Goal: to create two new crafts you've never tried before.

Full writeup here: www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/10719

So, I made a dotee, and a fabric pincushion, whee! It was like this big thing for me to sew, I wonder why so much anxiety?

The machine did fight me with the dotee fabric, but flew through the pincushion; its other side is a thick tan fabric. I learned a lot, like that I can't sew a circle well, even with there is a big thick line made with a sharpie! So it wasn't very even of a shape from the start!

Then I accidentally sewed it shut, ARGG.

Then I stuffed and the hole I left was too big, so my hand-sewn area was prominent and FLAT. When I made the partitions, the didn't some out as evenly as I wanted...but flowers don't grow perfectly in nature, right?

I hope the recipient doesn't make the same faces I did at the poor thing. Please stab it with pins for me hon!

I imagine the process of learning was more important than perfection, but yeesh nothing wanted to go well for these two!

On the trip I was reading the latest wired mag (maybe best publication out there right now). There was a short writeup on a camera toss contest so I thought I would give it a try. You need surprisingly little velocity to get some great trails, this was about a 6 inch toss and spin in front of the xmas tree. Should have gotten a video of me spinning the d3... 350 ... wonder what it will be like in 16 days??

View On Black

Here is the link to the flickr group and the wired writeup www.flickr.com/groups/cameratoss/discuss/72157622742032127/

When I begin writing the words that accompany my photos, I often leverage my knowledge of the location and my experience when I took the photo (e.g weather conditions, time of day, etc.). Depending on what the post is trying to convey, I may also augment this with some research on the location. For this photo of Spider Rock, I wanted to convey how it got its name. In my research, I found it wasn't just a name but rather a significant story in Navajo culture. So rather than try to summarize, I found this explanation on this website: www.weirdus.com/. I didn't think I could write anything better so here is the writeup - word for word.

"Canyon de Chelly National Monument, located in the northeast corner of the state, is one of Arizona's lesser known destinations, but one of its most dramatic and inspiring. Though much smaller than the Grand Canyon, visitors often say it can be just as spectacular with its extraordinary ruins and breathtaking features.

De Chelly (pronounced de SHAY-ee, or more commonly de SHAY) consists entirely of land owned by the Navajo Nation and still maintains a community of Native Americans who live and farm within the canyon's walls. While sightseers are allowed to explore the chasm's rim freely, visits to nearly all areas within the canyon itself are allowed only with a guide, as many sites are considered sacred to the Navajo people.

Notable among those sites is Spider Rock, a red-sandstone survivor of epic erosion. An 800-foot spire stabbing the air that flows between the canyon's walls, it stands as a sort of unofficial icon of Canyon de Chelly. It's also the address of the mythical Spider Woman, who has chosen its pinnacle as her home.

Spider Woman is considered an important deity in the Navajo culture. According to their creation story, when the Navajo people found their way here from the underworld, she gave power to those who destroyed the evil creatures that roamed this land. In addition, she's been responsible for protecting peaceful men who have found themselves in danger from others. In one story, a young Navajo was hunting in de Chelly when an enemy warrior began pursuing him. Chased deeper and deeper into the canyon, the hunter had run out of options until he saw a silk-like cord drop down the side of Spider Rock. He tied it around his waist, and with the help of Spider Woman, the young man escaped to the top, where he was allowed to stay until it was safe.

Yet, the legend of Spider Woman does have a darker side. Aided by a spirit snitch who resides on the lower, adjacent peak known as Speaking Rock, Spider Woman seeks out those who have been mischievous and disobedient. Whenever she hears of a child who has been badly behaved, she crawls down from her perch, snatches him up and carries him back to the top to meet his fate. The chalky color that caps Spider Rock is said to be the bones of the Navajo children she has devoured."

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Check out www.alexDPhotography.com for writeups from my shoots, high-def wallpapers, videos and other content.

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“Artist’s concept of Aphrodite Terra, largest highland region on Venus.”

The largest continent-sized highland region on Venus is Aphrodite. It is comparable in size to the northern half of Africa, and consists of two mountainous areas separated by a somewhat lower region. Situated almost on Venus’s equator, Aphrodite Terra runs almost directly east and west for 9600 km.

Unlike Ishtar [Terra], a relatively level plateau carrying high mountains, the Aphrodite highland rises to various heights above the mean planet surface. The western mountainous area towers 8000 m above the surrounding terrain, 9000 m above Venus mean surface. The eastern mountains of Aphrodite rise 3300 m above the surrounding terrain, 4300 m above the mean surface. Like Ishtar, the mountain terrain appears to be quite rough. Because Aphrodite does not appear to contain uplifted plateaus or volcanic mountains, Aphrodite may be older and more degraded than Ishtar.”

The above are both the caption & associated writeup for the image, from the July 1980, Vol. 11, No. 7 issue of “NASA Activities”, which is surprisingly and most pleasantly available here:

www.parrygamepreserve.com/images/media/magazines/nasa_act...

And here:

www.parrygamepreserve.com/images/media/magazines/nasa_act...

Both above credit: “Parry Game Preserve” website, and with a WHOLE LOT MORE – outstanding!

