Dad! Stop taking pictures and HELP ME!!
Originally uploaded by [ CK ].
Sometimes when I get behind the camera, I lose sight of my other responsibilities.
When my wife saw my daughter hanging from the butte, I had some explaining to do...
30.4.07
Dad! Stop taking pictures and HELP ME!!
Dad! Stop taking pictures and HELP ME!!
Originally uploaded by [ CK ].
Ducks in the Mail: At the Post Office
Ducks in the Mail: At the Post Office
Originally uploaded by birdyboo.
For several years we were able to let our Indian Runner Ducks free range but despite efforts to protect them and still allow them freedom we lost most of the flock. We restocked with ducks from Holderread's in Oregon and they came by USPS Express Mail
Founder of the Modern Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Founder of the Modern Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Originally uploaded by Aksi-TR.
MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK'S ADDRESS TO TURKISH YOUTH
Turkish Youth, Your first duty is to preserve and to defend Turkish
Independence and the Turkish Republic forever. This is the very
foundation of your existence and your future. This foundation is your most
precious treasure. In the future, too, there may be malevolent people at
home and abroad, who will wish to deprive you of this treasure. If some
day you are compe lled to defend your independence and your Republic, you
must not hesitate to weigh the possibilities and circumstances of the
situation before doing your duty. These possibilities and circumstances
may turn out to be extremely unfavourable. The enemies c onspiring against
your independence and your Republic may have behind them a victory
unprecedented in the annals of the world. It may be that, by violence and
trickery, all the fortresses of your beloved fatherland may be captured,
all its shipyards occupied, all its armies dispersed and every corner of
the country invaded. And sadder and graver than all these circumstances,
thos e who hold power within the country may be in error, misguided and
may even be traitors. Furthermore, they may identify personal interests
with the political designs of the invaders. The country may be
impoverished, ruined and exhausted. Youth of Turkey's future, even in
such circumstances it is your duty to save Turkish Independence and the
Republic. You will find the strength you need in your noble blood.
Turkish Martyrs - You will never be forgetten!!
Turkish Martyrs - You will never be forgetten!!
Originally uploaded by turkpanzer.
Our beloved sons.. fallen soldiers while defending our country against terrorist pkk.
Rest in peace brothers..
We don't call them dead.. there are martyrs, they're alive!
29.4.07
Isfahan/ Jame Mosque/ Oljayto Niche
Isfahan/ Jame Mosque/ Oljayto Niche
Originally uploaded by HORIZON.
SHOULD BE VIEWED LARGE
This niche is located in the north of the western porch (called Ostad Porch). According to it's stucco inscription, it has been constructed in 1310 AD.
In Oljayto's time, the Mongolian ruler, and by his minister's decree, Mohammad Savi or Savoji.
Ostad Heydar is said to have been the constructor and plaster worker of this masterpiece whise signsture has been inscribed et the end of the inscription.
However, the Shabestan, the chamber. belongs to the Mozaffar period.
This niche is said to be one of the best masterpieces of the world whose beautiful inscription, atucco and different vegetable motives have all been made and decorated in the best way.
"I have found the core, I won't eat the shell"
"I have found the core, I won't eat the shell"
Originally uploaded by nasiriphotos.
"I have found the core, I won't eat the shell"
Rumigraphy, my synthesis of composition, calligraphy, & verse by the great Persian poet & spiritual master Rumi: www.nasiriphotos.com/gallery/rumigraphy
Jump
Jump
Originally uploaded by burak yilmaz.
There's only so much you can learn in one place
The more that I wait, the more time that I waste
I'll work and I'll fight, Till I find a place of my own
It sways and it swings and it bends until you make it your own
I can make it alone
28.4.07
Antiquarian
Antiquarian
Originally uploaded by Petteri Sulonen.
An antiquarian on Mahatma Gandhi street in Beirut. He specializes in Arab, Persian, and Ottoman weaponry. His back room had shelves upon shelves of carefully wrapped swords, the oldest of which were over a thousand years old.
Arabic word for "God" (inscriptions)
Arabic word for "God" (inscriptions)
Originally uploaded by EEY.
Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do with the word "Allah". For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for "God" - and there is only One God. Let there be no doubt - Muslims worship the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus - peace be upon them all.
