

 

The Kingpin's activities caught the attention of the Black Widow and Captain America, who engaged Bullseye while he was on a mission. As a gang war ensued in the city and cost the Kingpin some of his operatives, Typhoid Mary was sent to the field to investigate.

 

She soon found herself unable to manipulate Captain America when he approached her boss. After his visit, Crossbones attacked Fisk under the Red Skull's orders, but was followed by Daredevil. In the fight, the Kingpin and Typhoid Mary were able to escape. Typhoid Mary then assigned Bullseye with the mission of assassinating the Red Skull. He killed a robotic simulacrum instead.

 

Not only Typhoid Mary's work associations with the Kingpin were rekindled, but also their romantic ones. Together, they attempted to build a media empire to help Fisk expand his control using brute force to threaten and scare their associates.

 

Daredevil decided to tackle the Kingpin's operations by confronting him at his office. The conversation made Fisk remember his wife, Vanessa. This caused him to lash out at Typhoid Mary, accusing her of being incompetent as his right hand.

 

Determined to prove her worth, Typhoid Mary executed a mission in the Bronx against Jimmy Sabini. Exposed in field, Typhoid Mary was taunted by Daredevil.

 

In the ensuing fight, Daredevil was able to cause Mary to re-emerge. After this, Daredevil vanished, but not before alerting the authorities to restrain Mary, who was taken away in a straitjacket.

 

Fractured Fairy Tales

 

An insane serial killer named Roberts contacted the lone agent Logan, the X-Man known as Wolverine, in seek of help.

 

Roberts claimed to have been manipulated by the Project, a dark organization that performed psychic surgery to create sleeper agents. Roberts asked Logan to contact Mary Walker, another victim of the Project, for assistance. Logan was able to contact Walker, meeting her in a café. She informed him that she struggled with memory problems, something he could relate to.

 

They soon became involved with each other. Together, they were able to locate a laboratory. As they uncovered the Project's methods, Typhoid Mary emerged.

 

She viciously set Logan on fire, catching him off-guard. She went on the run, wishing to get revenge at those who had experimented on her. She was able to locate two researchers and torture them. Logan tracked her, wishing to prevent her from becoming a killer.

 

During the fight, Mary reasserted her control, but Logan chose to abandon her due to her dangerousness. Walker was able to find the lead researcher of the Project, Dr. Sidney Joern, in hopes of having his assistance in reverting the brainwashing that she had been subjected to in order to eliminate Typhoid Mary.

 

However, Joern decided to erase the Mary persona instead. Logan was able to interrupt the process, an event which awakened Typhoid Mary from her induced coma.

 

Struggling to keep her two personalities at check, Typhoid Mary decided to abandon the site, leaving Logan and her former captors as she left.

 

Using medication to keep her vicious tendencies controlled, Mary established herself in a community, joining a feminist movement and befriending a girl named Eve.

 

After running into Dan Ketch, Mary witnessed the possible return of Typhoid Mary. Her evil side fully emerged when she was assaulted by two security guards. As she lethally counterattacked them, she was met by Ketch in his Ghost Rider identity.

 

He had been experiencing disturbing nightmares about Typhoid Mary and chose to engage in combat, defeating her with his Penance Stare. The Ghost Rider found himself in conflict since Mary was, in her alternate persona, an innocent.

 

After he left, she recovered and searched for the intriguing Ghost Rider. In her quest, she killed the surviving security guard. This sparked the lust for vengeance in the Ghost Rider. This was revealed to be a trick schemed by the demon Dusk to fragilize the Ghost Rider. In return for her assistance,

 

Typhoid Mary was promised mental stability. As soon as she realized that the demon had tricked her, Typhoid Mary decided to help the Ghost Rider. In the process of invading Dusk's realm of insanity, Typhoid Mary was separated from her sane half. She was able to help Eve overcome the fear a creature had inflicted on her.

 

Afterwards, she chose to reject the Ghost Rider and attempted suicide. However, the Ghost Rider was able to bargain for Typhoid Mary's life with Dusk, who got defeated. Typhoid Mary once again vanished, secluding herself for protection.

 

Typhoid Mary once again was hospitalized, this time in an apparently regular mental institution. She was treated by the psychiatrist Michael Hunt, who became obsessed with her. They attempted to integrate Typhoid Mary's personas to stabilize her.

 

However, Logan resurged in Typhoid Mary's life again, asking for her help in rescuing Jessie Drake, a powerful empath who had caught the attention of the X-Men. Disguised as a technician, Mary was able to infiltrate the Fortress run by Dr. Hoffner.

 

As Typhoid Mary she retrieved Drake, whose empathic powers involuntarily touched the minds of Logan, Daredevil, and Vengeance to help her in her turmoil. The Fortress was able to restrain Typhoid Mary, who lashed out in a new misandrist and cold personality called Bloody Mary.

 

On the run with Drake, Mary started a killing agenda against men who had committed violence against women. She became a target for her former allies as well for the Fortress' guard Steel Raven.

 

Found by Steel Raven, Bloody Mary in fact found an ally. However, Mary and her personalities collapsed as she was hunted. She found comfort with Jessie Drake, who help her integrate her personalities as a fourth one as Walker. In full control of her abilities, Walker pressed charges against Dr. Hunt and decided to fight for justice for women legally with Jessie Drake as her protégé.

 

Soon, Mary Walker resumed her murderous activities against abusers who evaded justice. In one of her crimes, she regressed back to the innocent Mary persona. Journalist Peter Parker found her as she claimed a powerful woman was responsible for the murder. In compassion, Parker invited Mary for dinner to meet his wife, Mary Jane.

 

However, she attended as Typhoid Mary. After tormenting Mary Jane over her marriage, Typhoid Mary caused a mess in the apartment and escaped.

 

Since Parker was secretly the independent hero Spider-Man, he went on Typhoid Mary's trail. In the confrontation, the man-killing Bloody Mary appeared and targeted the criminal Jack Morray. Spider-Man intervened, leading Typhoid Mary to use her ways to seduce and execute Morray. She was once again stopped by Spider-Man, who had Morray under arrest instead.

 

Walker was ultimately able to take control over her three personalities and turned herself in for treatment at the Ravencroft Institute.

 

Hardcore

 

At one point, Mary was confined to a mental institution where each alter hired a mercenary. Mary Walker hired Deadpool to kill her, Typhoid Mary hired Deadpool to break her out, and Bloody Mary hired the Vamp/Animus to break her out to resume a killing spree.

 

Deadpool defeated the Vamp/Animus but refused to kill Mary Walker, allowing the Typhoid Mary alter to become dominant. Typhoid Mary and Deadpool had a few adventures together. But when Deadpool pushed her out of a window, her memories of Daredevil kicking her out of the brothel window returned.

 

She and Deadpool traveled to New York City to confront Daredevil, but Deadpool became upset when he found out that she had also been killing people from her past who couldn't defend themselves against her.

 

He and Daredevil defeated her but, against Daredevil's pleas, Deadpool insisted on trying to rehabilitate her himself. However Mary discovered Deadpool's infatuation with Siryn and, using an Image Inducer, tricked Deadpool into sleeping with her. When Deadpool discovered the ruse, he was so shocked and betrayed that he gave up trying to help Mary.

 

Through hypnosis, the abnormal and violent alters of Typhoid Mary were suppressed from Walker's consciousness. She returned to a normal life, becoming an actress on a soap opera. At some point, the Kingpin fell from power and was left in a coma.

 

He eventually recovered, and started reestablishing his power again and wanted to take out his enemies. He recruited Walker to distract Daredevil, using brute force to shock her out of her hypnotic treatments. As the Kingpin's assassin, Typhoid Mary brutally went to the streets, executing criminals who posed opposition to her boss.

 

In order to create a distraction to give the Kingpin time to consolidate his plans, she also confronted Daredevil while he was in his civilian identity as Matt Murdock setting him on fire before his bodyguards Jessica Jones and Luke Cage took her down, with Murdock landing the final hit.

 

Typhoid Mary was imprisoned on the maximum security prison for superhumans known as the Raft. During a massive breakout sparked by Electro, she was among the several prisoners who made their escape.

 

Mutant Zero

 

Mutantkind suffered a severe Decimation, mystically implemented by the Scarlet Witch. Most of the mutants lost their abilities, except for a few dozen. Only 198 mutants were catalogued as still active.

 

Around this period, the Superhuman Registration Act was enacted, forcing superhumans to register to the law to operate under the Initiative. Typhoid Mary was one of the few mutants to retain her powers during the crisis, but she was not initially included in the official record of the remaining mutants.

 

As the cryptic "199th" still-empowered mutant, Typhoid Mary was approached by Henry Peter Gyrich and recruited into the Shadow Initiative squad unit, who acted as Gyrich's personal guard. She was promised treatment for her dissociative identity disorder to attempt to integrate her fractured mind, and a legal pardon in exchange for her services as a secret agent.

 

The superhuman psychiatrist Dr. Leonard Samson prohibited references to her other identities to prevent any period of instability. She started to be referred only by the classified identity of Mutant Zero. Due to her mental instability, Mutant Zero was only allowed to be "activated" once per mission, being always isolated in the Zero Room in between missions.

 

Mutant Zero

 

In the Shadow Initiative's first mission, they were assigned to rescue cadets who fell to the Hulk's attack on humanity. Mutant Zero effectively liberated the hostages.

 

She was also activated when the rogue experiment K.I.A. attacked Camp Hammond. Seeing no alternative, Mutant Zero used her psychic abilities to cast a telepathic cloak to render herself and Gyrich undetectable to the senses of the destructive creature.

 

In a subsequent attack to Camp Hammond, Mutant Zero was forced to get into action as alien Skrull invaders executed their massive plan of overtaking Earth. Mutant Zero directly attacked the Skrull Queen, but was tricked by her deceiving actions.

 

After the Skrull invasion failed thanks to the efforts of Earth's heroes, including a final blow fired by Norman Osborn, much changed for the Initiative program.

 

Gyrich was no longer associated with the operation, and Mutant Zero initially responded to the Gauntlet, who did not adopt Gyrich's methodology to prevent her mental collapse. To make matters worse, the abhorrent Taskmaster was able to recognize Mutant Zero's true identity by analyzing her body movements and fight patterns.

 

The Taskmaster was also appointed as field leader of the Shadow Initiative. They were assigned to Madripoor to combat a Hydra organization.

 

With her identity exposed, Typhoid Mary abandoned the Mutant Zero identity during the mission. She was able to gather complex intel about Hydra's activities, which were run by the Scorpion. During the ensuing fight, the Taskmaster cowardly decided to retreat as they were counted with no support from the Initiative program due to S.H.I.E.L.D. being dismantled and supplanted by Osborn's H.A.M.M.E.R..

 

In Madripoor, the lost agents were forced to fight Roughouse and Bloodscream. By remaining active in the field for too long with no support, the psychological controls guiding the Mutant Zero project alter failed, and Typhoid Mary manifested an independent alter to evade Hydra. As the dust settled, she coldly chose to abandon her teammates of the Initiative.

 

Shadowland

 

In order to end the Hand's endless bloodlust, Daredevil took the controversial decision of seizing control of the ancient clan of murderers to control it. Typhoid Mary, now in full control of her integrated personas due to the Initiative, contacted Daredevil to join him in his crusade.

 

Seeing her as a valuable asset, Daredevil accepted Typhoid Mary as one of his agents. However, the superhero community opposed Daredevil because of his descent into cruelty, invading his Shadowland empire in Hell's Kitchen.

 

Although the heroes met a fight in Daredevil and Typhoid Mary, the latter being able to set Spider-Man on fire, they managed to harm their operation by freeing their prisoners. In order to prepare himself for a rematch, Daredevil had Typhoid Mary assist him in resurrecting Bullseye.

 

In a subsequent fight, Spider-Man was able to neutralize Typhoid Mary as Daredevil succumbed to the influence of the Beast. In the end, Daredevil was defeated and exorcised. Even without her master, Typhoid Mary loyally kept his rule over the Hand.

 

She resisted the Kingpin's attempt to seize the organization from Daredevil. However, the Kingpin revealed that she was a sleeper agent for him all along, being controlled with subliminal messages. As the Kingpin released her from her trance, he became the new leader of the Hand, having Typhoid Mary at his side as one of his prime bodyguards and assassins.

 

Having grown interested in Wakandan affairs, the Kingpin targeted a board member of the Bank of Wakanda K'Tamo Chatarko for assassination. This sparked the interest of the Black Panther, who at the time, operated in Hell's Kitchen. The Kingpin sent his assassins, Typhoid Mary and Lady Bullseye to eliminate the Black Panther.

 

He was able to evade his aggressors, which was part of the Kingpin's plan of manipulating him. Typhoid Mary and Lady Bullseye attempted to murder Chatarko, but were intercepted by the Black Panther, who decided to destroy Shadowland alongside his allies. The Falcon was instrumental in defeating Typhoid Mary. In the end, the Kingpin's operation was severely harmed by the attack.

 

With intel about a serum that could negate healing factors designed by Tombstone against Deadpool, the Kingpin became interested in it and sent Typhoid Mary and his Hand agents to secure it.

 

In order to protect himself, Deadpool informed X-Force that the serum could be weaponized as an anti-mutant asset. Typhoid Mary ran into X-Force during her mission. She had no option but to retreat and return to the Kingpin.