One of many works by Rick Guidice during the 1970s for Ames Research Center (ARC), as is this one, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The image (with a superimposed outline of the continental United States), accompanied by a ‘computer-generated’ three-dimensional plot and cross section are on page 121 of “NASA SP-461: PIONEER VENUS”, at:

ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830022069/downloads/1983002...

The photo is from the estate of Eric Burgess & was possibly featured in the December 1980 issue of "Star & Sky" magazine, possibly as part of an article titled "Venus Unveiled".

My photo from the 5 October 2022 Air Tahiti Nui launch of a new route from Tahiti to Seattle & back. Simple Flying writeup up at bit.ly/ATNSEA .

All photos can be used with attribution.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying, Joe.K@simpleFlying.com

From L-R:

The Silver Samurai (The Wolverine) - Ichirō Yashida, better known as the Silver Samurai. He is a former Japanese officer, who was saved by Wolverine in World War II, and founded the Yashida Corporation (static.wikia.nocookie.net/ultimate-marvel-cinematic-unive...).

Thane - The secret Inhuman son of Thanos. After a descendant Inhuman tribe ran afoul of Thanos and his army, one Inhuman woman returned home pregnant with Thanos' child (static.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/9/90/Than...).

Yon-Rogg - He is an alien Kree, a military commander whose weakness is his jealousy of the accomplishments of others and his love for the medic Una. He is sent to supervise the troublesome planet Earth. Haven't seen anyone make him in his comic book appearance, most people make him based on his appearance in Captain Marvel (i.imgur.com/l3XYrQa.png).

Agent Zero (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) - Agent Zero (AKA David North) was a mutant, a lethal marksman, and William Stryker's loyal second-in-command (i.pinimg.com/originals/29/6d/fc/296dfcc9e669d31a115e8e580...).

Gog - Gog is a member of the Tsiln race, which lived on the planet of Broi, located in the Wyllys star system, of the Milky Way galaxy. He was born in a highly immature state, adorned with teleporter bracelets and placed into an incubator, where his mind was programmed with Tsiln language and culture (static.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/5/57/Gog_...).

Minn-Erva (Kree Suit: Captain Marvel) - Minn-Erva was a Kree tactical sniper and a member of Starforce (static.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelcinematicuniverse/images/...).

Swordsman (Andreas Strucker) - Baron Wolfgang von Strucker is one of the main Nazi bad guys in the Marvel Universe. Two of his children, twins Andreas and Andrea von Strucker, were given superpowers and went on to become decadent sort-of-neo-Nazi terrorists using the code name Fenris. After the death of his twin sister, Andreas claimed an old costumed identity, that of the Swordsman. As such he was an anti-hero with the Thunderbolts (www.writeups.org/wp-content/uploads/Swordsman-Marvel-Comi...).

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

---Douglas Adams

18.5 minutes

F4

ISO 100

Rebel XTi

Sigma 10-20mm

Streaked stars are a result of the earth's rotation on its axis, the star that remains constant is the North Star, the other stars will appear to revolve around it.

At least I think that's how it goes...space is big, and it's possible that it can confuse me.

Post processing:

---16:10 crop for widescreen

---White balance correction from Auto to Tungsten (light pollution)

---Contrast bumped up.

Technique writeup. Unproofread as of 8/12/07

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Not everyone who went along to Pride was there to show their support. On the corner of Waterloo Place and Pall Mall there was a group of about 8 people protesting the event.

I had a "Louis Theroux" moment and decided to go and have a talk with them. I managed to get my religion-rating question in early on, which involved asking how old the person thinks the universe is. This guy told me it was 6,000 years old, so I knew where the conversation was heading. I can't writeup most of what he said as it's likely to offend. However, he did tell me that it's 100% guaranteed he was going to Heaven, whilst I'm definitely going to Hell, so if there is an afterlife at least I won't have to spend it with him!

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Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f1.7 Bokeh Test - As Seen on YouTube! - youtu.be/Znar4ifNWgw

Full writeup - mrleica.com/voigtlander-ultron-35mm-f1-7-review/

Explore: 12.12.2008

View On Black

A group of photography enthusiasts, the Flickristasindios, will have its first photo exhibit entitled "The Indios Experience", on December 15 to 19, 2008 in TriNoMa, Quezon City.

The Indios is an assembly of Filipino Flickr members bonded by their love for life through photowalks and charity works, weekly get-togethers, and most of all, by their serious passion for photographic art. The exhibit will showcase the works of these men and women ranging from the mundane to the surreal, from snapshots of daily life to the unexplored and magical worlds, and everything else in between.

-.bullish

It did not take long on the way and at the falls to understand how dangerous the place could be to the unwary. There were a large number of places where if the rocks were wet one could slide into the water and be in a perilous situation. Went on a hike to see this beautiful waterfall. Elk River Falls is considered a beautiful falls and the highest in Western, NC. It is billed as a .3 mile hike through beautiful mountain scenery. the writeup suggested 'some' rocks and roots could be encountered. My view of the trail and theirs did not agree. Would love to go back with the mountain laurel in bloom.