27.4.07
Giant swallowtail butterfly larva displaying its giant osmeterium
Giant swallowtail butterfly larva displaying its giant osmeterium
Originally uploaded by HugoBR.
Sao Luis, Maranhao, Northeast of Brazil. About 5 cm of size. I found it in a orange tree. Look that it owns retractible horns in form of swallow-tail. This organ is an eversible glandular sac on the first thoracic segment that secretes an unpleasant-smelling substance, providing both an olfactory and visual shock for would-be predators.
Tentando obter uma supermacro, acabei registrando um comportamento surpreendente da lagarta da laranjeira. Ao tocar acidentalmente sua cabeça, ela expeliu dois chifres surreais que, além de serem visualmente agressivos, exalavam um forte odor almiscarado, numa estratégia de defesa evolutivamente moldada para afastar possíveis predadores.
While trying to get a supermacro, I finished registering this surprising behavior of the orange tree caterpillar. When I touched accidentally its head, it expelled two surreal horns that, beyond being visually aggressive, exhaled a strong musk odour, in a strategy of defense evolutionarily molded to move away possible predator
26.4.07
Torture Diagram
Torture Diagram
Originally uploaded by mopsy_slaughter.
This shows how the Turks dealt with problem cases. Ivo Andric describes this exact scene in "Bridge on the Drina", and adds that the impaling is done by Roma (Gypsies) who are specially trained to be able to hammer a stake into the anus and out between the shoulder blades without hitting any organs. You really want to get the new guy here, because he might graze a lung and get you off this mortal coil a few hours earlier.
World War I
World War I
Originally uploaded by SIKHWARS.
6th Anglo-Indian Division was besieged in Kut-al-Amara on the banks of the River Tigris by the Turks and their German advisors between 07 December 1915 and 29 April 1916. The siege would end in defeat when all relief efforts failed and the garrison surrendered due to starvation and disease. This image shows one of the few defences the garrison had against German-Turkish Air Force attacks.
Anglo Sikh
Anglo Sikh
Originally uploaded by SIKHWARS.
British officers and Sikh soldiers of the 45th Sikhs, pose for a photograph after the relief of Chakdara Fort. Circa 1897. Defence of Chakdara Fort by six British officers and 240 Indian soldiers of the 45th Sikhs and 11th Bengal Lancers against 14,000 Pathan tribesmen, must rank as one of the greatest feats of arms in military history.
For six days and seven nights, these men drove off all attacks upon the fort and covered themselves and their regiment with glory. The officer on the extreme left is Haldane Rattray, who received a neck wound after leading a charge to retake the hospital in Chakdara Fort for which he was awarded the DSO. He later commanded the 45th Sikhs during World War I and was tragically killed in Kut, Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) after it was lost to Turks, during a long siege. The 45th Sikhs was decimated in this battle.
25.4.07
interior of the skull tower Nis, Serbia
interior of the skull tower Nis, Serbia
Originally uploaded by jsdart.
the skull tower is considered a national monument in serbian. It was created by the turks many centuries ago. they took captured soldiers skulls and embedded them in the tower.
24.4.07
The Ottoman flag over Belgrade
The Ottoman flag over Belgrade
Originally uploaded by Limbic.
The Bajrakli mosque in Belgrade has a potentially provocative new flag.
23.4.07
Study shows how brain interprets surfaces
The stucco-like surface on the right looks darker and glossier than the one on the left even though the mean luminance of both images is equal. The luminance histogram of the image on the right is positively skewed and the one on the left is negatively skewed.
MIT researchers and colleagues investigating how the brain interprets the appearance of surfaces think they have an answer. They have found that the perception of reflectance and gloss are correlated with certain statistical properties of the image. These properties could be coded by neurons that respond differentially to light and dark spots.
The research team, a collaboration between MIT and the NTT Communication Science Labs in Japan, reported its findings in the April 18 online issue of Nature.
Studying how the brain analyzes surface appearance is not only important to understanding the workings of the human brain, but could also help scientists develop better visual systems for robots.