 

Thanks to the machinations of Daken, the run for the serum sparked a conflict between the Kingpin, X-Force, and Tombstone. The Kingpin captured Deadpool's associate Bob to lure X-Force. Amidst the fight, the Kingpin fled. As a result of these incidents, Deadpool was a victim of the serum and lost his healing powers. Eventually, the Kingpin's Shadowland empire was brought down by the Superior Spider-Man.

 

Sisterhood

 

At some point, Typhoid Mary became an employee for the drug lord Ana Cortés. Obsessed with using technology to improve herself and her organization, Cortés merged her consciousness with that of Lady Deathstrike.

 

Following a confrontation with the X-Men, the all-new Deathstrike became aware of the technological intelligence known as Arkea. In order to weaponize Arkea against her enemies.

 

Typhoid Mary had the mission of retrieving Arkea. Typhoid Mary invaded the Jean Grey School to recollect samples for Arkea. Although the X-Man Psylocke identified her presence, she was able to escape with the item. However, the piece was found to be inert. Typhoid Mary accessed John Sublime's mind to acquire other pieces of Arkea. In the process, they recruited the witch Amora the Enchantress.

 

As Typhoid Mary wished for gratification due to her assistance, Deathstrike promised to use Arkea to heal her mental instability and decided to create a Sisterhood of Mutants to fight the X-Men.

 

The Sisterhood went to the Body Shoppe to accomplish their goals, but Arkea was activated and took control of the leadership of the group.

 

The X-Men engaged in battle and the Sisterhood escaped in order to expand their roster and gather power to defeat their opponents. Soon, the Sisterhood realized Arkea was a malevolent and dangerous entity.

 

Deathstrike asked Typhoid to mercy-kill her before she could succumb to Arkea's schemes. However, Typhoid Mary found herself unable to execute Cortés, who was sacrificed to resurrect Madelyne Pryor. As the X-Men intervened, Psylocke was able to catch Typhoid Mary this time, telepathically tormenting her troubled mind and putting her out of commission. In the end, Arkea was defeated.

 

Queenpin of Crime

 

Following the public revelation that Matt Murdock was Daredevil, an insane Typhoid Mary invaded his home in San Francisco to torment him and his girlfriend Kirsten McDuffie.

 

Although Typhoid Mary set the house on fire, Daredevil defeated her and handed her over to the authorities. Typhoid Mary was eventually taken to court in a request to be remanded.

 

At this point, the Black Cat had stepped in as the main crimelord in New York City, the Queenpin of Crime. As part of her plans, the Black Cat wished to gather intel about S.H.I.E.L.D. and had the mental conditioner Doctor Lusk control people for her objectives.

 

With Lusk's influence, Typhoid Mary was pardoned in court and offered a position in the Black Cat's Gang to supervise espionage operations. Typhoid Mary was assigned to investigate Hawkeye, who might have gotten access to the Black Cat's plans from the hacker Jeremy Ellsden.

 

After surprising him at his apartment, Typhoid Mary was able to capture him and have him fall to the mind control operations of Lusk. Later, this put her in combat against his allies, the other Hawkeye and Deadpool. Although Typhoid Mary escaped, at some point, the brainwashed Hawkeye betrayed his partners. Deadpool stroke back to recover Hawkeye and stop the Black Cat.

 

Typhoid Mary covered the Black Cat's escape and took the opportunity to punish Deadpool due to their shared past. However, after breaking free from the mind control, Hawkeye was able to surprise Typhoid Mary and knock her out.

 

The Black Cat abandoned her lackeys and vanished. Being sedated by the authorities as a way to prevent her from using her mutant powers, Typhoid Mary was arrested. In Ryker's, she had Jessica Jones as a cellmate. Jones was under arrest as part of an undercover mission. Typhoid Mary violently threatened Jones, but with brute force she was easily dealt with. She eventually made her escape and integrate herself into the super-villainous community.

 

First Lady Mary

 

Once again, Typhoid Mary succumbed to lunacy and was hospitalized. Under the care of Dr. Charles, she was subjected to therapy to lock her damaging personas. Another of Charles' patients was the mutant Amp.

 

In contact with Amp's abilities, the experiment boosted Typhoid Mary's powers, instead, including her dissociation. As a result, Typhoid Mary reemerged and brutally burned Charles. He was saved from death by Spider-Man.

 

With her enhanced abilities, she was able to mentally control Spider-Man to cause mayhem. Amp's guardians, the X-Men, became aware of the crisis and chose to intervene. As they were tortured by Typhoid Mary, she looked for Amp to further amplify her powers and destroy the entire city.

 

In a church, where she spoke with Amp, she was opposed by the martial artist Iron Fist. Controlling a legion of civilians, she combated Iron Fist.

 

However, as Amp was fully forced to expand Typhoid Mary's psychic abilities, her body succumbed to the exceeding energies. Back to his senses, Amp restored her body and mind and covered her escape.

 

She found solace in a Catholic church in Hell's Kitchen. Wilson Fisk, who had gone from the Kingpin to the mayor of New York City, stumbled upon her and, wishing to grant her some peace, he had his doctors condition her to live a calm life as a nun working in the church.

 

As such, Mary abandoned her previous lives and became Sister Elizabeth. Ironically, she provided guidance to Matthew Murdock in her duty, as he sought the church for advice many times.

 

However, when the criminal Stromwyns decided to profit from crime in Hell's Kitchen, a legion of supervillains attacked the neighborhood and the brutal Rhino terrorized Sister Elizabeth in the church. Daredevil attempted to protect the area, but the Typhoid Mary persona was still released. In a peculiar team-up, Typhoid Mary joined Daredevil and Fisk to protect the city. As the Rhino was defeated, Typhoid Mary chose to vanish, as usual.

 

She returned to the ruins of the church after realizing her psyche was finally cohesive due to her recent religious experience. There, she discussed her situation with Fisk and offered her services as a bodyguard to the City Hall.

 

As she started to work with Fisk again, Daredevil was placed under arrest. Soon after, Earth fell to a massive invasion of symbiotes. In an attempt to protect Fisk, Typhoid Mary was infected with one of the aliens and unwillingly bonded with it, becoming a monstrous creature. The insane Typhoid Mary clashed with Elektra, who had adopted the mantle of Daredevil to protect civilians during the infection.

 

Elektra managed to momentarily trick Typhoid Mary into believing she was successful in murdering her, only to be able to escape. Following the end of the crisis, Typhoid Mary was found by Fisk's agents completely fractured.

 

Fisk felt compassion for her turmoil and offered his emotional support, bonding to Mary in unprecedented ways. He also chose to discharge Mary from her duties in order to allow her to recover.

 

Bullseye was on the loose, which made Fisk worried. Typhoid Mary decided to reassume her position as a bodyguard to protect her boss by hunting down Bullseye.

 

Fisk asked her not to come after Bullseye, fearing that she could be murdered. As a response, Mary declared that if they were to resume a relationship it should not be a toxic and possessive one.

 

Sensing Fisk's despair, Typhoid Mary still decided to pursue Bullseye. She dressed herself as Daredevil to taunt him. Alongside Elektra, she fought a collection of duplicates of Bullseye in Hell's Kitchen. Eventually, as Bullseye made it to Fisk's location, Typhoid Mary risked her own life to protect her employer.

 

As a result, Fisk proposed to Typhoid Mary as he professed his love, which she accepted. Following a wedding ceremony, Typhoid Mary became Mrs. Fisk, the first lady of New York City.

 

Fisk was obsessed with the secret identity of Daredevil, which he had been manipulated into forgetting. Back from his honeymoon, the mayor implemented a severe anti-vigilantism policy in New York City, only allowing his agents to operate in order to hunt superheroes.

 

The superhero community organized itself to oppose Fisk's brutal rule as Mary helped Fisk plan a presidential campaign. As they discussed their sorrowful past, Fisk accidentally unlocked memories Typhoid Mary had lost using his cane imbued with the Purple Man's powers. This led him to revert the mental conditioning that had made the entire world forget about Daredevil's identity as well.

 

A war erupted between the illegal heroes and Fisk's licit supervillains. In the end, Daredevil, Elektra, and the other heroes directly confronted Fisk. Elektra defeated Typhoid Mary, but Daredevil was able to use the Purple Man's powers to erode Fisk's reign.

 

Instead of facing prison, Fisk was offered an alliance with the influential Stromwyns to stay in politics. He brutally rejected the offer and escaped to international waters with Mary in hopes of finding happiness.

 

The Fall of Krakoa

 

Being a mutant, Typhoid Mary had rights as a citizen of the mutant-exclusive island nation of Krakoa. She claimed her citizenship and extended it to her husband.

 

Together, they found asylum in it. Fisk shared a past with one of Krakoa's most influential leaderships, Emma Frost, due to their previous businesses. They arrived in time for the third Hellfire Gala, which they attended.

 

Tragically, the ceremony was a disaster, since the anti-mutant organization known as Orchis not only managed to obliterate many mutants, but also spark anti-mutant sentiment.

 

Another consequence of their actions was tricking Professor X into sending the mutant population through teleporting Gateways away from Earth. Tragically, the ruse caused mutants to vanish. As a human, Fisk was not affected and joined the few surviving mutant resistance, using his grief to help Frost and mutants.

 

In fact, Typhoid Mary emerged in Vanaheim alongside a few other mutants including Marrow, Magik, Mirage, and Dust. They were caught amidst a war between Vanir warriors from House Mult and the mysterious White Witch.

 

The mutants, including a reluctant Mary, assisted the House Mult. The mutants were recognized as prophesized heroes who would liberate Vanaheim from the White Witch.

 

Fighting alongside the Vanir and Asgardian heroes such as Thor and Sif, the mutants would defeat Saturnyne and return to Earth. Mary would promptly return to her husband, next being seen working as the Kingpin's bodyguard during New York's supervillain Gang War.

 

Personality

 

Mary Walker struggles with dissociative identity disorder, causing her to have at least two abnormal alters, but in later years she has shown five different personas:

 

Mary is a timid, quiet, and pacifist woman, exhibiting compassionate feelings and an inability to access her paranormal powers. Due to her more innocent demeanor, she can occasionally be immature and naive.

 

Typhoid Mary is an adventurous, lustful, and violent persona who employs her psionic abilities erratically. The Typhoid part is identifiable by the right side of her face being totally pale. Moreover, Typhoid's body temperature is constantly elevated. This fever disturbs her mental stability.

 

Bloody Mary is sadistic, brutal, and misandrist. As Bloody Mary, she uses her telekinetic powers to cover her body with metal scraps as a body armor. Moreover, Bloody Mary demonstrates an affinity to firearms. Similarly to Typhoid, Bloody Mary has half of her face in pale hue, sometimes it being the left side

 

Walker is fully aware of her condition, being focused, detached, and stable. Although no physical evidence is apparent, Walker can use her psionic powers.

 

Mutant Zero represents a no-nonsense, efficient, military-type agent.

 

Powers

 

Mary Walker is a mutant and possesses a number of psionic powers. The effectiveness of her powers differs on which alter is in control of her mind. The innocent "Mary" typically has no access to her powers, although they occasionally express themselves without her awareness. The other personas all have conscious access to telekinetic, pyrokinetic, and telepathic abilities to varying degrees.

 

Telekinesis: Using her mind, Typhoid Mary can levitate small objects over short distances, which usually are weapons such as knives and razors. She tends to employ her telekinetic abilities by making a knife spin in place or retrieving her weapons if they are dropped. Her "Bloody Mary" persona often gathered and assembled small metal objects into an improvised battle-armor.

 

Pyrokinesis: Typhoid Mary can ignite small fires in her vicinity.

 

Telepathy: Gifted with low-level telepathic abilities, Typhoid Mary can implant mental suggestions in the minds of others. She can induce sleep in weak-minded individuals and most animals, or create sensory ghosts as a distraction, causing people to be distracted.

 

She can compel people to take simple actions without thinking about it, like reaching for a blade or kissing her, letting her predict their next move or guide them into traps. Usually, she uses her power to psionically seduce men, using a combination of behavioral psychology and telepathic prods to make them quickly become obsessed and fall in love with her.

 

Unstable Vital Signs: Typhoid Mary's personalities have different body function readings. Her different physiological traits display specific heart rate, respiratory patterns, scent, electrocardiographic readings, and mental patterns. Daredevil proved to be unable to recognize Mary and Typhoid Mary as the same person despite his enhanced senses, and even sighted people often believe the alters to be different people.

 

Abilities

 

Typhoid Mary is very skilled in martial arts and the use of edged weapons. As Bloody Mary, she shows an expertise in using firearms in combat situations.

 

Weaknesses

 

Dissociative Identity Disorder: Typhoid Mary's fractured psyche has been shown to be the cause of her inefficiency in combat in different occasions.

 

Equipment

 

As Mutant Zero, Mary is equipped with a suit of full body armor that appears to enhance her physical strength and an arsenal of weapons, including guns and various blades.

 

Notes

 

Mary's real full name was first revealed in Daredevil #297 as Mary Mezinis by creator Dan G. Chichester. However, in Marvel Comics Presents #109, which was written by the character's creator and main writer Ann Nocenti, she was revealed to be named Mary Walker. Walker was confirmed to be her birth surname in Marvel Comics Presents #151, also written by Nocenti. After its first mention, the name Mezinis has never been brought up again.