There have been a few collaboration projects between photographers lately, usually revolving around HDR processing. I always find myself looking forward to the results, as they can serve to inform not only those readers who see the finals, but the contributors as well. Today, I think, we serve up another good example of this, along with a couple of surprises.

For those new to the idea: A few of us got together online and agreed to participate in the project. For each round, one person in the group provides a set of bracketed images, then each photographer applies their vision and processing skills to the set. The final image from each contributor, along with processing notes and other insights, are compiled and hosted on the blog site of whoever provided the set.

This week, it was my turn to provide the brackets for a project we call a “Grunge Collaboration.” Although the brackets can start with almost any character — a sunny landscape, even — in this collaboration we’re going for a gritty, grungy look in our results. Participants are James Brandon, Jerry Denham, Jim Denham, Jesse Pafundi, Chris Nitz, and myself, Rob Hanson. (But wait … that’s not all!)

To see the full writeup and the final images from each contributor, please visit the article, located here.

Do try clicking your "L" key for a better blackground.

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I built this for the Jaeger vs. Kaiju building challenge over on Brick Mecha Division. Here's the lore writeup I made for it there:

The next generation of technology in the fight against the Kaiju, EUXO was designed to mirror a human's anatomy without using any organic material. The result is an incredibly complex synthetic organism that - by linking with the pilot's brain - functions as their surrogate body. This allows for reaction times and awareness unheard of in previous generation Jaegers.

The EUXO can also utilize optional Type-B equipment. This functions as extra armor and includes a number of stabilizers for extra maneuverability during air drops.

So yeah, obvious Evangelion inspiration here. I originally just wanted to add some optional shoulder parts containing ammo/missiles but that eventually grew into a full armor set. Note that the waist armor also includes extra braces for the hip joints so the whole thing doesn't topple under the added weight.

I built this for the Jaeger vs. Kaiju building challenge over on Brick Mecha Division. Here's the lore writeup I made for it there:

The next generation of technology in the fight against the Kaiju, EUXO was designed to mirror a human's anatomy without using any organic material. The result is an incredibly complex synthetic organism that - by linking with the pilot's brain - functions as their surrogate body. This allows for reaction times and awareness unheard of in previous generation Jaegers.

The EUXO can also utilize optional Type-B equipment. This functions as extra armor and includes a number of stabilizers for extra maneuverability during air drops.

So yeah, obvious Evangelion inspiration here. I originally just wanted to add some optional shoulder parts containing ammo/missiles but that eventually grew into a full armor set. Note that the waist armor also includes extra braces for the hip joints so the whole thing doesn't topple under the added weight.

Outstanding Tribute Band BLACKPINK SL

Got to catch this group today and do a little writeup with photos. Check them out.

slinsiderguide.com/blackpink-sl-tribute

This will be a long writeup because these tiny spiders have a FASCINATING prey capture method!

So far I’ve covered two spiders this month that spin cribellate silk, including the Lampshade Weavers up on the rocks, and yesterday’s Featherlegged Spiders. Cribellate silk is created by spiders that have a cribellum, a plate-like organ covered in thousands of tiny spigots that all work together, extruding very fine strands of silk that are combined together into one cribellate thread. The spider uses specialized hairs on its rear legs to comb this silk out into a wooly texture. The fineness of the fibers causes something of a molecular attractive force, and their surface reacts to the exoskeleton of insects in an adhesive way that requires no liquid glue droplets.

It’s important to understand this texture and its properties to fully comprehend how awesome the hunting technique of this spider is.

These spiders build a triangular web that looks like a segment of an orb web containing only four support radii, with the capture silk connecting in short lines between them. The apex of this triangle - the point that would be at the center if it were in a round web - extends out into one line, which the spider holds with her front legs. Her body spans a gap here, and her rear legs hold onto an anchor line, attached to a plant or some other surface.

Holding onto her web line and using a leg-over-leg motion with the rear legs, she works her way up the anchor line, drawing the web taut like a bow and then holding it that way, tensed and motionless, for hours at a time. In this photo, she's primed and ready. You can see a ball of silk from the web line grasped in her front feet, and one from the anchor line in her rear feet.

When she feels prey touch the web, she loosens her hold on the anchor line, causing her body to jerk rapidly forward, which also causes the web structure to collapse a bit onto the prey. More strands contact the prey, as you might imagine with a suddenly slackening net. She only moves a short distance forward before the braking effect of the anchor line creates more pulling and jerking. She can tighten the line and do this multiple times, effectively netting her prey in a tangled wooly mess.

A paper I read said this is “the only known example of external power amplification outside of human tools.” I’ve tried to simplify the information and videos I found in researching these spiders to make it more accessible here, but if you are inspired to read nerdy details yourself, this one is very interesting.

25 Arachtober 2023, 1 of 2

25 Arachtober 2023

Triangle Weaver, Hyptiotes cavatus

Alexandria, VA • 6 October 2023

Ooh people beat me to commenting before I remembered the writeup!

The location is Llyn Crafnant in Snowdonia National park.

A beautiful day, a light snow shower, but gorgeous blue sky still.

Quite a hairy trek to get to this location, our landlady said the entrance route was steep! how my aygo managed it i will never understand. But, it did, and I was grateful when I saw this sight before me.