"We know a lot about the perception of objects, but much less about the perception of the materials that the objects are made of," said Edward Adelson, an author of the paper and professor of visual science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. "Our studies show that statistical skewness, which quantifies an asymmetry between light and dark patterns, has a strong influence on the way a material is perceived."
Analyzing visual attributes such as color, texture, and gloss, is critical in everyday tasks such as deciding whether a patch of pavement is icy, whether a pancake is cooked, or whether skin is healthy, according to the researchers.
In their experiments, the research team asked subjects to rate the lightness and glossiness of natural materials such as stucco or fabric. The surfaces have a mix of dark shadows and bright highlights, giving rise to distinctive visual patterns.
"Natural surfaces are complicated," said Adelson. "They have bumps and dips, and the light reflects in complex ways, producing characteristic statistical patterns." These patterns serve as signatures both for the shape and the material composing the surface.
The researchers quantified the images in terms of "luminance histograms," which plot the distribution of pixel values. They also estimated the histograms of responses of neurons that respond to light and dark spots in an image. In both cases, they found that the "skewness" of the histogram, which measures its asymmetry, was correlated with the subject's perceptions of surface qualities. Positive skewness led to darker and glossier surface appearance.
The researchers also found that they could manipulate subjects' perceptions of glossiness by digitally manipulating the skewness of the images, said study author Lavanya Sharan, an MIT graduate student at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.
Technology based on this research could also be useful for autonomous vehicles, said Sharan.
"You want to know what kind of surface you're on--is the road dry or wet or icy? Are you on a dirt road? A machine vision system needs to make these judgments based on the surface appearance," she said.
The exact neural mechanism for detecting image skewness is unknown, but the researchers have offered a tentative model.
In the retina and brain, there are cells that are preferentially sensitive to either bright patterns or dark ones. After pooling responses within each cell population, the brain could compare the balance between very bright and very dark patterns. This balance determines the skewness.
"We don't know what the underlying physiology is, but what we do know is that the computation of skewness is something that could be done very easily with the hardware that does exist in the early parts of the brain's visual system," said Adelson.
The researcher's skewness model is supported by experiments with visual aftereffects, which showed that the human visual system can adapt to skewness. Similar to what happens when you stare at an image of a certain color and then see an after-image, staring at patterns with a high degree of positive skewness will cause the next pattern you look at to appear negatively skewed, which causes the material to appear lighter and less glossy.
The lead author on the Nature paper is Isamu Motoyoshi of the Human and Information Science Lab at NTT Communication Science Labs in Japan. Shin'ya Nishida of NTT is also an author on the paper.
Scientists Help Restore Aging Artworks
from PhysOrg.com
(AP) -- When white masquerades as yellow and green might actually be blue, a call goes out to Henry DePhillips.
[...]
FYI, 13yo skool grl is nu US txt mssg chmpN
FYI, 13yo skool grl is nu US txt mssg chmpN from PhysOrg.com
It's a sport only for the fleet of thumb with a ruthless dedication to punctuation.
[...]
Blossom by Blossom The Spring Begins
Blossom by Blossom The Spring Begins
Originally uploaded by Ducatirider.
"For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the seasons of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins."
-Algernon Charles Swinburne
21.4.07
the marvellous city - rio de janeiro
rio de janeiro is without doubt the most picturesque city i've been to. amazing place, wonderful people. always in my mind... saudades....
reality
the picture on the card is taken from the same vantage point in the middle of the li river. however, as you can see the two scenes look quite different. the card makes it look like a tropical island! quite funny and such a dramatic difference
15.4.07
11.4.07
Spain sees first transsexual gender change without operation
Spain sees first transsexual gender change without operation from PhysOrg.com
A 50-year-old transsexual on Tuesday became the first person in Spain to legally change their gender without undergoing surgery under a new law approved last month, a gay activist group said.
[...]
Assistive robot adapts to people, new places
Assistive robot adapts to people, new places from PhysOrg.com
In the futuristic cartoon series "The Jetsons," a robotic maid named Rosie whizzed around the Jetsons' home doing household chores--cleaning, cooking dinner and washing dishes.
[...]
10.4.07
bird poop caterpillar
besides looking like a bunch of bird droppings this guy shoots out his orange antenna thingies if you touch its back......
9.4.07
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