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Our third major leopard encounter was with a lovely female African leopard Panthera pardus pardus). It was nearly 7pm and the light was beginning to fade, but she was still clearly visible lying on a branch. After a while she sat up and looked out beyond our vehicles. I think dinner was on her mind. She must have seen something because she suddenly bounded down the tree to the ground, walked a bit through the grass, and then disappeared.
Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, Africa.
Conservation status: Vulnerable
Belgium. Meise.
National Botanic Garden.
Amorphophallus titanum, titan arum
The bulb has grown from 10 kg in 2008 to 47 kg in 2011 and 130 kg in 2013.
link to a David Attenborough video fr.youtube.com/watch?v=FHaWu2rcP94
It's the largest inflorescence in the world.
Seen at Marwell Zoo, near Winchester, Hants.
The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is an atypical member of the cat family (Felidae): that is, unique in its speed, while lacking climbing abilities. Therefore it is placed in its own genus, Acinonyx.
It is the fastest land animal, reaching speeds of 70-75 mph in short bursts covering distances up to 460m, and has the ability to accelerate from 0 to 68 mph in three seconds, faster than most supercars.
The word "cheetah" is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning "variegated body." Cheetah cubs have a high mortality rate due to genetic factors and predation by carnivores in competition with the cheetah, such as the lion and hyena. Recent inbreeding causes cheetahs to share very similar genetic profiles. This has led to poor sperm, birth defects, cramped teeth, curled tails, and bent limbs. Some biologists now believe that they are too inbred to flourish as a species.
Cheetahs are included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of vulnerable species (African subspecies threatened, Asiatic subspecies in critical situation) as well as on the US Endangered Species Act. Approximately 12,400 cheetahs remain in the wild in 25 African countries; Namibia has the most, with about 2,500. Another 50-60 critically endangered Asiatic Cheetahs are thought to remain in Iran. - Details from Wikipedia.
Day 87 of 365
Today was a healing day
I don't feel too weird posting this, I hope you all handle it maturely though.
I'm almost to the end of this.
Wow, I'm horrible with my 365.
Oh well.
I also seem to be only putting out golden hour and black and whites of my face/eyes/shoulders/hair.
Yeah, I need new stuff.
Sorry everyone.
But I'm shooting a music video tomorrow! Yay! Hoping for some good photos too!
Had Erin's beautiful new photo in mind when I took this, as well as Anna's photos in general. They're both incredible.
Stacks of flour at a WFP warehouse in Goma, North Kivu province.
Photo by Kaukab Jhumra Smith/USAID
On March 24, 2016, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced an award of $42.75 million to the World Food Programme (WFP) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), contributing to food assistance for more than 1.6 million vulnerable people in conflict-affected parts of the country.
Half this contribution is earmarked for local and regional food procurement, which will support local economies and stimulate regional agricultural markets. The other half will be used to procure food commodities in the U.S. or other international markets at favorable prices.
USAID’s contribution will allow WFP to continue its relief and recovery operations in the eastern and southern provinces of the DRC, including the most hard-to-reach areas affected by conflict and mass internal displacements.
USAID is the most important financial partner of WFP, a United Nations agency engaged in the fight against hunger in the DRC. Between 2011 and 2015, USAID provided approximately $221 million to WFP in the DRC, contributing to WFP’s emergency assistance to more than 14 million vulnerable people in that period.
Rhododendron is experiencing hardship now with cold sunny days
Minolta XM , Voigtlander Ultron 40mm F2 SL Aspherical, Ektar 100, Rollei Colorchem C-41, 38 °C, hand processing
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
In the first years of the war, the Wehrmacht had only little interest in developing self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, but as the Allies developed air superiority and dedicated attack aircraft threatened the ground troops from above, the need for more mobile and better-armed self-propelled anti-aircraft guns increased. As a stopgap solution the Wehrmacht initially adapted a variety of wheeled, half-track and tracked vehicles to serve as mobile forward air defense positions. Their tasks were to protect armor and infantry units in the field, as well as to protect temporary forward area positions such as mobile headquarters and logistic points.