My Website - www.aaronyeomanphotography.co.uk & Image Prints for Sale

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Channel 4 Television Headquarters, London, England

Still going through my old photos and this is one from Open House London 2013. This image is taken at the Channel 4 Headquarters and taken from what the staff call 'The Knuckle'. Its a walkway that goes links one part of the building to the other. They are unsure why it has this nickname but it sounds quite cool. This building was designed by Richard Rogers and has very similar features as that in the other famous building he designed, the Lloyds of London building. However I think there is one feature or shape you won't see in the Lloyds building, can you see it yet? I think with Channel 4 having a young and fun vibe allowed Richard Rogers a little bit more freedom and but his own mark on this building, something that can only be seen from this level ;-).

On a separate note, how do people find the new Flickr Photo experience page? I really find it a chore to use, especially when entering this description. Everytime you press enter it thinks you have finished the writeup, very frustrating as I like the larger images that it displays.

Photo Details

Sony Alpha SLT-A77 / ISO400 / f/13 / 1/40 / Sigma 10-20mm 1:4-5.6 EX DC HSM @ 10mm

Software Used

Lightroom 5

Location Information

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began transmission on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public body established in 1990, coming into operation in 1993. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became an entirely UK-wide TV channel for the first time.

The channel was established to provide a fourth television service to the United Kingdom in addition to the television licence-funded BBC's two services and the single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_4

[Full writeup here.]

[Another clip here]

[Hi to everyone from hackaday, crunchgear, makezine, lifehacker, and wired! And Photojojo too :)]

Test of plungercam 2. Clips of the San Francisco marathon going near by where I live and of the sun setting on Potrero Hill.

Flickr Explore: 27/07/09 #19 (!)

MerDeCha is combined from 3 individual Jaegers. The term MerDeCha is a portmanteau of Merdeka* + Mecha.

*Merdeka is a Malay language term for Independence.

For more photos and writeups on this LEGO creation:

alanyuppie.blogspot.com/2018/04/lego-pacific-rim-jaeger-c...

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“Aristarchus Rising”

In my early years of exploring the night sky with binoculars, I was frequently amazed by a brilliant feature on the Moon, to the left of Mare Imbrium. I wondered, “What could be so bright?”. After a little reading, and consultation with a local wizard (Herbert Z. Lund, MD, avid amateur astronomer, and mentor/friend to both my wife and I), I learned that the bright spot was the crater Aristarchus. I learned that it is among the very brightest features on the Moon, due to the unusual reflectivity of the material within and around the crater. It sits on the edge of a plateau with a history of intense volcanic activity, including immense channels through which lava rivers once flowed, contributing to the vast lava plains (maria) that surround the plateau. I learned that Neil Armstrong reported an unusual brightness, with some fluorescence, from the area of Aristarchus during the Apollo 11 Mission. Could the fires of Aristarchus still be active? I was hooked. Aristarchus became a favorite observing target for me.

Last Thursday night, at the Pop-Up Telescopes event, I noticed Aristarchus being illuminated by the first rays of sunlight, a bright point on the day-night terminator line of the Moon. As I seldom capture this Moon phase photographically, I decided to do so after I returned home. Below is the photo I captured.

The photo shows a region of the Moon where the huge lava plains of Mare Imbrium merge with the gargantuan lava plain of Oceanus Procellarum, below the Jura Mountain range that defines the western and northwestern rim of Mare Imbrium. Aristarchus occupies the bottom center in this photo, next to the line dividing bright daylight from the deep night darkness. Its raised rampart and interior western crater walls are illuminated, but its depths are still deeply shadowed. Some of the edge of the surrounding plateau can be seen, as can a piece of the rim of adjacent Hesiodus crater, which otherwise is cloaked by night. The area of the lower right portion of the photo shows streaks of lighter-toned material that generally radiate away from Aristarchus crater. These are the ray system that surrounds Aristarchus, composed of material that was blasted upward and outward when an asteroid gouged the crater into the Moon. Ray features, over eons of time, are darkened by constant bombardment by solar radiation and they become indistinguishable from the older lunar surface materials. Their presence declares that Aristarchus is one of the young lunar craters. It can’t be more than half a billion years old! Alas, my photo reveals no sign that the fires are still burning.

To the right and upward from Aristarchus there is a horseshoe shaped feature, surrounded by a few mountains. The horseshoe is Prinz crater; long ago flood basalt surges overtopped the southern rim of Prinz crater and filled its interior. The mountains surrounding Prinz crater are called the Montes Harbinger, the “Harbinger Mountains”, for they become visible a day before dawn comes to Aristarchus. Inspection of the valleys between the mountains and the area between the mountains and Aristarchus shows several squiggly features, like streambeds, flowing away from the mountains. These are ancient lava channels; each originates in a dormant volcanic vent and marks a path the lava flows took to the plains below. They are collectively named Rimae Prinz. The similar features originating on the edge of the Aristarchus Plateau are called Rimae Aristarchus.