 

Typhoid Mary's status as a mutant was only confirmed in the Avengers: The Initiative series. In issue Avengers: The Initiative #5, she was introduced as a mutant who had survived decimation. Her true identity was only fully revealed in issue Avengers: The Initiative #20. Before that, the origins for her powers remained unexplained.

 

Her entry in Marvel Encyclopedia #Spider-Man merely hinted the possibility that her paranormal abilities could be the result of mutant genetics, psychic experiments, or both.

 

The identity of Mutant Zero remained undisclosed in the Avengers: The Initiative for months, only being revealed in issue Avengers: The Initiative #20.

 

Trivia

 

Typhoid fever is a bacterial disease characterized by a long-lasting fever which may cause confusion. The name "Typhoid Mary" is a direct reference to Mary Mallon, an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid-inducing bacteria, who infected dozens of people as a result of her job as cook at the beginning of the 20th century. The nickname she earned because of her condition, "Typhoid Mary," is used to refer to those who spread disease or misfortune, not always aware that they are doing so.

 

The name "Bloody Mary" is a reference to Queen Mary, who earned the nickname from her Protestant opponents since she implemented violent policies to re-establish Catholicism in England.

 

Typhoid Mary sometimes refers to her split personality by reciting the nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary".

 

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

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A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Mary Alice Walker

 

Publisher: Marvel

 

First appearance: Daredevil #254 (May 1988)

 

Created by: Ann Nocenti (Writer)

John Romita Jr. (Artist)

Parrotfishes are a group of about 90 species traditionally regarded as a family (Scaridae), but now often considered a subfamily (Scarinae) of the wrasses. They are found in relatively shallow tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, displaying their largest species richness in the Indo-Pacific. They are found in coral reefs, rocky coasts, and seagrass beds, and play a significant role in bioerosion.

 

Parrotfish are named for their dentition, which also is distinct from that of other labrids. Their numerous teeth are arranged in a tightly packed mosaic on the external surface of their jaw bones, forming a parrot-like beak with which they rasp algae from coral and other rocky substrates (which contributes to the process of bioerosion).

 

Maximum sizes vary within the family, with the majority of species reaching 30–50 cm (12–20 in) in length. However, a few species reach lengths in excess of 1 m (3 ft 3 in), and the green humphead parrotfish can reach up to 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in).

 

Although they are considered to be herbivores, parrotfish eat a wide variety of reef organisms, and they are not necessarily vegetarian. Species such as the green humphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) include coral (polyps) in their diets. Their feeding activity is important for the production and distribution of coral sands in the reef biome, and can prevent algae from choking coral. The teeth grow continuously, replacing material worn away by feeding. Their pharyngeal teeth grind up the coral and coralline algae the fish ingest during feeding. After they digest the edible portions from the rock, they excrete it as sand, helping to create small islands and the sandy beaches of the Caribbean. One parrotfish can produce 90 kg (200 lb) of sand each year. While feeding, parrotfish must be aware of predation by one of their main predators, the lemon shark.

 

The development of parrotfish is complex and accompanied by a series of changes in color (polychromatism). Almost all species are sequential hermaphrodites, starting as females (known as the initial phase) and then changing to males (the terminal phase). However, in many species, for example the stoplight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride), a number of individuals develop directly to males (i.e., they do not start as females). These directly developing males usually most resemble the initial phase, and often display a different mating strategy than the terminal phase males of the same species. A few species, for example the Mediterranean parrotfish (S. cretense), are secondary gonochorist, meaning some females do not change sex, and the ones that do, change from female to male while still immature (i.e., reproductively functioning females do not change to males). The marbled parrotfish (Leptoscarus vaigiensis) is the only species of parrotfish known not to change sex. In most species, the initial phase is dull red, brown, or grey, while the terminal phase is vividly green or blue with bright pink or yellow patches. The remarkably different terminal and initial phases were first described as separate species in several cases, but in some species, the phases are similar.

 

In most parrotfish species, juveniles have a different color pattern from adults. Juveniles of some tropical species can alter their color temporarily to mimic other species.

 

Feeding parrotfish of most tropical species form large schools grouped by size. Harems of several females presided over by a single male are normal in most species, with the males vigorously defending their position from any challenge.

 

Parrotfish are pelagic spawners; they release many tiny, buoyant eggs into the water, which become part of the plankton. The eggs float freely, settling into the coral until hatching.

 

The sex change in parrot fish is accompanied by changes in circulating steroids. Females have high levels of estradiol, moderate levels of T and undetectable levels of the major fish androgen 11-ketotestosterone. During the transition from initial to terminal coloration phases, concentrations of 11-ketotestosterone rise dramatically and estrogen levels decline. If a female is injected with 11-ketotestosterone, it will cause a precocious change in gonadal, gametic and behavioral sex.

 

Photographed on a dive site called Fiddle Garden, near Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt

Blue Orb: 20 seconds | f/4 | ISO 100 | 10mm

Green Orb: 25 seconds | f/4 | ISO 100 | 10mm

Orange Orb: 25 seconds | f/4 ISO 100 | 10mm

Red Orb: 30 seconds | f/4 | ISO 100 | 10mm

Final: 300ppi | 12.43in x 7.64in [cropped]

 

I have already made an attempt before this one to try and make a “bullseye” reflection using water and I failed miserably. It was very discouraging and I wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to come up with a photo like the one I had envisioned in my head and the beginning of this week’s work. My plan was to bring out some water bottles and use my Gatorade one with the kind of top on it that you have to squeeze to get the water to come out, just like the ones you might see on football games, to make rings of water around my center point for my orbs. Once I had three or four rings, I would spin one colored orb, run over and switch the colors out, and spin another, and repeat this process until I had four or five colored orbs to work with. Once I had done that, I would go into photoshop and change each ring with the different colored reflection but have the actual orb be one that wasn’t in the water reflection (hoping to play a little bit of a mind trick on the viewers). However, I can explain my failed attempt and then my second mediocre one, this one I uploaded.

 

For my first attempt, I went out with Matt and Casey last week to a spot Matt and I have been to before but not specifically this tunnel, a different one about 50 feet away. I loved this tunnel because it was so much darker and had the two types of tunnels I was looking for, the metal drainage part for the top and the concrete on the bottom so that I would be able to place my water in the desired rings.

 

Once we had the focus and everything set, I began to place the water out with about a foot in between each ring. This was all working until I realized that this concrete must have had an undetectable 2 degree decline which meant my water wouldn’t stay in each of its specific rings. The only good part from that night was that I probably had some of the cleanest spun orbs I have ever had, but they meant nothing to me since that wouldn’t be helping me out this week.

 

I did still try and go through the post-processing and do through the steps I would have taken if I had gotten reflections in all four rings but it was just a waste of time because I looks like someone spilled colored water on the ground and the all mixed together. Anyways, I did learn a few things from this failure which is always a plus when you plan on retaking your photo: I need to be way close to the orbs so that I would have a high enough angle to get more of the reflection in each ring and I also need to just put some water down at the next location to see if it would be too angled to hold the water.

 

Now, for this photo, it was last night, the same night I went out with Johnny and Jonathan to re-do my “Rainy” Reflection photo at Saguaro High School. We decided that Indian Bend would be a good spot to try and get my bullseye reflection because of the smooth concrete and the bike path that runs through one of the tunnels should have been flat enough to hold the water in place. As we walk down there however, out normal entrance is still flooded from the rain we had about a week ago so we had to walk back up to the street and cross to the other side and walk down that way. Once we were on the other side however, the horses that are normally just statues (we thought) had water flowing out of each of its mouths. Johnny and Jonathan got some really cool photos of all 6 horses lines up so be sure to check out their photostreams soon. As they were taking their photos, I was busy getting on Andi’s dad’s wide angle. She was supposed to be my one assistant for the night but was unable to join me because of a prior commitment she forgot about. No problems however because her dad was still willing to let me borrow his wide angle (Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6 – he is such a cool guy because I have still yet to meet Andi’s dad but he also uses a D7000 and has an arsenal of amazing lenses). I swapped out the 18-105 for the Sigma and got up close and personal with the center point of my orbs. Once I did that I got out my water bottles and went behind the center point to spill out some water and wait and see if the water could hold itself long enough for me to get the bullseye colors done. It would have appeared I was in luck! The water was holding great and should have been enough time for me to have my bulbs ready to be switched out and continuing spinning. I then got the rest of my water bottles and began to quickly lay out the rings of water again about a foot apart. Unfortunately, I picked my center point a little too close to a crack in the bike path so now I had some excess build up of water and I limited my spinning to half orbs because I would have dragged to much visible water into the shot.

 

Now, for the real surprise of this photo, I had just spun two blue orbs to make sure they looked alright and I was in the middle of spinning my third and final one before switching colors when about 2 seconds into the photo, THE ENTIRE END OF MY ORB TOOL WITH LIGHTS ON IT DETACHES AND FLIES IN THE TO NEARBY WATER AND IS TOO FAR AND DEEP FOR ME TO RETRIEVE…that killed my motivation for this photo so badly that I just screamed at the top of my lungs…I have never been so mad while taking a photo…I got Johnny and Jonathan to stop talking real quick as they had no idea at what had just happened. Thankfully, Johnny had his orb tool with him but sadly, some of my bulbs were not working in his tool though they are made by the same company. This was extremely upsetting because as it now took longer and longer for me to switch out the bulbs, the more time the water had to settle. Now I was getting horrible reflections and basically just glowing water again like last time. By now it was almost midnight so I was just wanting to get this photo finished and drive home so I could cry myself to sleep (not really but I was very sad and angry).

 

Now that I had all my photos, I packed up my gear and called it a night. I didn’t do my editing until this morning and I did get more reflection out of green than I was expecting but didn’t get anything out of red and orange. The blue by itself however was a great shot but I wanted the changing colors so I won’t be uploading it. Because I had done the photoshop editing before hand, I knew what I was doing.

 

In photoshop, I open up my blue orb first which had the best reflection so I made that the most outside ring as well to show its reflection more than the others. Next, I opened up the green, red and orange orb photos and made new layers on the blue orbs layer tab. I copy and pasted each orb on a new later and created new black layer masks for each one. Next, I switched to the brush tool with white as my color, and while selected on the layer mask for each layer, I would paint over a different ring to expose each color hiding behind the black mask. Finally, I flattened each image and then made a wide crop to show the powers of the wide angle and the geometry of the tunnel.

 

This photo fits into my concentration well because though I have shot in this Indian Bend location it feels like a 100 times, it still has so many opportunities hiding inside each tunnel that I just have to find the ways to show them. Being able to add my own water to create the reflection I want, proves that I can work with my surroundings enough to prove the point of finding orbs everywhere around you in your night life.

 

Word Count: 1500

If you are not French, it’s likely you haven’t ever heard the word “Saintonge”, and have no clue what it means. If you are French, it’s probably the same thing. Unless, that is, you are a fan of Romanesque, in which case you know that Saintonge, that small region of France centered around the town of Saintes (hence the name), not far from the Atlantic Ocean, just North of Bordeaux... features the highest density of Romanesque churches of all the country!

 

I had never visited that area of France, and so in the middle of October 2021, I took that long overdue trip and stayed two weeks in Saintes, driving left and right daily to photograph all the most significant Romanesque churches... and unfortunately leaving out many others, as they are so thick on the ground!

 

The church that we examine today is dedicated to saint Pierre-ès-Liens (Saint Peter-in-Chains) and is located in the village of Thaims.

 

There are several reasons why this church is truly unique and stands out among all those other Saintonge Romanesque churches.

 

The first reason is that it has doors on almost all sides: there is one on each arm of the transept, and if we can admit that the door at the end of the northern arm is a porte des morts leading into the cemetery (as we saw yesterday in Corme–Écluse), the one leading out of the southern transept arm is a lot more curious, especially since it is significantly decorated —as far as decorations go on this very simple church. I would have leaned towards a door opening onto a cloister if this church had, at any point in time, been an abbey or priory church, but there is absolutely zilch historical evidence of that.

 

Neither is there any mention of relics that would have been the subject of a pilgrimage, with the need to organize the flow of pilgrims entering through one door and exiting via another and besides, there is no ambulatory inside the church, whose floor plan remains very simple, even though it is in the shape of a Latin cross, which is rather unusual in Saintonge, as we have seen repeatedly.

 

The second reason is that it features a nicely rounded apse, also unusual in Saintonge where three-sided or five-sided apses are the norm. Note that the apse collapsed in the 20th century and had to be rebuilt, but that was done using the same stones whenever possible, and the job was very nicely done, and is virtually undetectable.

 

The third reason, and the most significant, is that this church is about the only one in the whole region that was built over a Roman villa, and a large and tall one, with big parts of it still showing, as you will see in some of the photos. The church itself is older than most of its Saintonge sisters, having been built, for the most part, during the 1000s.

 

The choir. If you look quite closely, you may discern that some abacuses are decorated with geometric, Pagan/Celtic–inspired motifs. You can see the very same all over Brittany! The bare abacuses look modern and were probably installed as part of 19th century restorations.

The Devaraja market in Mysore was built during the reign of Chamaraja Wodeyar IX (1868 – 1894). It is said that there was at this place a small weekly market which may have been as old as the origin of the city itself.