These vehicles were only lightly armored, if at all, and rather mobilized the anti-aircraft weapons. As Allied fighter bombers and other ground attack aircraft moved from machine gun armament and bombing to air-to-ground rockets and large-caliber cannons, the air defense positions were even more vulnerable. The answer was to adapt a tank chassis with a specialized turret that would protect the gun crews while they fired upon approaching Allied aircraft. Furthermore, the vehicle would have the same mobility as the battle tanks it protected.
Initial German AA-tank designs were the ‘Möbelwagen’ and the ‘Wirbelwind’, both conversions of refurbished Panzer IV combat tank chassis with open platforms or turrets with four 20mm cannon. Alternatively, a single 37mm AA gun was mounted, too – but all these vehicles were just a compromise and suffered from light armor, a high silhouette and lack of crew protection.
Further developments of more sophisticated anti-aircraft tank designs started in late 1943 and led into different directions. One development line was the ‘Kugelblitz’, another Panzer IV variant, but this time the ball-shaped turret, armed with very effective 30 mm MK 103 cannon, was fully integrated into the hull, resulting in a low silhouette and a protected crew. However, the ‘Kugelblitz’ only featured two of these guns and the tilting turret was very cramped and complicated. Venting and ammunition feed problems led to serious delays and a prolonged development stage.
The ‘Coelian’ family of bigger turrets with various weapon options for the Panzer V (the ‘Panther’) was another direction, especially as a response against the armored Il-2 attack aircraft at the Eastern front and against flying targets at medium altitude. Targets at high altitude, esp. Allied bombers, were to be countered with the very effective 8.8 cm Flak, and there were also several attempts to mount this weapon onto a fully armored hull.
The primary weapon for a new low/medium altitude anti-aircraft tank was to become the heavy automatic 55 mm MK 214. Like the 30 mm MK 103 it was a former aircraft weapon, belt-fed and adapted to continuous ground use. However, in early 1944, teething troubles with the ‘Kugelblitz’ suggested that a completely enclosed turret with one or (even better) two of these new weapons, mounted on a ‘Panther’ or the new E-50/75 tank chassis, would need considerable development time. Operational vehicles were not expected to enter service before mid-1945. In order to fill this operational gap, a more effective solution than the Panzer IV AA conversions, with more range and firepower than anything else currently in service, was direly needed.
This situation led to yet another hasty stopgap solution, the so-called ‘Ostwind II’ weapon system, which consisted primarily of a new turret, mated with a standard medium battle tank chassis. It was developed in a hurry in the course of 1944 and already introduced towards the end of the same year. The ‘Ostwind II’ was a compromise in the worst sense: even though it used two 37 mm FlaK 43 guns in a new twin mount and offered better firepower than any former German AA tank, it also retained many weaknesses from its predecessors: an open turret with only light armor and a high silhouette. But due to the lack of time and resources, the ‘Ostwind II’ was the best thing that could be realized on short notice, and with the perspective of more effective solutions within one year’s time it was rushed into production.
The ‘Ostwind II’ system was an open, roughly diamond-shaped, octagonal turret, very similar in design to the Panzer IV-based ‘Wirbelwind’ and ‘Ostwind’ (which was re-designated ‘Ostwind I’). As a novelty, in order to relieve the crew from work overload, traverse and elevation of the turret was hydraulic, allowing a full elevation (-4° to +90° was possible) in just over four seconds and a full 360° traverse in 15 seconds. This had become necessary because the new turret was bigger and heaver, both the weapons and their crews required more space, so that the Ostwind II complex could not be mounted onto the Panzer IV chassis anymore and movement by hand was just a fallback option.