Above and left of the Harbinger Mountains is a medium-sized crater, with a deeply shadowed interior. This is Krieger crater. On its bottom-side rim is another small crater, which shows due to its brightly-lit western rim. This is Van Biesbroeck crater. Take a moment to appreciate the long triangular shadows cast by the craters and mountains in this area. To the left of Krieger crater are two tiny craters, with the rather cute names, first names really, Rocco (upper) and Ruth (lower). Rocco is 4.37 km in diameter, and Ruth only 3.0 km. I discovered during preparation of this writeup that the middle region of this photo is dotted with tiny craters with first names. Names like Gaston, Linda, Boris, Samir, Louise, Isabel, Walter, and Ivan. These are not just informal names: they are official designations assigned by the International Astronomical Union. And they are truly tiny. The smallest I have identified in this photo is Samir, at 1.87 km. I am puzzled as to the Why? behind giving these features official names. It seems they were given names during the preparation for NASA of the highly-detailed Apollo-imagery related maps known as the Topophotomap series. The legends at the bottom of the maps say the names were intended as “informal” names, to be used only in describing that particular map. However, in 1976, most of them were formally adopted into the official IAU Nomenclature. So why are they named? Because that they happened to fall in one of the very few portions of the Moon covered by a Topophotomap. I hope the names are significant for someone, maybe honoring loved ones, friends, or pets. They are examples of fun things one finds when rummaging through science, like when I found out that there is a dinosaur named after Mark Knopfler.

Back to the image. Near the right middle edge of the photo is another medium-sized crater with a partially shaded interior and surrounded by what appears to be a rubble field. This is Delisle crater. To its left is a lamb chop shaped mountain called Mons Delisle, and to its upper right is what seems to be a tiny chain of craters (catena) called Rupes Boris. The word “rupes” means cliff or escarpment, and yes, it’s named after the previously mentioned Boris crater. The area around Rupes Boris is home to the previously mentioned Boris, Linda and Gaston craters. If you squint, you might detect one or two. Below Delisle crater is a smaller bowl-shaped crater called Diophantus. Between Delisle and Diophantus you can see a light-shaded patch. At the center is a tiny crater. This is Samir. Its bottom is only 1 km across, so maybe this is my break into the club of astrophotographers that can claim to have resolved 1 km. If not, give me a break and let me enjoy my moment. Resolving a one km feature (or even a 1.87 km feature) from a distance of 380,000 km is a pretty cool feat.

Now for the final stretch on this essay. In the upper left corner of the photo the terrain becomes very broken and mountainous. These are the Jura Mountains of the Mare Imbrium rim. Amidst these mountains is the prominent crater Mairan. At the lower end of these mountains are two larger mounds. These are the lunar volcanoes Gruithuisen Gamma (left) and Gruithuisen Delta (right). Gruithuisen Gamma even has an obvious summit crater. They are unusual among lunar volcanoes for their heights (1,500 and 1,800 meters, respectively). This is the first time I can recall capturing them in a close-up photo. Lastly, at the upper center of the photo there is a projection of mountains into the plains of Mare Imbrium. This is Promontorium Heraclides, marking the southern end of the popular lunar feature, Sinus Iridum.

Best 12% of 19,399 video frames processed with PIPP and stacked with AutoStakkert!3. Wavelets processing performed with Registax 6. Post-processing with Photoshop CC 2024.

Celestron Edge HD8 telescope

ZWO ASI 290MM camera

Celestron Advanced VX Mount

Seeing: below average, 2/5

Vulcan casting. Who knew this locomotive is in the Register of Historical Places??? Maumelle Ordnance Works Locomotive #1 , mascarading as Augusta Railroad #7 at the Fort smith Trolley Museum. A truely unique critter for sure as it is powered by a Hercules gasoline engine that will turn 1800 rpm and is coupled to the wheels through a 4 speed gear box to the counter shafts that turn the drivers through drive rods. I had no idea I was photoing such a significant piece of history. Attached is the writeup from Wiki, I recommend reading it for some fascinating information.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maumelle_Ordnance_Works_Locomotive_1

This shot was one was taken during my second visit of the season to the amateur cycle racing which takes place on the local circuit of Goodwood Motor Race Circuit. They hold these on Tuesday evenings which makes for some beautiful light and colours if the weather plays ball. Personally the cycling I do is Touring and Time Trials, racing against the clock. I only take pictures of mass start racing rather than taking part.

The picture was taken handheld with a Sony A700 with a Tamron 28-200mm zoom at 140mm. They go by pretty fast and even at 250th of a second there was still some movement in the background. The image is a bit of practice for my visit next week to the Tour de France in northern France.

Edits were carried out in RAW to improve clarity and vibrance. Further adjustments were made using Topaz DeNoise and then more detail brought in with Topaz Clarity.

One niggle I found with the original image was that the rear tyre of the closest cyclist was just off the bottom of the picture. I corrected that by expanding the canvas space and using free transform and the clone tool. For exactly how to do that see my Blog writeup on a different picture at edwinjonesphotography.com/blog/2014/4/adding-extra-space-...

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Vehicle mode of Delorean Time Machine

For more photos and writeups on this LEGO creation:

alanyuppie.blogspot.com/2018/04/lego-transformer-delorean...

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Right before this, she was talking to and posing with a little girl in a Supergirl costume.