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The chili pepper (also chile pepper, chilli pepper, or simply chilli) from Nahuatl chīlli Nahuatl pronunciation: [ˈt͡ʃiːli] (About this sound listen)) is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. They are widely used in many cuisines to add spiciness to dishes. The substances that give chili peppers their intensity when ingested or applied topically are capsaicin and related compounds known as capsaicinoids.

 

Chili peppers originated in Mexico. After the Columbian Exchange, many cultivars of chili pepper spread across the world, used for both food and traditional medicine.

 

Worldwide in 2014, 32.3 million tonnes of green chili peppers and 3.8 million tonnes of dried chili peppers were produced. China is the world's largest producer of green chillies, providing half of the global total.

 

HISTORY

Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE. The most recent research shows that chili peppers were domesticated more than 6000 years ago in Mexico, in the region that extends across southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca to southeastern Veracruz, and were one of the first self-pollinating crops cultivated in Mexico, Central and parts of South America.

 

Peru is considered the country with the highest cultivated Capsicum diversity because it is a center of diversification where varieties of all five domesticates were introduced, grown, and consumed in pre-Columbian times. Bolivia is considered to be the country where the largest diversity of wild Capsicum peppers are consumed. Bolivian consumers distinguish two basic forms: ulupicas, species with small round fruits including C. eximium, C. cardenasii, C. eshbaughii, and C. caballeroi landraces; and arivivis with small elongated fruits including C. baccatum var. baccatum and C. chacoense varieties.

 

Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter them (in the Caribbean), and called them "peppers" because they, like black pepper of the Piper genus known in Europe, have a spicy, hot taste unlike other foodstuffs. Upon their introduction into Europe, chilies were grown as botanical curiosities in the gardens of Spanish and Portuguese monasteries. Christian monks experimented with the culinary potential of chili and discovered that their pungency offered a substitute for black peppercorns, which at the time were so costly that they were used as legal currency in some countries.

 

Chilies were cultivated around the globe after Indigenous people shared them with travelers. Diego Álvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus' second voyage to the West Indies in 1493, brought the first chili peppers to Spain and first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494.

 

The spread of chili peppers to Asia was most likely a natural consequence of its introduction to Portuguese traders (Lisbon was a common port of call for Spanish ships sailing to and from the Americas) who, aware of its trade value, would have likely promoted its commerce in the Asian spice trade routes then dominated by Portuguese and Arab traders. It was introduced in India by the Portuguese towards the end of 15th century. Today chilies are an integral part of South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines.

 

The chili pepper features heavily in the cuisine of the Goan region of India, which was the site of a Portuguese colony (e.g., vindaloo, an Indian interpretation of a Portuguese dish). Chili peppers journeyed from India, through Central Asia and Turkey, to Hungary, where they became the national spice in the form of paprika.

 

An alternate, although not so plausible account (no obvious correlation between its dissemination in Asia and Spanish presence or trade routes), defended mostly by Spanish historians, was that from Mexico, at the time a Spanish colony, chili peppers spread into their other colony the Philippines and from there to India, China, Indonesia. To Japan, it was brought by the Portuguese missionaries in 1542, and then later, it was brought to Korea.

 

In 1995 archaeobotanist Hakon Hjelmqvist published an article in Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift claiming there was evidence for the presence of chili peppers in Europe in pre-Columbian times. According to Hjelmqvist, archaeologists at a dig in St Botulf in Lund found a Capsicum frutescens in a layer from the 13th century. Hjelmqvist thought it came from Asia. Hjelmqvist also said that Capsicum was described by the Greek Theophrastus (370–286 BCE) in his Historia Plantarum, and in other sources. Around the first century CE, the Roman poet Martialis (Martial) mentioned "Piperve crudum" (raw pepper) in Liber XI, XVIII, allegedly describing them as long and containing seeds (a description which seems to fit chili peppers - but could also fit the long pepper, which was well known to ancient Romans).

 

PRODUCTION

In 2014, world production of fresh green chillies and peppers was 33.2 million tonnes, led by China with 48% of the global total. Global production of dried chillies and peppers was about nine times less than for fresh production, led by India with 32% of the world total.

 

SPECIES AND CULTIVARS

The five domesticated species of chili peppers are as follows:

 

Capsicum annuum, which includes many common varieties such as bell peppers, wax, cayenne, jalapeños, chiltepin, and all forms of New Mexico chile.

Capsicum frutescens, which includes malagueta, tabasco and Thai peppers, piri piri, and Malawian Kambuzi

Capsicum chinense, which includes the hottest peppers such as the naga, habanero, Datil and Scotch bonnet

Capsicum pubescens, which includes the South American rocoto peppers

Capsicum baccatum, which includes the South American aji peppers

 

Though there are only a few commonly used species, there are many cultivars and methods of preparing chili peppers that have different names for culinary use. Green and red bell peppers, for example, are the same cultivar of C. annuum, immature peppers being green. In the same species are the jalapeño, the poblano (which when dried is referred to as ancho), New Mexico, serrano, and other cultivars.

 

Peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings: bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Most popular pepper varieties are seen as falling into one of these categories or as a cross between them.

 

INTENSITY

The substances that give chili peppers their pungency (spicy heat) when ingested or applied topically are capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) and several related chemicals, collectively called capsaicinoids. The quantity of capsaicin varies by variety, and on growing conditions. Water stressed peppers usually produce stronger pods. When a habanero plant is stressed, for example low water, the concentration of capsaicin increases in some parts of the fruit.

 

When peppers are consumed, capsaicin binds with pain receptors in the mouth and throat, potentially evoking pain via spinal relays to the brainstem and thalamus where heat and discomfort are perceived. The intensity of the "heat" of chili peppers is commonly reported in Scoville heat units (SHU). Historically, it was a measure of the dilution of an amount of chili extract added to sugar syrup before its heat becomes undetectable to a panel of tasters; the more it has to be diluted to be undetectable, the more powerful the variety, and therefore the higher the rating. The modern method is a quantitative analysis of SHU using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to directly measure the capsaicinoid content of a chili pepper variety. Pure capsaicin is a hydrophobic, colorless, odorless, and crystalline-to-waxy solid at room temperature, and measures 16,000,000 SHU.

 

USE

CULINARY USES

Chili pepper pods, which are berries, are used fresh or dried. Chilies are dried to preserve them for long periods of time, which may also be done by pickling.

 

Dried chilies are often ground into powders, although many Mexican dishes including variations on chiles rellenos use the entire chili. Dried whole chilies may be reconstituted before grinding to a paste. The chipotle is the smoked, dried, ripe jalapeño.

 

Many fresh chilies such as poblano have a tough outer skin that does not break down on cooking. Chilies are sometimes used whole or in large slices, by roasting, or other means of blistering or charring the skin, so as not to entirely cook the flesh beneath. When cooled, the skins will usually slip off easily.

 

The leaves of every species of Capsicum are edible. Though almost all other Solanaceous crops have toxins in their leaves, chili peppers do not. The leaves, which are mildly bitter and nowhere near as hot as the fruit, are cooked as greens in Filipino cuisine, where they are called dahon ng sili (literally "chili leaves"). They are used in the chicken soup tinola. In Korean cuisine, the leaves may be used in kimchi. In Japanese cuisine, the leaves are cooked as greens, and also cooked in tsukudani style for preservation.

 

Chili is by far the most important fruit in Bhutan. Local markets are never without chilies in different colors and sizes, in fresh and dried form. Bhutanese call this crop ema (in Dzongkha) or solo (in Sharchop). Chili is a staple fruit in Bhutan; the ema datsi recipe is entirely made of chili mixed with local cheese. Chili is also an important ingredient in almost all curries and food recipes in the country.

 

In India, most households always keep a stack of fresh hot green chilies at hand, and use them to flavor most curries and dry dishes. It is typically lightly fried with oil in the initial stages of preparation of the dish. Some states in India, such as Rajasthan, make entire dishes only by using spices and chilies.

 

Chilies are present in many cuisines. Some notable dishes other than the ones mentioned elsewhere in this article include:

 

Arrabbiata sauce from Italy is a tomato-based sauce for pasta always including dried hot chilies.

Puttanesca sauce is tomato-based with olives, capers, anchovy and, sometimes, chilies.

Paprikash from Hungary uses significant amounts of mild, ground, dried chilies, known as paprika, in a braised chicken dish.

Chiles en nogada from the Puebla region of Mexico uses fresh mild chilies stuffed with meat and covered with a creamy nut-thickened sauce.

Curry dishes usually contain fresh or dried chillies.

Kung pao chicken (Mandarin Chinese: 宫保鸡丁 gōng bǎo jī dīng) from the Sichuan region of China uses small hot dried chilies briefly fried in oil to add spice to the oil then used for frying.

Mole poblano from the city of Puebla in Mexico uses several varieties of dried chilies, nuts, spices, and fruits to produce a thick, dark sauce for poultry or other meats.

Nam phrik are traditional Thai chili pastes and sauces, prepared with chopped fresh or dry chilies, and additional ingredients such as fish sauce, lime juice, and herbs, but also fruit, meat or seafood.

'Nduja, a more typical example of Italian spicy specialty, from the region of Calabria, is a soft pork sausage made "hot" by the addition of the locally grown variety of jalapeño chili.

Paprykarz szczeciński is a Polish fish paste with rice, onion, tomato concentrate, vegetable oil, chili pepper powder and other spices.

Sambal terasi or sambal belacan is a traditional Indonesian and Malay hot condiment made by frying a mixture of mainly pounded dried chillies, with garlic, shallots, and fermented shrimp paste. It is customarily served with rice dishes and is especially popular when mixed with crunchy pan-roasted ikan teri or ikan bilis (sun-dried anchovies), when it is known as sambal teri or sambal ikan bilis. Various sambal variants existed in Indonesian archipelago, among others are sambal badjak, sambal oelek, sambal pete (prepared with green stinky beans) and sambal pencit (prepared with unripe green mango).

Som tam, a green papaya salad from Thai and Lao cuisine, traditionally has, as a key ingredient, a fistful of chopped fresh hot Thai chili, pounded in a mortar.

Fresh or dried chilies are often used to make hot sauce, a liquid condiment - usually bottled when commercially available - that adds spice to other dishes. Hot sauces are found in many cuisines including harissa from North Africa, chili oil from China (known as rāyu in Japan), and sriracha from Thailand.

Capsaicin is also the primary component in pepper spray, a less-than-lethal weapon.

 

PSYCHOLOGY

Psychologist Paul Rozin suggests that eating chilies is an example of a "constrained risk" like riding a roller coaster, in which extreme sensations like pain and fear can be enjoyed because individuals know that these sensations are not actually harmful. This method lets people experience extreme feelings without any risk of bodily harm.

 

MEDICINAL

Capsaicin, the chemical in chili peppers that makes them hot, is used as an analgesic in topical ointments, nasal sprays, and dermal patches to relieve pain.

 

PEPPER SPRAY

Capsaicin extracted from chilies is used in pepper spray as an irritant, a form of less-lethal weapon.

 

CROP DEFENSE

Conflicts between farmers and elephants have long been widespread in African and Asian countries, where elephants nightly destroy crops, raid grain houses, and sometimes kill people. Farmers have found the use of chilies effective in crop defense against elephants. Elephants do not like capsaicin, the chemical in chilies that makes them hot. Because the elephants have a large and sensitive olfactory and nasal system, the smell of the chili causes them discomfort and deters them from feeding on the crops. By planting a few rows of the pungent fruit around valuable crops, farmers create a buffer zone through which the elephants are reluctant to pass. Chilly-Dung Bombs are also used for this purpose. They are bricks made of mixing dung and chili, and are burned, creating a noxious smoke that keeps hungry elephants out of farmers' fields. This can lessen dangerous physical confrontation between people and elephants.

 

FOOD DEFENSE

Birds do not have the same sensitivity to capsaicin, because it targets a specific pain receptor in mammals. Chili peppers are eaten by birds living in the chili peppers' natural range, possibly contributing to seed dispersal and evolution of the protective capsaicin in chili peppers.

 

NUTRITIONAL VALUE

While red chilies contain large amounts of vitamin C (table), other species contain significant amounts of provitamin A beta-carotene. In addition, peppers are a rich source of vitamin B6

 

SPELLING AND USAGE

The three primary spellings are chili, chile and chilli, all of which are recognized by dictionaries.

 

Chili is widely used in historically Anglophone regions of the United States and Canada. However, it is also commonly used as a short name for chili con carne (literally "chili with meat"). Most versions are seasoned with chili powder, which can refer to pure dried, ground chili peppers, or to a mixture containing other spices.

Chile is the most common Spanish spelling in Mexico and several other Latin American countries, as well as some parts of the United States and Canada, which refers specifically to this plant and its fruit. In the Southwest United States (particularly New Mexico), chile also denotes a thick, spicy, un-vinegared sauce made from this fruit, available in red and green varieties, and served over the local food, while chili denotes the meat dish. The plural is chile or chiles.

Chilli was the original Romanization of the Náhuatl language word for the fruit (chīlli) and is the preferred British spelling according to the Oxford English Dictionary, although it also lists chile and chili as variants. Chilli (and its plural chillies) is the most common spelling in Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore and South Africa.