In order to provide the ‘Ostwind II’ with a sufficiently large chassis, it was based on the SdKfz. 171 Panzer V medium battle tank, the ‘Panther’, exploiting its bigger turret ring, armor level and performance. The Panther chassis had, by late 1944, become available for conversions in considerable numbers through damaged and/or recovered combat tanks, and updated details like new turrets or simplified road wheels were gradually introduced into production and during refurbishments. Mounting the ‘Ostwind II’ turret on the Panzer VI (Tiger) battle tank chassis had been theoretically possible, too, but it never happened, because the Tiger lacked agility and its protection level and fuel consumption were considered impractical for an SPAAG that would typically protect battle tank groups.
The ‘Ostwind II’ turret was built around a motorized mount for the automatic 3.7 cm FlaK 43 twin guns. These proven weapons were very effective against aircraft flying at altitudes up to 4,200 m, but they also had devastating effect against ground targets. The FlaK 43’s armor penetration was considerable when using dedicated ammunition: at 100 m distance it could penetrate 36 mm of a 60°-sloped armor, and at 800 m distance correspondingly 24 mm. The FlaK 43’s theoretical maximum rate of fire was 250 shots/minute, but it was practically kept at ~120 rpm in order to save ammunition and prevent wear of the barrels. The resulting weight of fire was 76.8 kg (169 lb) per minute, but this was only theoretical, too, because the FlaK 43 could only be fed manually by 6-round clips – effectively, only single shots or short bursts could be fired, but a trained crew could maintain fire through using alternating gun use. A more practical belt feed was at the time of the Ostwind II's creation not available yet, even though such a mechanism was already under development for the fully enclosed Coelian turret, which could also take the FlaK 43 twin guns, but the armament was separated from the turret crew.
The new vehicle received the official designation ‘Sd.Kfz. 171/2 Flakpanzer V’, even though ‘Ostwind II’ was more common. When production actually began and how many were built is unclear. The conversion of Panther hulls could have started in late-1944 or early-1945, with sources disagreeing. The exact number of produced vehicles is difficult to determine, either. Beside the prototype, the number of produced vehicles goes from as little as 6 to over 40. The first completed Ostwind II SPAAGs were exclusively delivered to Eastern front units and reached them in spring 1945, where they were immediately thrown into action.
All Flakpanzer vehicles at that time were allocated to special anti-aircraft tank platoons (so-called Panzer Flak Züge). These were used primarily to equip Panzer Divisions, and in some cases given to special units. By the end of March 1945, there were plans to create mixed platoons equipped with the Ostwinds and other Flakpanzers. Depending on the source, they were either to be used in combination with six Kugelblitz, six Ostwinds and four Wirbelwinds or with eight Ostwinds and three Sd.Kfz. 7/1 half-tracks. Due to the war late stage and the low number of anti-aircraft tanks of all types built, this reorganization was never truly implemented, so that most vehicles were simply directly attached to combat units, primarily to the commanding staff.
The Ostwind II armament proved to be very effective, but the open turret (nicknamed ‘Keksdose’ = cookie tin) left the crews vulnerable. The crew conditions esp. during wintertime were abominable, and since aiming had to rely on vision the system's efficacy was limited, esp. against low-flying targets. The situation was slightly improved when the new mobile ‘Medusa’ and ‘Basilisk’ surveillance and target acquisition systems were introduced. These combined radar and powerful visual systems and guided the FlaK crews towards incoming potential targets, what markedly improved the FlaKs' first shot hit probability. However, the radar systems rarely functioned properly, the coordination of multiple SPAAGs in the heat of a low-level air attack was a challenging task, and - to make matters worse - the new mobile radar systems were even more rare than the new SPAAGs themselves.
All Ostwind II tanks were built from recovered ‘Panther’ battle tanks of various versions. The new Panther-based SPAAGs gradually replaced most of the outdated Panzer IV AA variants as well as the Ostwind I. Their production immediately stopped in the course of 1945 when the more sophisticated 'Coelian' family of anti-aircraft tanks with fully enclosed turrets became available. This system was based on Panzer V hulls, too, and it was soon followed by the first E-50 SPAAGs with the new, powerful twin-55 mm gun.