At WonderCon 2012 ← writeup

Photo taken during a game between the Milroy Irish, and the Hadley Buttermakers. Both teams are part of the "Gopher League," a class C Minnesota Amateur (or Town Ball) league. This might be the most photogenic Town Ball ballpark I've seen. Irish Yard is located about 7 miles from Milroy, MN (or 2.5 hours from Minneapolis), a bit off the beaten path (its essentially carved out of corn field I believe).

The panorama images is made up of 5 individual photos.

Here is a nice writeup about the Milroy Irish and their ballpark, "Irish Yard" -- www.minnpost.com/rural-dispatches/2016/05/build-it-and-th...

"In 1814 we took a little trip

Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.

We took a little bacon and we took a little beans

And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.

There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.

We fired once more and they began to runnin' on

Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico."

(Johnny Horton made this song famous in 1959)

Right here, Andrew Jackson, Jean Lafitte and the gang hunkered down behind the mud and log parapet and fought off the British. The plantation has had several owners but is known as the Beauregard Plantation.

Good writeup at:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans

Pointblank from G1 Transformers cartoon series, turns into a futuristic speedster. Transformation doesn't require reassembly of parts.

I am taking inspiration from both his original toy version from the 80s and also some design cues from his cartoon/comic version.

For more photos and writeups of this LEGO creation, do pay a visit to my blog link below ! Thank you!

alanyuppie.blogspot.com/2018/05/lego-former-targetmaster-...

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I built this for the Jaeger vs. Kaiju building challenge over on Brick Mecha Division. Here's the lore writeup I made for it there:

The next generation of technology in the fight against the Kaiju, EUXO was designed to mirror a human's anatomy without using any organic material. The result is an incredibly complex synthetic organism that - by linking with the pilot's brain - functions as their surrogate body. This allows for reaction times and awareness unheard of in previous generation Jaegers.

The EUXO can also utilize optional Type-B equipment. This functions as extra armor and includes a number of stabilizers for extra maneuverability during air drops.

So yeah, obvious Evangelion inspiration here. I originally just wanted to add some optional shoulder parts containing ammo/missiles but that eventually grew into a full armor set. Note that the waist armor also includes extra braces for the hip joints so the whole thing doesn't topple under the added weight.

Quote by Pedro Calderon de la Barca

"We all live in a dream. Life is just an illusion; a dream within a dream." ~ This philosophy was first introduced to me by The Matrix. Probing further into the movie revealed to me that this isn't a new age idea but a concept that predates Yugas. The flick's last soundtrack, Navras, whose lyrics are from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanisad, made me see that the film was heavily inspired by the Bhagavad Gītā, the earliest known reference to this notion.

Accordingly to the Book, all universes and it's contained entities are just but a figment of Lord Vishnu's dream. He's in His deep slumber, where one second for Him is a yuga for mankind. With this as a reference frame, all astrological calulations such as the palnet orbiting times, etc. are mapped to our time system in Vedic Mathematics. Every breath He takes involves creation (inhale) and destruction (exhale) of worlds in His mind, where we are all just players in His dreams (Maya).

After this digging of the movie and the book, later in my life, once again I stumbled upon two poetic works which sings about this idea; in fact the lives of their authors had strikingly similarities (their life [short], death [distressful] and the ideas they wrote about [rebellious]). Subramanya Bharathi's நிற்பதுவே, நடப்பதுவே, பறப்பதுவே! (Questioning the World) and Edgar Allan Poe's A Dream Within a Dream.

This was shot on some beach in Goa, under the midday Sun. Darkness on the left (the shadow), Light on the right (the Sun), with man on the centre and the contrasting colours to his sides are symbolisms for Dualism.

For more photos and writeups on this LEGO creation:

alanyuppie.blogspot.com/2018/04/lego-transformer-delorean...

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Deep inside the valleys on the north end of the Big Island of Hawaii exist tunnels through mountains, a surprising number of buildings, and a variety of other infrastructure. There are no roads or trails to these places, and the only reasonable access is by helicopter. But what are they for? How did it all get there? Why has no one else on the internet wrote about it? I made several multi-day backpacking trips to explore this remote, largely undocumented part of the island to discover its history and hidden infrastructure.

I posted the writeup on my site at sgphotos.com/photostories/hamakua/.

Unveiled at BrickCon 2012. Full writeup on The Brothers Brick.

(Image shared with written permission of The LEGO Group.)

My photo from the 5 October 2022 Air Tahiti Nui launch of a new route from Tahiti to Seattle & back. Simple Flying writeup up at bit.ly/ATNSEA .

All photos can be used with attribution.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying, Joe.K@simpleFlying.com

Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is 10 million light-years distant in Camelopardalis. IC 342 would otherwise be a prominent galaxy in our night sky, but it is hidden from clear view and only glimpsed through the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds along the plane of our own Milky Way galaxy [based on APOD writeup July2018]. This 8.0 hour LRGB image was taken on 11/17/17 at D.A.R.C.observatory, Mercey Hot Springs, CA.