 

The name of the plant is almost certainly unrelated to that of Chile, the country, which has an uncertain etymology perhaps relating to local place names. Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are some of the Spanish-speaking countries where chilies are known as ají, a word of Taíno origin. Though pepper originally referred to the genus Piper, not Capsicum, the latter usage is included in English dictionaries, including the Oxford English Dictionary (sense 2b of pepper) and Merriam-Webster. The word pepper is also commonly used in the botanical and culinary fields in the names of different types of chili plants and their fruits.

 

WIKIPEDIA

This coin may appear to be an Eisenhower silver dollar, but it is really a concealment device. It was used to hide messages or film so they could be sent secretly. Because it looks like ordinary pocket change, it is almost undetectable.

  

For more information on CIA history and this artifact please visit www.cia.gov

BOX DATE: 1975

MANUFACTURER: Mattel

DOLLS IN LINE: Barbie; Cara; P.J.

MISSING ITEMS: Hair piece, 2 barrettes, 2 ribbons, necklace, shoes, brush, comb, curler

 

PERSONAL FUN FACT: I'm almost 100% sure that this dress came from the "1970s Barbie bin" of 2012. It was one of the outfits that was not entirely trashed from that lot, which is why it stands out in my memory. I just absolutely adore the simplicity of this ensemble--I mean the way it was cut is truly flawless. I think my Malibu P.J. doll totally rocks this outfit. The color teal suits her ultra tan complexion, and I can't get enough of the neckline!!! Considering that this outfit is from the 1970s, I would say that it's quality is more like the clothes from the 1980s. It's very thick and sturdy, and I like that it has snap closures instead of velcro. Many clothes from the 1970s seem to be made from lower quality fabrics, particularly ones that bleed or fade super fast. Not to mention that they also have a tendency to fray uncontrollably. Even if this dress got holes in it, or tore, it would be easy to repair, and the repairs would probably be undetectable.

 

As for the shawl, I got it seven years later, during the spring of 2019. It was in a baggie we purchased at the local flea market for $1. The reason we initially bought the bag was for the Marie Osmond dress inside. I had a hunch that some of the other items could potentially be from the 1970s as well. When Colleen and I first came upon this shawl, we both had a nagging suspicion that it was special. The Quick Curl line ironically came to my mind. But for some reason, I did not investigate this further. Luckily, someone spotted this shawl when we were going through the bag in a video, and formally identified it for us. It honestly doesn't really look like doll clothing--it reminds me more of fringe on the edge of an area rug. I'm so glad we were able to reunite this shawl with the dress though. It definitely makes the outfit feel a bit more complete!

When the Stakkadian Order collapsed thanks to the efforts of the Allied Worlds, it signalled the end of a long and brutal occupation of the Elmorian Sectors. Finally liberated and free to determine their own destiny, the Elmorian Federation found itself with all the responsibilities of protecting their small and fledgling dominion. Drained from fighting the Order, their fleets heavily depleted and coffers nearly empty, with their people already tired of paying increasing taxes, the Elmorian Senate decided on a radical solution. They would try for a cost-effective solution to secure their borders and restore piece to their systems, and deter all future aggressors.

 

They went to the Confederation of Republic Systems, the main benefactor in their fight against the Stakkadians, and asked for their permission to commission the Carrackian Docks to build them their warship. The Confederation, in a unprecedented move never since repeated, allowed a foreign power to enlist the Carrackian Docks to design and build a fleet warship. With their permission secured, the Elmorian Naval Service Command needed only now to determine exactly what kind of warship they wanted, and how they would pay for it. They long debated over what their main strategy should be, what policy they should adopt that would both protect their worlds and be affordable. All their ideas would either be too expensive or not effective enough, and the Carrackian Docks themselves nearly cancelled the contract after being kept waiting for so long, but a junior admiral finally came up with a solution. The most effective policy, she said, would be one of deterence. Now, this was not in itself a radical idea, but most deterence was achieved by means of a massive fleet that could crush anything in its path. How could the Federation afford such a fleet? It couldn't, responded the admiral, but it didn't need to. And so the concept was born for a stealth ship, one which could sneak undetected anywhere it wanted, and strike any target with impunity. What leadership would order an attack, knowing an undetectable ship could come at any time to wipe them out? What pirates would risk a raid with an enemy possibly right next to them?

 

From this, the Umbra-class heavy cruiser was born. Only a very few were ever built, and their current service record is unknown but thought to be relatively sparse. These are the largest class of stealth ship in the galaxy, and are hugely capable. Their sheer technical complexity is staggering, and are among the finest ships ever to come out of the Carrackian Docks. Their exorbitant price tag leads most experts to conclude only around a half-dozen were ever built given the budget of the Elmorian Navy, but both the Elmorian Federation and the Carrackian Docks (therefore by extension the Confederation) refuses to confirm the true number actively in service.

 

To secure the right to commission the Carrackian Docks, the Elmorians first had to promise the design would be available to the Confederation. Seeing as the two factions were bound by a powerful bond, this was no problem. The Confederate Admiralty briefly considered building their own Umbra-class ships, but soon balked at both the price and fragility of the ships.

 

The Umbra has very little armour, to make room for ordnance and sensors, only minimal shields to protect against radiation, solar debris and the weakest of weapons, the better not to be detected by a strong energy signature. Their engines are a completely different kind than most ships, using gradual ion-acceleration to slowly but surely increase their velocity while remaining undetectable. Their main weapons are chiefly huge kinetic torpedoes, long-range weaponry with a high degree of accuracy and damage, very effective at taking out large ships. Their secondary weaponry are laser and plasma missiles to deal with smaller, more nimble targets. There are very few point-defence systems on the Umbra, under the theory that the class isnt meant to be in close range to any enemy and is instead meant for striking from the shadows. Reflective panels help hide it from visual scanners, and powerful Phased Arrays help jam and confuse both passive and active detection devices.

 

Although not proven in combat, one could argue this very characteristic is what makes the Umbra-Class a success.

Yellowstone National Park (Arapaho: Henihco'oo or Héetíhco'oo) is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone, widely held to be the first national park in the world, is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park. It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

 

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone.

 

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the Continental United States. Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in the park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

 

The park is located at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, from which it takes its historical name. Near the end of the 18th century, French trappers named the river "Roche Jaune", which is probably a translation of the Hidatsa name "Mi tsi a-da-zi" (Rock Yellow River). Later, American trappers rendered the French name in English as "Yellow Stone". Although it is commonly believed that the river was named for the yellow rocks seen in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Native American name source is not clear.

 

The first detailed expedition to the Yellowstone area was the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition of 1869, which consisted of three privately funded explorers. The Folsom party followed the Yellowstone River to Yellowstone Lake. The members of the Folsom party kept a journal and based on the information it reported, a party of Montana residents organized the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition in 1870. It was headed by the surveyor-general of Montana Henry Washburn, and included Nathaniel P. Langford (who later became known as "National Park" Langford) and a U.S. Army detachment commanded by Lt. Gustavus Doane.

 

The expedition spent about a month exploring the region, collecting specimens and naming sites of interest. A Montana writer and lawyer named Cornelius Hedges, who had been a member of the Washburn expedition, proposed that the region should be set aside and protected as a national park; he wrote a number of detailed articles about his observations for the Helena Herald newspaper between 1870 and 1871. Hedges essentially restated comments made in October 1865 by acting Montana Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher, who had previously commented that the region should be protected. Others made similar suggestions. In an 1871 letter from Jay Cooke to Ferdinand V. Hayden, Cooke wrote that his friend, Congressman William D. Kelley had also suggested "Congress pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park forever".

 

By 1915, 1,000 automobiles per year were entering the park, resulting in conflicts with horses and horse-drawn transportation. Horse travel on roads was eventually prohibited.

 

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal relief agency for young men, played a major role between 1933 and 1942 in developing Yellowstone facilities. CCC projects included reforestation, campground development of many of the park's trails and campgrounds, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, and fire-fighting work. The CCC built the majority of the early visitor centers, campgrounds and the current system of park roads.

 

During World War II, tourist travel fell sharply, staffing was cut, and many facilities fell into disrepair. By the 1950s, visitation increased tremendously in Yellowstone and other national parks. To accommodate the increased visitation, park officials implemented Mission 66, an effort to modernize and expand park service facilities. Planned to be completed by 1966, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service, Mission 66 construction diverged from the traditional log cabin style with design features of a modern style. During the late 1980s, most construction styles in Yellowstone reverted to the more traditional designs. After the enormous forest fires of 1988 damaged much of Grant Village, structures there were rebuilt in the traditional style. The visitor center at Canyon Village, which opened in 2006, incorporates a more traditional design as well.

A large arch made of irregular-shaped natural stone over a road

 

The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake just west of Yellowstone at Hebgen Lake damaged roads and some structures in the park. In the northwest section of the park, new geysers were found, and many existing hot springs became turbid. It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in recorded history.

 

In 1963, after several years of public controversy regarding the forced reduction of the elk population in Yellowstone, United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall appointed an advisory board to collect scientific data to inform future wildlife management of the national parks. In a paper known as the Leopold Report, the committee observed that culling programs at other national parks had been ineffective, and recommended management of Yellowstone's elk population.

 

The wildfires during the summer of 1988 were the largest in the history of the park. Approximately 793,880 acres (321,272 ha; 1,240 sq mi) or 36% of the parkland was impacted by the fires, leading to a systematic re-evaluation of fire management policies. The fire season of 1988 was considered normal until a combination of drought and heat by mid-July contributed to an extreme fire danger. On "Black Saturday", August 20, 1988, strong winds expanded the fires rapidly, and more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) burned.

 

The expansive cultural history of the park has been documented by the 1,000 archeological sites that have been discovered. The park has 1,106 historic structures and features, and of these Obsidian Cliff and five buildings have been designated National Historic Landmarks. Yellowstone was designated an International Biosphere Reserve on October 26, 1976, and a UN World Heritage Site on September 8, 1978. The park was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 1995 to 2003 due to the effects of tourism, infection of wildlife, and issues with invasive species. In 2010, Yellowstone National Park was honored with its own quarter under the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.

Heritage and Research Center

 

The Heritage and Research Center is located at Gardiner, Montana, near the north entrance to the park. The center is home to the Yellowstone National Park's museum collection, archives, research library, historian, archeology lab, and herbarium. The Yellowstone National Park Archives maintain collections of historical records of Yellowstone and the National Park Service. The collection includes the administrative records of Yellowstone, as well as resource management records, records from major projects, and donated manuscripts and personal papers. The archives are affiliated with the National Archives and Records Administration.

 

Approximately 96 percent of the land area of Yellowstone National Park is located within the state of Wyoming. Another three percent is within Montana, with the remaining one percent in Idaho. The park is 63 miles (101 km) north to south, and 54 miles (87 km) west to east by air. Yellowstone is 2,219,789 acres (898,317 ha; 3,468.420 sq mi) in area, larger than the states of Rhode Island or Delaware. Rivers and lakes cover five percent of the land area, with the largest water body being Yellowstone Lake at 87,040 acres (35,220 ha; 136.00 sq mi). Yellowstone Lake is up to 400 feet (120 m) deep and has 110 miles (180 km) of shoreline. At an elevation of 7,733 feet (2,357 m) above sea level, Yellowstone Lake is the largest high altitude lake in North America. Forests comprise 80 percent of the land area of the park; most of the rest is grassland.

 

The Continental Divide of North America runs diagonally through the southwestern part of the park. The divide is a topographic feature that separates Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean water drainages. About one third of the park lies on the west side of the divide. The origins of the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers are near each other but on opposite sides of the divide. As a result, the waters of the Snake River flow to the Pacific Ocean, while those of the Yellowstone find their way to the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The park sits on the Yellowstone Plateau, at an average elevation of 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level. The plateau is bounded on nearly all sides by mountain ranges of the Middle Rocky Mountains, which range from 9,000 to 11,000 feet (2,700 to 3,400 m) in elevation. The highest point in the park is atop Eagle Peak (11,358 feet or 3,462 metres) and the lowest is along Reese Creek (5,282 feet or 1,610 metres). Nearby mountain ranges include the Gallatin Range to the northwest, the Beartooth Mountains in the north, the Absaroka Range to the east, and the Teton Range and the Madison Range to the southwest and west. The most prominent summit on the Yellowstone Plateau is Mount Washburn at 10,243 feet (3,122 m).

 

Yellowstone National Park has one of the world's largest petrified forests, trees which were long ago buried by ash and soil and transformed from wood to mineral materials. This ash and other volcanic debris, are believed to have come from the park area itself. This is largely due to the fact that Yellowstone is actually a massive caldera of a supervolcano. There are 290 waterfalls of at least 15 feet (4.6 m) in the park, the highest being the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River at 308 feet (94 m).

 

Three deep canyons are located in the park, cut through the volcanic tuff of the Yellowstone Plateau by rivers over the last 640,000 years. The Lewis River flows through Lewis Canyon in the south, and the Yellowstone River has carved two colorful canyons, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone in its journey north.

 

Yellowstone is at the northeastern end of the Snake River Plain, a great U-shaped arc through the mountains that extends from Boise, Idaho some 400 miles (640 km) to the west. This feature traces the route of the North American Plate over the last 17 million years as it was transported by plate tectonics across a stationary mantle hotspot. The landscape of present-day Yellowstone National Park is the most recent manifestation of this hotspot below the crust of the Earth.