Specifications:
Crew: Six (commander, gunner, 2× loader, driver, radio-operator/hull machine gunner)
Weight: 43.8 tonnes (43.1 long tons; 48.3 short tons)
Length (hull only): 6.87 m (22 ft 6 in)
Width: 3.42 m (11 ft 3 in)
Height: 3.53 m (11 ft 6 3/4 in)
Suspension: Double torsion bar, interleaved road wheels
Fuel capacity: 720 litres (160 imp gal; 190 US gal)
Armor:
15–80 mm (0.6 – 3.15 in)
Performance:
Maximum road speed: 46 km/h (29 mph)
Operational range: 250 km (160 mi)
Power/weight: 15.39 PS (11.5 kW)/tonne (13.77 hp/ton)
Engine:
Maybach HL230 P30 V-12 petrol engine with 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)
ZF AK 7-200 gear; 7 forward 1 reverse
Armament:
2× 37 mm (1.46 in) FlaK 43 cannon in twin mount with 1.200 rounds
1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun in the front glacis plate with 2.500 rounds
The kit and its assembly:
This was a spontaneous build, more or less the recycling of leftover parts from a 1:72 Revell Ostwind tank on a Panzer III chassis that I had actually bought primarily for the chassis (it became a fictional Aufklärungspanzer III). When I looked at the leftover turret, I wondered about a beefed-up/bigger version with two 37 mm guns. Such an 'Ostwind II' was actually on the German drawing boards, but never realized - but what-if modelling can certainly change that. However, such a heavy weapon would have to be mounted on a bigger/heavier chassis, so the natural choice became the Panzer V, the Panther medium battle tank. This way, my ‘Ostwind II’ interpretation was born.
The hull for this fictional AA tank is a Hasegawa ‘Panther Ausf. G’ kit, which stems from 1973 and clearly shows its age, at least from today’s point of view. While everything fits well, the details are rather simple, if not crude (e. g. the gratings on the engine deck or the cupola on the turret). However, only the lower hull and the original wheels were used since I wanted to portray a revamped former standard battle tank.
The turret was a more complicated affair. It had to be completely re-constructed, to accept the enlarged twin gun and to fit onto the Panther hull. The first step was the assembly of the twin gun mount, using parts from the original Ostwind kit and additional parts from a second one. In order to save space and not to make thing uber-complicated I added the second weapon to the right side of the original gun and changed some accessories.
This, together with the distance between the barrels, gave the benchmark for the turret's reconstruction. Since the weapon had not become longer, I decided to keep things as simple as possible and just widen the open turret - I simply took the OOB Ostwind hexagonal turret (which consists of an upper and lower half), cut it up vertically and glued them onto the Panther turret's OOB base, shifting the sides just as far to the outside that the twin gun barrels would fit between them - a distance of ~0.4 inch (1 cm). At the rear the gap was simply closed with styrene sheet, while the front used shield parts from the Revell Ostwind kit that come from a ground mount for the FlaK 43. Two parts from this shield were glued together and inserted into the front gap. While this is certainly not as elegant as e. g. the Wirbelwind turret, I think that this solution was easier to integrate.
Massive PSR was necessary to blend the turret walls with the Panther turret base, and as a late modification the opening for the sight had to be moved, too. To the left of the weapons, I also added a raised protective shield for the commander.
Inside of the turret, details from the Ostwind kit(s), e. g. crew seats and ammunition clips, were recycled, too.