Imaging telescope: APM LZOS 130/780 f/6 LW CNC II 130mm APO

Imaging camera: FLI ML16200

Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2

Guiding telescope: Orion Deluxe 50mm MiniGuider

Guiding camera: Orion SSAG

Focal reducer: Riccardi Model 1 1.0x FF

Software: PixInsight 1.8.5, TheSkyX, PS CS6

Filters: Astrodon Gen2E LRGB

IC342LRGB_ps1FLHH3crShrkCR_2020HE

MerDeCha is combined from 3 individual Jaegers. The term MerDeCha is a portmanteau of Merdeka* + Mecha.

*Merdeka is a Malay language term for Independence.

For more photos and writeups on this LEGO creation:

alanyuppie.blogspot.com/2018/04/lego-pacific-rim-jaeger-c...

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Please go ahead , help yourself, as many as you want.

Kindly add your experience or example of Chilli ( from any part of this world) here , you can post photograph / link /writeup anything related to chilli.

A now-dead tree standing along the shores of Oakland's Lake Merritt which was starkly attractive, as I passed by on the walking path. I find that it--and the many others like it along the lake shore--are examples of the New Zealand Tea Tree, which was planted here originally in the early 20th century as part of a scheme for 'trees of the world' to help immigrants feel at home, according to a local history.

The wood and the leaves have many uses for humans, medicinal and more. See the Wiki writeup.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospermum_scoparium

'Lake Merritt' on Wikipedia:

"Most of the park bordering [the lake] has been landscaped with plants from around the world. As early as 1910, City Park Commissioners recognized Oakland as a city of immigrants, and felt that 'visitors to the park would want to see plants from their native lands'. This theme of diversity in the park landscape has continued with landscape renovations. The lake’s iconic plant is the New Zealand tea tree (Leptospermum sp.), which grows with picturesque gnarled branches along the water’s edge."

Vehicle mode of Delorean Time Machine

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It's hard not to get a little Gothic when talking about this plant. Its flowers are large, campanulate; summer flowers are almost exactly the color of liver on the outside, fall flowers are paler: the inside flower surface is covered with intricate reticulations, becoming increasingly fuzzy towards the flower center, and are a very dark liver color to nearly black. The flower produces an INTENSE carrion scent - which is even more pronounced than in its close relatives - Stapelia gigantea and Stapelia hirsuta. The flowers are pollinated by flies, which are attracted by the foul scented flowers.

In my experience, the flowers are short lived - opening no more than 2 days in summer, and to 4 or 5 days during cooler conditions. During the warmer months, I grow my plants outside on a patio, and it is virtually impossible to photograph these flowers before flies have peppered the inside flower surface with eggs

Out of bloom, I find the general appearance of Stapelia leendertziae, to be a slightly more refined that those of its close relatives, with generally taller, more uniformly slender, and upright side shoots.

This specieswas selected as UBCBG Botany Photo of the Day for September 8, 2015, see www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/potd/2015/09/stapelia-leendert.... The writeup is a good read

Introduced November 1998, this is Canon's 35mm film technology at its most advanced. I did a writeup on my blog where I talk about the camera -- but the tl;dr is that it's great, but too easy.

Trip writeup:

www.seangalbraith.com/new/camp-xray-guantanamo-bay.htm

Happy 4/20… to the moon!

Fifty years ago, at 7:23pm PST, Apollo 16 touched down on the moon. To celebrate this occasion, I will share one of my treasured artifacts from the mission — the moon rock manifest used by Duke and Young to tally the weight of the samples gathered over three days on the lunar surface and three Rover rides around town (EVA 1-3). The page is smudged with lunar dust from their gloves as they weighed each precious rock and bags of regolith dust on a pound-scale adjusted for 1/6 gravity.

They had a target total weight budget, which they exceeded, and they had to get permission from mission control to retain the Apollo-record-setting-haul of 213 lbs. They also had a load balancing challenge of where to place each sample collection bag across four locations, with weight limits on each. so as to not shift the center of gravity of the lunar module ascent stage for launch (see the COLLECTION BAG STOWAGE exercise at the center of the page; each number there is the bag number, with the weight of each bag noted above; it all adds up within the limits, barely). Essential arithmetic for the mission!

The reverse side of the checklist, below, entitled “CABIN PREP.-EVA 1,” was used to prepare for the first Moon walk. LM Pilot Duke made sure that everything needed to sustain life was checked off before stepping out of the Lunar Module to explore the Moon, including Buddy Secondary Life Support Systems (BSLSS), cameras, film, rock collection bags, sun compass, maps, and checklists, as well as the very first roll of duct tape brought to the lunar surface! I’ll add details on that in the comments below.

There are 16 checkmarks and other notations written by Moonwalker Duke while on the Moon’s surface. The dark stains on both sides of the checklist are particles of lunar dust.

I started my space collecting with a focus on Apollo 16, and this rock manifest is quite rare (only 3 exist). In the comments below, I’ll include the NASA transcript from the Lunar Module to Mission Control as they processed each of the three moon rock hauls. I was trying to find video of the unloading process but have not found it for Apollo 16 yet.

Each rock has detailed analysis. For example, here is the writeup on the first 14-lb rock, and an overview of the Apollo 16 collection.