 

The Yellowstone Caldera is the largest volcanic system in North America. It has been termed a "supervolcano" because the caldera was formed by exceptionally large explosive eruptions. The magma chamber that lies under Yellowstone is estimated to be a single connected chamber, about 37 miles (60 km) long, 18 miles (29 km) wide, and 3 to 7 miles (5 to 12 km) deep. The current caldera was created by a cataclysmic eruption that occurred 640,000 years ago, which released more than 240 cubic miles (1,000 km³) of ash, rock and pyroclastic materials. This eruption was more than 1,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. It produced a caldera nearly five eighths of a mile (1 km) deep and 45 by 28 miles (72 by 45 km) in area and deposited the Lava Creek Tuff, a welded tuff geologic formation. The most violent known eruption, which occurred 2.1 million years ago, ejected 588 cubic miles (2,450 km³) of volcanic material and created the rock formation known as the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff and created the Island Park Caldera. A smaller eruption ejected 67 cubic miles (280 km³) of material 1.3 million years ago, forming the Henry's Fork Caldera and depositing the Mesa Falls Tuff.

 

Each of the three climactic eruptions released vast amounts of ash that blanketed much of central North America, falling many hundreds of miles away. The amount of ash and gases released into the atmosphere probably caused significant impacts to world weather patterns and led to the extinction of some species, primarily in North America.

Wooden walkways allow visitors to closely approach the Grand Prismatic Spring.

 

A subsequent caldera-forming eruption occurred about 160,000 years ago. It formed the relatively small caldera that contains the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. Since the last supereruption, a series of smaller eruptive cycles between 640,000 and 70,000 years ago, has nearly filled in the Yellowstone Caldera with >80 different eruptions of rhyolitic lavas such as those that can be seen at Obsidian Cliffs and basaltic lavas which can be viewed at Sheepeater Cliff. Lava strata are most easily seen at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where the Yellowstone River continues to carve into the ancient lava flows. The canyon is a classic V-shaped valley, indicative of river-type erosion rather than erosion caused by glaciation.

 

Each eruption is part of an eruptive cycle that climaxes with the partial collapse of the roof of the volcano's partially emptied magma chamber. This creates a collapsed depression, called a caldera, and releases vast amounts of volcanic material, usually through fissures that ring the caldera. The time between the last three cataclysmic eruptions in the Yellowstone area has ranged from 600,000 to 800,000 years, but the small number of such climactic eruptions cannot be used to make an accurate prediction for future volcanic events.

 

The most famous geyser in the park, and perhaps the world, is Old Faithful Geyser, located in Upper Geyser Basin. Castle Geyser, Lion Geyser and Beehive Geyser are in the same basin. The park contains the largest active geyser in the world—Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin. A study that was completed in 2011 found that at least 1283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone. Of these, an average of 465 are active in a given year. Yellowstone contains at least 10,000 geothermal features altogether. Half the geothermal features and two-thirds of the world's geysers are concentrated in Yellowstone.

 

In May 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey, Yellowstone National Park, and the University of Utah created the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), a partnership for long-term monitoring of the geological processes of the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, for disseminating information concerning the potential hazards of this geologically active region.

 

In 2003, changes at the Norris Geyser Basin resulted in the temporary closure of some trails in the basin. New fumaroles were observed, and several geysers showed enhanced activity and increasing water temperatures. Several geysers became so hot that they were transformed into purely steaming features; the water had become superheated and they could no longer erupt normally. This coincided with the release of reports of a multiple year United States Geological Survey research project which mapped the bottom of Yellowstone Lake and identified a structural dome that had uplifted at some time in the past. Research indicated that these uplifts posed no immediate threat of a volcanic eruption, since they may have developed long ago, and there had been no temperature increase found near the uplifts. On March 10, 2004, a biologist discovered 5 dead bison which apparently had inhaled toxic geothermal gases trapped in the Norris Geyser Basin by a seasonal atmospheric inversion. This was closely followed by an upsurge of earthquake activity in April 2004. In 2006, it was reported that the Mallard Lake Dome and the Sour Creek Dome— areas that have long been known to show significant changes in their ground movement— had risen at a rate of 1.5 to 2.4 inches (3.8 to 6.1 cm) per year from mid–2004 through 2006. As of late 2007, the uplift has continued at a reduced rate. These events inspired a great deal of media attention and speculation about the geologic future of the region. Experts responded to the conjecture by informing the public that there was no increased risk of a volcanic eruption in the near future. However, these changes demonstrate the dynamic nature of the Yellowstone hydrothermal system.

 

Yellowstone experiences thousands of small earthquakes every year, virtually all of which are undetectable to people. There have been six earthquakes with at least magnitude 6 or greater in historical times, including a 7.5‑magnitude quake that struck just outside the northwest boundary of the park in 1959. This quake triggered a huge landslide, which caused a partial dam collapse on Hebgen Lake; immediately downstream, the sediment from the landslide dammed the river and created a new lake, known as Earthquake Lake. Twenty-eight people were killed, and property damage was extensive in the immediate region. The earthquake caused some geysers in the northwestern section of the park to erupt, large cracks in the ground formed and emitted steam, and some hot springs that normally have clear water turned muddy. A 6.1‑magnitude earthquake struck inside the park on June 30, 1975, but damage was minimal.

 

For three months in 1985, 3,000 minor earthquakes were detected in the northwestern section of the park, during what has been referred to as an earthquake swarm, and has been attributed to minor subsidence of the Yellowstone caldera. Beginning on April 30, 2007, 16 small earthquakes with magnitudes up to 2.7 occurred in the Yellowstone Caldera for several days. These swarms of earthquakes are common, and there have been 70 such swarms between 1983 and 2008. In December 2008, over 250 earthquakes were measured over a four-day span under Yellowstone Lake, the largest measuring a magnitude of 3.9. In January 2010, more than 250 earthquakes were detected over a two-day period. Seismic activity in Yellowstone National Park continues and is reported hourly by the Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

On March 30, 2014, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck almost the very middle of Yellowstone near the Norris Basin at 6.34am; reports indicated no damage. This was the biggest earthquake to hit the park since February 22, 1980.

 

Over 1,700 species of trees and other vascular plants are native to the park. Another 170 species are considered to be exotic species and are non-native. Of the eight conifer tree species documented, Lodgepole Pine forests cover 80% of the total forested areas. Other conifers, such as Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir and Whitebark Pine, are found in scattered groves throughout the park. As of 2007, the whitebark pine is threatened by a fungus known as white pine blister rust; however, this is mostly confined to forests well to the north and west. In Yellowstone, about seven percent of the whitebark pine species have been impacted with the fungus, compared to nearly complete infestations in northwestern Montana. Quaking Aspen and willows are the most common species of deciduous trees. The aspen forests have declined significantly since the early 20th century, but scientists at Oregon State University attribute recent recovery of the aspen to the reintroduction of wolves which has changed the grazing habits of local elk.

 

There are dozens of species of flowering plants that have been identified, most of which bloom between the months of May and September. The Yellowstone Sand Verbena is a rare flowering plant found only in Yellowstone. It is closely related to species usually found in much warmer climates, making the sand verbena an enigma. The estimated 8,000 examples of this rare flowering plant all make their home in the sandy soils on the shores of Yellowstone Lake, well above the waterline.

 

In Yellowstone's hot waters, bacteria form mats of bizarre shapes consisting of trillions of individuals. These bacteria are some of the most primitive life forms on earth. Flies and other arthropods live on the mats, even in the middle of the bitterly cold winters. Initially, scientists thought that microbes there gained sustenance only from sulfur. In 2005 researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder discovered that the sustenance for at least some of the diverse hyperthermophilic species is molecular hydrogen.

 

Thermus aquaticus is a bacterium found in the Yellowstone hot springs that produces an important enzyme (Taq polymerase) that is easily replicated in the lab and is useful in replicating DNA as part of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process. The retrieval of these bacteria can be achieved with no impact to the ecosystem. Other bacteria in the Yellowstone hot springs may also prove useful to scientists who are searching for cures for various diseases.

 

Non-native plants sometimes threaten native species by using up nutrient resources. Though exotic species are most commonly found in areas with the greatest human visitation, such as near roads and at major tourist areas, they have also spread into the backcountry. Generally, most exotic species are controlled by pulling the plants out of the soil or by spraying, both of which are time consuming and expensive.

  

Yellowstone is widely considered to be the finest megafauna wildlife habitat in the lower 48 states. There are almost 60 species of mammals in the park, including the gray wolf, the threatened lynx, and grizzly bears. Other large mammals include the bison (often referred to as buffalo), black bear, elk, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mountain lion.

Bison graze near a hot spring

 

The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the largest public herd of American bison in the United States. The relatively large bison populations are a concern for ranchers, who fear that the species can transmit bovine diseases to their domesticated cousins. In fact, about half of Yellowstone's bison have been exposed to brucellosis, a bacterial disease that came to North America with European cattle that may cause cattle to miscarry. The disease has little effect on park bison, and no reported case of transmission from wild bison to domestic livestock has been filed. However, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has stated that bison are the "likely source" of the spread of the disease in cattle in Wyoming and North Dakota. Elk also carry the disease and are believed to have transmitted the infection to horses and cattle. Bison once numbered between 30 and 60 million individuals throughout North America, and Yellowstone remains one of their last strongholds. Their populations had increased from less than 50 in the park in 1902 to 4,000 by 2003. The Yellowstone Park bison herd reached a peak in 2005 with 4,900 animals. Despite a summer estimated population of 4,700 in 2007, the number dropped to 3,000 in 2008 after a harsh winter and controversial brucellosis management sending hundreds to slaughter. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is believed to be one of only four free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America. The other three herds are the Henry Mountains bison herd of Utah, at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota and on Elk Island in Alberta.

Elk Mother Nursing Her Calf

 

To combat the perceived threat of brucellosis transmission to cattle, national park personnel regularly harass bison herds back into the park when they venture outside of the area's borders. During the winter of 1996–97, the bison herd was so large that 1,079 bison that had exited the park were shot or sent to slaughter. Animal rights activists argue that this is a cruel practice and that the possibility for disease transmission is not as great as some ranchers maintain. Ecologists point out that the bison are merely traveling to seasonal grazing areas that lie within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that have been converted to cattle grazing, some of which are within National Forests and are leased to private ranchers. APHIS has stated that with vaccinations and other means, brucellosis can be eliminated from the bison and elk herds throughout Yellowstone.

A reintroduced northwestern wolf in Yellowstone National Park

 

Starting in 1914, in an effort to protect elk populations, the U.S. Congress appropriated funds to be used for the purposes of "destroying wolves, prairie dogs, and other animals injurious to agriculture and animal husbandry" on public lands. Park Service hunters carried out these orders, and by 1926 they had killed 136 wolves, and wolves were virtually eliminated from Yellowstone. Further exterminations continued until the National Park Service ended the practice in 1935. With the passing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the wolf was one of the first mammal species listed. After the wolves were extirpated from Yellowstone, the coyote then became the park's top canine predator. However, the coyote is not able to bring down large animals, and the result of this lack of a top predator on these populations was a marked increase in lame and sick megafauna.

Bison in Yellowstone National Park

 

By the 1990s, the Federal government had reversed its views on wolves. In a controversial decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which oversees threatened and endangered species), northwestern wolves, imported from Canada, were reintroduced into the park. Reintroduction efforts have been successful with populations remaining relatively stable. A survey conducted in 2005 reported that there were 13 wolf packs, totaling 118 individuals in Yellowstone and 326 in the entire ecosystem. These park figures were lower than those reported in 2004 but may be attributable to wolf migration to other nearby areas as suggested by the substantial increase in the Montana population during that interval. Almost all the wolves documented were descended from the 66 wolves reintroduced in 1995–96. The recovery of populations throughout the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho has been so successful that on February 27, 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population from the endangered species list.

 

An estimated 600 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with more than half of the population living within Yellowstone. The grizzly is currently listed as a threatened species, however the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that they intend to take it off the endangered species list for the Yellowstone region but will likely keep it listed in areas where it has not yet recovered fully. Opponents of delisting the grizzly are concerned that states might once again allow hunting and that better conservation measures need to be implemented to ensure a sustainable population. Black bears are common in the park and were a park symbol due to visitor interaction with the bears starting in 1910. Feeding and close contact with bears has not been permitted since the 1960s to reduce their desire for human foods. Yellowstone is one of the few places in the United States where black bears can be seen coexisting with grizzly bears. Black bear observations occur most often in the park's northern ranges and in the Bechler area which is in the park's southwestern corner.

 

Population figures for elk are in excess of 30,000—the largest population of any large mammal species in Yellowstone. The northern herd has decreased enormously since the mid‑1990s; this has been attributed to wolf predation and causal effects such as elk using more forested regions to evade predation, consequently making it harder for researchers to accurately count them. The northern herd migrates west into southwestern Montana in the winter. The southern herd migrates southward, and the majority of these elk winter on the National Elk Refuge, immediately southeast of Grand Teton National Park. The southern herd migration is the largest mammalian migration remaining in the U.S. outside of Alaska.