Painting and markings:
Since the Ostwind II would be based on a repaired/modified former Panzer V medium battle tank, I settled upon a relatively simple livery. The kit received a uniform finish in Dunkelgelb (RAL 7028), with a network of greenish-grey thin stripes added on top, to break up the tank's outlines and reminiscent of the British ‘Malta’ scheme, but less elaborate. The model and its parts were initially primed with matt sand brown from the rattle can (more reddish than RAL 7028) and then received an overall treatment with thinned RAL 7028 from Modelmaster, for an uneven, dirty and worn look. The stripes were created with thinned Tamiya XF-65 (Field Grey).
Once dry, the whole surface received a dark brown wash, details were emphasized with dry-brushing in light grey and beige. Decals were puzzled together from various German tank sheets, and the kit finally sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
The black vinyl tracks were also painted/weathered, with a wet-in-wet mix of black, grey, iron and red brown (all acrylics). Once mounted into place, mud and dust were simulated around the running gear and the lower hull with a greyish-brown mix of artist mineral pigments.
A bit of recycling and less exotic than one would expect, but it’s still a whiffy tank model that fits well into the historic gap between the realized Panzer IV AA tanks and the unrealized E-50/75 projects. Quite subtle! Creating the enlarged turret was the biggest challenge, even, even more so because it was/is an open structure and the interior can be readily seen. But the new/bigger gun fits well into it, and it even remained movable!
Young female lion (panthera leo) born June 22, 2014 to father "Izu" and mother "Oshana" at the San Diego Zoo. There are four in their littler: one male (Ernest) and three females (Evelyn, Marion and Miss Ellen). Conservation status: vulnerable
~ Los conflictos que tenemos en nuestra vida, son reflejo de nuestros propios demonios interiores.
Si estás derrotado en tu interior no encontrarás más que derrotas en tu vida…para encontrar algo afuera primero hay que encontrarlo adentro.-
Made with Fuji Xpro-2, Minolta Auto-Bellows III and Minolta MC Rokkor-PF 50mm f/1.7 and lit with 3 Lumecube 2.0
I think I need to take some photos that lean towards the "edgy" end of the scale because every photo idea I have can't be executed too well since she's so severe! I also removed her lashes since they're so annoying
Name: Atlantic puffin
Scientific: Fratercula arctica
Family: Alcidae
IUCN Red List (v3.1, 2018): Vulnerable
Gear: SONY α1 + SEL70200G2
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For any enquiries, please visit my website: www.nurismailphotography.com or email at nismailm@gmail.com.
Celebrating #worldlionday with an image of an Asiatic Lioness from my visit to Gir earlier this year
Once upon a time I was all alone
How you like me now? Do I turn you on?
Now I got you drunk, hot, and vulnerable
Show me what you want, give me what you want, want
Have to make you mine, get you on the floor
Yeah, watch me go to work, I’ll put on a show
Now I got you drunk, hot, and vulnerable
Show me what you want, give me what you want, want
St Sebastian tended by the widow Irene and an angel,
Antonio d'Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo, ca. 1615 - 1625
"After being riddled with arrows, Sebastian was found by Irene who cared for his wounds. She supports Sebastians body, while an angel carefully draws an arrow from his chest. y adhering to the traditional emphasis on Sebastians beauty', Tanzio rendered him in vibrant colours as vulnerable and ecstatic rather than heroic. Only the shield under his foot still refers to his soldierly courage."
"Everywhere I look I see her smile
Her absent-minded eyes
And she has kept me wondering for so long
How this thing could go wrong ..." -- Roxette from the Vulnerable song.
Captured in Denver, CO.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
View me on Black.
This is one of a pair which plays and scavenges in the lane. I hope they stay safe.I would not use flash, but the car lights were already on and it chose to sit there for a moment before turning into its grassy tunnel.
All my photos and written word have copyright and belong to me, LizzieDeb. Strictly NO use of ANY picture without my written permission. Thank you. Message me on Flickr, or click my Alamy images link on my profile if you wish to see my available images.
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Machen wir uns verletzbar und wir werden es irgendwann nicht mehr sein.
(self-portrait)
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Contact: martin.matyas(at)hotmail.com