An image of this page is also on the NASA server. And the opinion of The opinion of SpaceRelics: “During the past seven years, I have been privileged to catalog and appraise tens of thousands of flown and unflown American space artifacts from virtually every mission. However, in all that time, this particular artifact has stood out in my mind as potentially one of the most significant. This item represents one of the most important original source documents of the space program, and indeed the entire pantheon of human exploration.”

An artifact from the Future Ventures’ 🚀 Space Collection.

A 16 x 10 x 10 shadowbox underwater scene.

Here's the blog writeup on the making of it: srolfe.com/2013/05/15/mermer/

It looks like most photos submitted to Flickr are taken by mobile phones. What is most surprising is that the image quality is sufficient for this to happen.

Because of recent advances in the state of the art of micro-miniature camera technology, two of the charts are identical, after adjusting for the time axis scale difference.

All these charts need changes to be useful. I discuss these changes at the end of this writeup.

I found all this surprising until I realized that most of the time, for casual photography, I use my iPhone 6 Plus. I no longer carry a Kodak, Fuji, or a Canon camera in a trouser pocket in addition to the iPhone in my shirt pocket as I did just a few years ago. I still carry a camera with a zoom lens when I want to take portraits at night or indoors. And when I want to take long distance photos of specific people or of specific objects at a distance.

The image quality of the iPhone 6 Plus is surprisingly good. The main limitations for me are:

1. Lack of a viewfinder makes it difficult to see what I am shooting in bright sunlight. The same limitation applies to most current point and shoot cameras.

2. The zoom range is quite limited at the long and short ranges,

3. I haven't figured out how to set the shutter speed as a priority, and to consistently control the ISO setting.

I also find it interesting that the most popular current cameras of Flickr members are Apple's iPhones 5, 5s, 6 and 6 Plus and Samsung's Galaxy 5S camera phones. I have tried all of these, and thy are all quite good.

A Sony Xperia camera phone image is shown at the top. However, it doesn't make it to the charts.

A Canon and a Nikon DSLR are shown at the top, but they do not show up in the charts.

These charts are no longer useful for Flickr's P&S and DSLR camera users. We clearly need some changes in flickr's presentation charts. I suggest the following changes:

1. We need a separate category for camera phones.

2. We need separate Point and Shoot camera and DSLR camera charts,

excluding camera phones.

3. Each chart should show the most popular models within their own category, and their relative ranking amongst themselves.

Fifty years ago, today, Houston instructed Apollo 13 how to cobble together a connection between the square CO2 scrubbers in the Command Module ECU to work with the round discs in the Lunar Module lifeboat which was drawn into heroic use beyond its original breathing oxygen budget (designed for a lunar landing of two people, not a round trip to Earth with three). This was one of the finest moments for duct tape... when failure was not an option.

This large artifact in the Future Ventures space museum is an original Apollo Block 2 flight version of the entire Environmental Control Unit (ECU) in the original shipping frame. It is very rare; I have never seen another in private hands. The Airesearch CO2 Cannister holder on the right has date stamps: May 26, 1967 and and Jan 5, 1968 and April 24, 1968 with NASA contract NAS-9-150 stamped on the metal tag. It's a complex beast performing numerous functions including: air cooling and heating; humidity control; ventilation to suits and cabin; air filtration and critically to Apollo 13, CO2 and odor removal. Here is the NASA writeup on it, and diagrams and close up photos below.

And the Apollo 13 drama as portrayed in the movie was a bit distorted. Astronaut Ken Mattingly (original Apollo 13 flight crew) in The Greatest Space Hack Ever: “The beauty in this whole thing was, these guys were so prepared for even the most implausible things. They knew no one had ever simulated exactly what happened, but they had simulated the kind of stress that could be applied to the system and the people in it. They knew what their options were and had some ideas already in place about where to go. In the movie, they played it like nobody ever thought of this. They dumped a bunch of junk on the table and said, ‘Can you figure it out?’ That was the only way the movie could convey how we got there. In reality, there was total familiarity with the hardware.”

Quote: Jewish Proverb

I still vividly remember how I pestered my dad for my first computer when I was just 13, bluffing that all my classmates have one. It was just a mindless desire. He finally bought me one with his savings and left to the town where he was working; the rest of us were in the city; he used to visit us once in a week.

After buying it, I just played a couple of games and didn't know what to do with it. I wept in my mother's arms heavily, blaming myself that I have wasted dad's hard earned money for nothing. She just brushed my hair and said, "It's ok, you will learn gradually, even in this playing will you learn some computer; nothing goes wasted. If you have this sense of seriousness that you shouldn't waste dad's money, then you will make good use of it".

This day I'm a game programmer, often called a geek with exuberant interest in computers; all this is only because of her courageous words.

Thank you அம்மா! Wish you a very happy birthday, dear mom :)

P.S.: I sneaked this candid photo when my nephew (her grandson) Skanda was playing with my mom ;)

My personal favourite photo with my iPhone is the seagulls hovering over the boat on the way to Miyajima. Two year old snap at Miyajima, just completed a small writeup here. japantourist.jp/view/autumn-at-kiyomizudera-temple