 

In 2003 the tracks of one female lynx and her cub were spotted and followed for over 2 miles (3.2 km). Fecal material and other evidence obtained were tested and confirmed to be those of a lynx. No visual confirmation was made, however. Lynx have not been seen in Yellowstone since 1998, though DNA taken from hair samples obtained in 2001 confirmed that lynx were at least transient to the park. Other less commonly seen mammals include the mountain lion and wolverine. The mountain lion has an estimated population of only 25 individuals parkwide. The wolverine is another rare park mammal, and accurate population figures for this species are not known. These uncommon and rare mammals provide insight into the health of protected lands such as Yellowstone and help managers make determinations as to how best to preserve habitats.

 

Eighteen species of fish live in Yellowstone, including the core range of the Yellowstone cutthroat trout—a fish highly sought by anglers. The Yellowstone cutthroat trout has faced several threats since the 1980s, including the suspected illegal introduction into Yellowstone Lake of lake trout, an invasive species which consume the smaller cutthroat trout. Although lake trout were established in Shoshone and Lewis lakes in the Snake River drainage from U.S. Government stocking operations in 1890, it was never officially introduced into the Yellowstone River drainage. The cutthroat trout has also faced an ongoing drought, as well as the accidental introduction of a parasite—whirling disease—which causes a terminal nervous system disease in younger fish. Since 2001, all native sport fish species caught in Yellowstone waterways are subject to a catch and release law. Yellowstone is also home to six species of reptiles, such as the painted turtle and Prairie rattlesnake, and four species of amphibians, including the Boreal Chorus Frog.

 

311 species of birds have been reported, almost half of which nest in Yellowstone. As of 1999, twenty-six pairs of nesting bald eagles have been documented. Extremely rare sightings of whooping cranes have been recorded, however only three examples of this species are known to live in the Rocky Mountains, out of 385 known worldwide. Other birds, considered to be species of special concern because of their rarity in Yellowstone, include the common loon, harlequin duck, osprey, peregrine falcon and the trumpeter swan.

 

As wildfire is a natural part of most ecosystems, plants that are indigenous to Yellowstone have adapted in a variety of ways. Douglas-fir have a thick bark which protects the inner section of the tree from most fires. Lodgepole Pines —the most common tree species in the park— generally have cones that are only opened by the heat of fire. Their seeds are held in place by a tough resin, and fire assists in melting the resin, allowing the seeds to disperse. Fire clears out dead and downed wood, providing fewer obstacles for lodgepole pines to flourish. Subalpine Fir, Engelmann Spruce, Whitebark Pine, and other species tend to grow in colder and moister areas, where fire is less likely to occur. Aspen trees sprout new growth from their roots, and even if a severe fire kills the tree above ground, the roots often survive unharmed because they are insulated from the heat by soil. The National Park Service estimates that in natural conditions, grasslands in Yellowstone burned an average of every 20 to 25 years, while forests in the park would experience fire about every 300 years.

 

About thirty-five natural forest fires are ignited each year by lightning, while another six to ten are started by people— in most cases by accident. Yellowstone National Park has three fire lookout towers, each staffed by trained fire fighters. The easiest one to reach is atop Mount Washburn, though it is closed to the public. The park also monitors fire from the air and relies on visitor reports of smoke and/or flames. Fire towers are staffed almost continuously from late June to mid-September— the primary fire season. Fires burn with the greatest intensity in the late afternoon and evening. Few fires burn more than 100 acres (40 ha), and the vast majority of fires reach only a little over an acre (0.5 ha) before they burn themselves out. Fire management focuses on monitoring dead and down wood quantities, soil and tree moisture, and the weather, to determine those areas most vulnerable to fire should one ignite. Current policy is to suppress all human caused fires and to evaluate natural fires, examining the benefit or detriment they may pose on the ecosystem. If a fire is considered to be an immediate threat to people and structures, or will burn out of control, then fire suppression is performed.

 

In an effort to minimize the chances of out of control fires and threats to people and structures, park employees do more than just monitor the potential for fire. Controlled burns are prescribed fires which are deliberately started to remove dead timber under conditions which allow fire fighters an opportunity to carefully control where and how much wood is consumed. Natural fires are sometimes considered prescribed fires if they are left to burn. In Yellowstone, unlike some other parks, there have been very few fires deliberately started by employees as prescribed burns. However, over the last 30 years, over 300 natural fires have been allowed to burn naturally. In addition, fire fighters remove dead and down wood and other hazards from areas where they will be a potential fire threat to lives and property, reducing the chances of fire danger in these areas. Fire monitors also regulate fire through educational services to the public and have been known to temporarily ban campfires from campgrounds during periods of high fire danger. The common notion in early United States land management policies was that all forest fires were bad. Fire was seen as a purely destructive force and there was little understanding that it was an integral part of the ecosystem. Consequently, until the 1970s, when a better understanding of wildfire was developed, all fires were suppressed. This led to an increase in dead and dying forests, which would later provide the fuel load for fires that would be much harder, and in some cases, impossible to control. Fire Management Plans were implemented, detailing that natural fires should be allowed to burn if they posed no immediate threat to lives and property.

 

1988 started with a wet spring season although by summer, drought began moving in throughout the northern Rockies, creating the driest year on record to that point. Grasses and plants which grew well in the early summer from the abundant spring moisture produced plenty of grass, which soon turned to dry tinder. The National Park Service began firefighting efforts to keep the fires under control, but the extreme drought made suppression difficult. Between July 15 and 21, 1988, fires quickly spread from 8,500 acres (3,400 ha; 13.3 sq mi) throughout the entire Yellowstone region, which included areas outside the park, to 99,000 acres (40,000 ha; 155 sq mi) on the park land alone. By the end of the month, the fires were out of control. Large fires burned together, and on August 20, 1988, the single worst day of the fires, more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha; 230 sq mi) were consumed. Seven large fires were responsible for 95% of the 793,000 acres (321,000 ha; 1,239 sq mi) that were burned over the next couple of months. A total of 25,000 firefighters and U.S. military forces participated in the suppression efforts, at a cost of 120 million dollars. By the time winter brought snow that helped extinguish the last flames, the fires had destroyed 67 structures and caused several million dollars in damage. Though no civilian lives were lost, two personnel associated with the firefighting efforts were killed.

 

Contrary to media reports and speculation at the time, the fires killed very few park animals— surveys indicated that only about 345 elk (of an estimated 40,000–50,000), 36 deer, 12 moose, 6 black bears, and 9 bison had perished. Changes in fire management policies were implemented by land management agencies throughout the United States, based on knowledge gained from the 1988 fires and the evaluation of scientists and experts from various fields. By 1992, Yellowstone had adopted a new fire management plan which observed stricter guidelines for the management of natural fires.

 

from Wikipedia

  

One of the stranger bus services in the Peak District is the A53 which operates four round trips between Leek and Buxton on Sundays-only. Named after the road on which it spends much of its time, funded by Staffordshire CC, and operated by Ashbourne CT, it was introduced in May 2024 to reintroduce a Sunday bus service between the two towns. This had very briefly been provided by D&G from the point in July 2023 when they took on the Sunday workings on First's 18 and extended it to Buxton to the end of October 2023 when they decided to focus resources on the core Hanley to Leek stretch. For most of the past half decade though there have been no Sunday buses between Buxton and Leek, with the Sunday service on D&G's 16 withdrawn during the first Covid lockdown in March 2020.

 

Resembling as much an Evri delivery van as it does a bus and carrying a near-undetectable card on the dash showing the route number, Mercedes Sprinter KP24HUU is seen passing Ramshaw Rocks with the 10:00 Buxton to Leek.

Designed primarily to carry troops into the field from orbit, the CKL-109 is sleak, fast and virtually undetectable.

When, in the 1970s, Pasadena chose to redevelop its downtown, replacing most of three square blocks with a two-level enclosed shopping mall atop a four-level underground garage, there was some protest from citizens concerned about the fact that the mall, Plaza Pasadena, would block the north-south axis of Pasadena's 1920s "City Beautiful" movement-inspired Civic center, Garfield Avenue. The north end of the axis was closed by the Public Library, and the south end by the Civic Auditorium. The two-level mall would lie athwart the axis in the block north of the auditorium.

 

The developers came up with a plan which was accepted by the city, though it didn't satisfy all the citizens. The mall would feature a grand architectural gesture at the point where it cross the civic center's formal axis. It was a high-arched, glass-walled space through which the mall's second level would cross only on two thin,narrow bridges, minimizing the interruption.

 

In practice, the solution was less than adequate. Despite the airy nature of the space, the two walls of glass were as reflective as they were transparent, and the arched entrance to the mall became in effect the southern terminus of the axis, isolating the auditorium from the civic center's other Beaux Arts monuments. Though the monumental entrance was widely acknowledged the best feature of Plaza Pasadena, it had failed in its primary purpose of reconciling the modern mall with the classic civic center.

 

Less than twenty years after it was built, Plaza Pasadena was failing economically, just as it had largely failed aesthetically, and much of the project, including the monumental entrance, was demolished. Today, visually re-opened (though still closed to motor traffic), the Garfield Avenue axis of the civic center is once again terminated by the grand Beaux Arts facade of the Civic Auditorium. The open space is now the center of the mixed use project called Paseo Colorado.

 

But here is my snapshot of the entrance to Plaza Pasadena as it appeared in the summer of 1986, a few years after the mall opened. The view is to the south, but the street that can be seen is the reflection of Garfield Avenue running north. The Civic Auditorium a block beyond the doors is undetectable through the walls of glass.

PhoneSpying is a participant in the TheTruthSpy Associates Program

 

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Urbex Benelux -

 

Deep in the Flemish countryside, an old farmhouse has remained there, frozen in time, it still reflects the events of the past it has suffered and its former owner watches, ghostly, so that his home does not move. a bit, unless he decides to, but that in one visit is undetectable. Technology, forget it, it is not present, despite the two warts in the kitchen, everything is classic and everything will remain so if Monsieur Boon wants it

Upgraded turret reactive armor package, as well as better optics, cannon stabilization. The T72 Skeena is designed to be hard to detect in its native terrain of the former Canadian Territories. Thermally its undetectable, using advanced cooling and sensor disruption technology borrowed from later Russian designs. Due to its advanced systems and expensive upgrades the Skeena was only produced in limited quantities but still saw heavy use in border disputes.

PLEASE, NO invitations, graphics or self promotions, THEY WILL BE DELETED. My photos are FREE to use, just give me credit and it would be nice if you let me know, thanks.

 

The fishing boat "Bethany Rose" at Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia.

---------------------------------------------

Health Update: I am getting hormone shots every 3 months and lots of blood work. I do not feel to bad but lack energy so world trips are on hold. I asked how long before I feel normal, they said about a year after treatments end (2 years from now). My PSA levels were 28 when I started but now they are undetectable so treatments are working, when done (after treatments) they do not want to see the PSA go above 2.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

 

Some background:

NAe São Paulo is a Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier currently in service with the Brazilian Navy. São Paulo was first commissioned in 1963 by the French Navy as Foch and was transferred in 2000 to Brazil, where she became the new flagship of the Brazilian Navy. In December 2014 it was announced that São Paulo will be expected to continue active service until 2039, at which time the vessel will be nearly 80 years old.

 

From this carrier, the Marinha do Brasil operates its only fixed-wing aircraft, and these were initially A-4 Skyhawks. In 1997 Brazil negotiated a $70 million contract for purchase of 20 A-4KU and three TA-4KU Skyhawks from Kuwait. The Kuwaiti Skyhawks, modified A-4Ms and TA-4Js delivered in 1977, were among the last of those models built by Douglas. The Kuwaiti Skyhawks were selected by Brazil because of low flight time, excellent physical condition, and a favorable price tag. The Brazilian Navy Re-designated AF-1 and AF-1A Falcões (Hawks), the ex-Kuwaiti Skyhawks arrived in Arraial do Cabo on 5 September 1998.

 

Anyway, the Skyhawks' life span was limited and in 2005 the Brazilian Navy started looking for a potential replacement, while the AF-1s were to kept operational due to limited military budgets. On 14 April 2009, Brazlian aircraft manufacturer EMBRAER signed a contract to modernize 12 Skyhawks, nine AF-1s (single-seat) and three AF-1As (two-seat). This upgrade will restore the operating capacity of the Navy 1st Intercept and Attack Plane Squadron (VF-1). The program includes restoring the aircraft and their current systems, as well as implementing new avionics, radar, power production, and autonomous oxygen generating systems. The first of the 12 modified Skyhawks was delivered on 27 May 2015. EMBRAER stated that the modifications would allow the aircraft to remain operational until 2025, by which time a successor was to be fully operational.

 

Several replacement candidates were evaluated under Brazil's F-X2 fighter program together with the Air Force which was looking to replace its Northrop F‐5EM and Dassault Mirage 2000C aircraft. In October 2008, Brazil selected three finalists: the Dassault Rafale, the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, and the SAAB JAS 39 Gripen. The Brazilian Air Force initially planned to procure at least 36 and possibly up to 120 aircraft later, while the Brazilian Navy was looking for 24 aircraft (20 single seater and 4 two-seaters with dual controls) until 2025.

 

In February 2009, SAAB submitted a tender, and on 5 January 2010, reports claimed that the final evaluation report placed the Gripen ahead of other contenders; the decisive factor was reportedly lower unit and operational costs, the most compact size and the Swedish manufacturer's willingness to accept EMBRAER as a technological partner for the aircraft's further development, especially for the navalized version.

 

Amid delays due to financial constraints, President Dilma Rousseff announced in December 2011 the Gripen NG's selection and the start of a joint Swedish-Brazilian joint venture called SABRA. Argentina and Ecuador were interested in procuring Gripens from or through Brazil, and Mexico and Argenitina were potential export targets for SABRA's navalized Gripen derivative that was tailored to the Marinha do Brasil's needs.

 

The respective SABRA aircraft was appropriately christened "Grifo" and the development of thei 4th generation fighter started immediately after closing the cooperation deal in 2011. While based on the SAAB 39, the Grifo became a very different aircraft, due to several factors. The major influence was the carrier operation capability, which called for major structural modifications and enforcements as well as special equipment like foldable wings, a strengthened landing gear, an arrester hook and a new engine that would better cope with the naval environment than the Swedish RM 12 engine, a derivative of the General Electric F404-400.

 

Additionally, the mission focus of air superiority with additional attack capabilities was reversed, and the need for excellent low speed handling for carrier approaches was requested.

 

This led to a complelety different aircraft layout, with the SAAB 39's instable canard design being changed into a conservative aircraft with conventional tailplanes. The nose section was shortened in order to provide the pilot with a better field of view, while the more powerful F414-EPE afterburning turbofan was moved slightly forward due to CG reasons, resulting in a slightly shortened rear fuselage.

 

A mock-up of the new aircraft for the Brazlian Navy was presented and approved in early 2012, and the government placed an official order for two prototypes. Even though the Grifo appeared like a completely different aircraft, it shared a lot of elements with the SAAB 39, so that development time and costs could be reduced to a minimum - and the first prototype, internally designated EMB 391-001, made its maiden flight in early 2013. The second aircraft followed 3 months later.

 

The Grifo's equipment includes an AN/APG-79 active electronically scanned array (AESA), capable of executing simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks, and providing higher quality high-resolution ground mapping at long standoff ranges. The AESA radar can also detect smaller targets, such as inbound missiles, and can track air targets beyond the range of the aircraft's air-to-air missiles, which include the AIM-9 Sidewinder for close range and the AIM-120 AMRAAM for medium range.

 

The Grifo features, like the Gripen fighter, an advanced and integrated electronic warfare suite, capable of operating in an undetectable passive mode or to actively jam hostile radar; a missile approach warning system passively detects and tracks incoming missiles.

 

The Grifo can be tailored to specific missions through external sensor pods, e .g. for reconnaissance and target designation. These include Rafael's LITENING targeting pod, Saab's Modular Reconnaissance Pod System or Thales' Digital Joint Reconnaissance Pod. On the Brazilian Navy's request the Grifo is also designed that it can be equipped with an aerial refueling system (ARS) or "buddy store" for the refueling of other aircraft, filling the tactical airborne tanker role.

 

The two prototypes completed a thorough test program until summer 2015 and subsequently went on a sales tour in South America and Asia. In the meantime, serial production started at EMBRAER's Gavião Peixoto in November 2015. The first serial machines, now officially designated AF-2A, arrived at the Brazilian Navy's São Pedro da Aldeia air base where a new Intercept and Attack Plane Squadron, VF-2 'Arquieros' (Archers) was founded. The squadron became operational in April 2016 and Grifos embarked on NAe São Paulo for the first time in September 2016, serving alongside the venerable AF-1.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Payload: 5,300 kg (11,700 lb)

Length: 13,54 m (44 ft 4 in)

Wingspan (incl. wing tip launch rails): 8.32 m (27 ft 2 in)

Height: 4.25 m (13 ft 11 in)

Wing area: 30.0 m² (323 ft²)

Empty weight: 6,800 kg[330] (14,990 lb)

Loaded weight: 8,500 kg (18,700 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 14,000 kg (31,000 lb)

Wheel track: 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in)

Powerplant:

1 × General Electric F414-EPE afterburning turbofan with

a dry thrust of 54 kN (12,100 lbf) and 85 kN (19,100 lbf) with afterburner

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 2 (2,204 km/h (1,190 kn; 1,370 mph) at high altitude

Combat radius: 800 km (497 mi, 432 nmi)

Ferry range: 3,200 km (1,983 mi) with drop tanks

Service ceiling: 15,240 m (50,000 ft)

Wing loading: 283 kg/m² (58 lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 0.97

Maximum g-load: +9 g

 

Armament:

1× 27 mm Mauser BK-27 Revolver cannon with 120 rounds

Eight hardpoints (three on each wing and two under fuselage)

for a wide range of guide and unguided ordnance of up to 14,330 lb (6.5 t)

  

The kit and its assembly:

The fictional Grifo is the result of a generic idea of converting a canard layout aircraft like the Saab Viggen into a conventional design. The Viggen was actually a serious candidate, but then I found an Italeri Gripen in the stash without a real purpose (it had been cheap, though), and with Brazil's real world procurement as background, the more conservative Grifo was born.

 

I wanted to use as many OOB Gripen parts as possible, and there are actually only a few external donations involved – with the outlook of converting further Gripens this way. You never know… ;)

 

Work started with the wings, which were cut off of the fuselage shell. Having the landing gear retract into the fuselage (much like the X-29) is a convenient detail of the Gripen, making the wing transplantation easier than on a Viggen where the wells have to be moved, too.

 

The original canard attachment points were faired over/hidden. The pointed Gripen nose with its pitot was cut off and replaced by a shorter, more stocky nose tip - from an F-4 Phantom II IIRC. Once the fuselage was completed, the wings were mounted, closer to the air intakes. This went smoothly, only some gaps on the undersides had to be filled.

 

Once the wings were in place I had to make a decision concerning the stabilizers. Despite the plan to use as many OOB parts as possible I found the OOB canards to be too sharply swept and considered several donation options.

I eventually settled for the most unique option: the stabilizers are actually main wings from a (rather malformed) Italeri/Dragon 1:200 F-117 that comes as a set with the B-2 bomber. A part of the F-117’s fuselage flank was cut off and taken over to the Grifo, too, so that these create ‘muscular’ bulges.

 

The stabilizers were mounted on scratched consoles/trailing wing root extensions that were somewhat inspired by the F-16’s tail design – putting the stabilizers directly onto the fuselage would have looked awkward, and with this solution I was able to extend the Gripen’s BWB-design all along the fuselage. As a side effect these consoles also offered a plausible place for rearward chaff dispensers.

 

The rear fuselage was shortened by 3mm, too – through the shorter nose and the wings further forward, the rest of the aircraft looked rather tail-heavy. While 3mm does not sound much, it helped with overall proportions.

 

The cannon fairing and the OOB pylons were taken over, as well as the cockpit interior. For carrier operations, several details were added, though: folding wing mechanism seams were engraved on the wings and an arrester hook with a fairing added under the tail section, flanked by new stabilizer fins.

 

The landing gear was basically taken OOB, too, but lengthened with styrene inserts for a higher stance: the main struts are now 2mm longer, while the front strut is 3mm taller. The latter was reversed, so that a catapult hook could be added to the front side, and slightly bigger wheels were mounted, too, so that the Grifo now has a rather stalky stance with a nose-up attitude. Simple, but effective!

 

The Sidewinders were taken OOB while the pair of AGM-84 Harpoon comes from Italeri’s 1:72 NATO weapons set.

 

Painting and markings:

I used the contemporary AF-1 paint scheme in three shades of grey as benchmark. These are FS 36187 (RAF Ocean Grey), FS 36307 (Flint Grey) and FS 36515 (Canadian Voodoo Grey) - sourced from a painting guide from Brazilian decal manufacturer FCM and backed by other knowledgeable sources from the region, too. And while the Ocean Grey appears a bit dark, I think that overall the colors are authentic. All paints are Modelmaster enamels.

 

After basic painting a light black ink wash was applied and panels highlighted through dry-brushing with lighter tones.

 

The cockpit interior was painted in Neutral Grey (FS 36173), while the landing gear became all-white.

The Brazilian Navy markings had to be improvised - there are 1:72 AF-1 decals available, but either not obtainable or prohibitively expensive - or both. Therefore I rather improvised, with basic Brazilian Navy markings from a vintage FCM Decal sheet for various Brazilian aircraft.

 

The respective roundels and codes actually belong to helicopters, and I had to wing it somehow. Unfortunately, the old FCM decals turned out to be ...old. Brittle and very delicate, application was already messy and they did not adhere well to the model. To make matters worse the acrylic varnish turned cloudy, so that a lot of paintwork repair had to be done - not helping much with a satisfactory kit finish. :(

  

Another interesting conversion – I am amazed how purposeful the Grifo looks. It reminds me with its high stance of a modern A-4 Skyhawk (what it somehow is), and there’s also some Super Étendard in it, esp. in the profile? At some point before painting it also had a somewhat Chinese look - maybe because the top view and the wing planform reminds of the classic MiG-21…? The wings might have been placed 3-4mm further backwards, since it is always difficult to judge proportions while work is still, but the Grifo looks convincingly like a real aircraft (model).

 

Aeronaves bonita! :D

Here I am with my first dog, a willful and sometimes fierce poodle.

 

He'd run like hell anytime he escaped from the house. That prompted one of our neighbors in tony Los Altos Hills to remind us in writing the community had a "lease [sic] aw."

 

He had it in for men. When meeting men for the first time, he'd go for their ankles, producing a distinctive tear near their trouser cuffs. My mother got to know many "invisible" tailors, so named because their repair work was undetectable.

 

I still have his favorite chair.

 

Great Bend, Kansas, June, 1967. Scan from a Kodachrome print.My scan of an original non-digital image in my collection to which I own all rights.

DOD CAPTION

APRA HARBOR, GUAM (Jan. 15, 2022)

 

The U.S. Navy ballistic-missile submarine USS NEVADA_SSBN 733 arrived at Naval Base Guam, Jan. 15. The port visit strengthens cooperation between the United States and allies in the region, demonstrating U.S. capability, flexibility, readiness, and continuing commitment to Indo-Pacific regional security and stability. USS Nevada, homeported in Naval Base Kitsap, Wash., is an Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine, an undetectable launch platform for submarine-launched ballistic missiles, providing the United States with its most important survivable leg of the nuclear triad.

 

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Darek Leary

©USN Official Photo

 

I had battery issues on various pieces of equipment last night, which I finally solved, and high, faint almost undetectable misty cloud, not to mention poor skies and bad light pollution, but at least I managed to get this. In hindsight I wish I had tried NGC 7000.

 

It was 15 subs at 300 seconds each, using a Canon 650D modified camera, stacked in DSS and processed with Pixinsight.

Hill Aerospace Museum

 

History of the F-117 "Nighthawk"

The F-117 "Nighthawk" is a single-seat, twin-engine strike-fighter built by Lockheed's Skunk Works. Designed as a stealth aircraft undetectable by enemy radar, the F-117 made its first flight in 1981. The Nighthawk was the first operational aircraft designed to exploit low-observable stealth technology to evade detection by radar or sensors, allowing it to carry out its mission and return home undetected.

 

The U.S. Air Force used the F-117 in the U.S. Invasion of Panama, the Gulf War, and Kosovo. It also flew missions over Afghanistan and in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The U.S. Air Force retired these aircraft from active service in 2008 as the more advanced F-22 "Raptor" assumed the role once held by the F-117. Lockheed built 64 Nighthawks total.

 

The F-117 "Nighthawk" at Hill Air Force Base

On 15 December 1998, Hill Air Force Base's Ogden Air Logistics Center was assigned the responsibility of F-117 battle/crash damage repair and depot field team support by way of Expeditionary Depot Maintenance expertise through the 649th Combat Logistics Support Squadron (CLSS). This new mission required the deployment of military teams worldwide to perform heavy maintenance and aircraft modifications on Nighthawks wherever necessary. The 649th performed this mission until 2008 when the F-117 retired from service.

 

The F-117 on display at the Hill Aerospace Museum made its first flight on 22 September 1983. It flew 5,234 flight hours and 54 combined combat sorties in Desert Storm, Allied Force, and Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 4450th Tactical Group (TG). In fact, #799 flew the most combat sorties out of all F-117s in Operation Iraqi Freedom. When in service, Airmen of the 4450 TG nicknamed this airframe "Midnight Rider." It was acquired by the museum for display in 2020.

 

Specifications

S/N 82-799

Manufacturer: Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co.

Crew: One

Engine: Two General Electric F404 non-afterburning engines

Wingspant 43 ft 4 in

Length: 63 ft 9 in

Height: 12 ft 9.5 in

Weight: 52,500 pounds

Speed High subsonic

Range: Unlimited with air refueling

Service Ceiling: 45,000 ft

Armaments Internal weapons carriage; various ordinance

Cost: $45 million

The trademark ship of bounty hunter Kilvane Frost. Outfitted with ion blasters, plasma cannons, seeker missiles, fission missiles, and rear-deploying seismic charges and V.II Sabotage droids. Two hyper-computing droids run the ship's technological systems, including two high-powered scrambling devices that render the ship undetectable on radar and immune to targeting systems. Four thruster-type engines give the Manta unrivaled speed and maneuverability for a ship of its size.

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I shortened and altered the tail section and gave the wings the ability to "lock into attack position".

Built for the new RPG Struggle for Klegon over at galactic-bricks.boards.net/board/7/struggle-klegon

Comments and criticism welcome! :D

Ronin