Photo Libraries
<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Next >>

Weird Christmas: Deer Nocturnal

 

Marilyn Monroe's Grave in Los Angeles

 

What's Left: Ruins of One of the Crematoriums in Auschwitz

I like how the sign is in Polish and English, NOT in German.

 

WC Handy, Memphis  

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958)
was an African American blues composer and musician,
often known as "the Father of the Blues."

W. C. Handy remains among the most influential of American
songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played
the style of music that is distinctively American, he is credited with its
invention not only because he was formally educated and able to notate his
music for publication and hence, posterity, but because of syncopated
rhythms, a style unique to his music.

While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form,
he took the blues from an obscure regional music style to one of the
dominant forces in American music.

Handy was an educated musician who used folk material in his
compositions. He was scrupulous in documenting the sources of his
works, which frequently combined stylistic influences from several
performers. He loved this simple early music and brought his
own transforming touch to it.
—Wikipedia

Intricately Decorated Ceiling in Prague, Czech Republic

Fountain with Dragon Heads in El Retiro Park, Madrid, Spain

Green Door  

 

 Pelham Bay Park, NY

Many of the park's historic features remain observable to the modern
park visitor. Hunter Mansion, built in 1804, once housed a collection of
fine wines as well as paintings by European masters. Remnants of this
mansion, visited by President Martin Van Buren in 1839, remain on
Hunter Island. Today only fragments of the foundation and landscaped
features endure. Another magnificent building has been better preserved,
and is a noted city and national landmark. The Bartow-Pell Mansion
Museum was built between 1836 and 1842 by Robert Bartow, a
descendant of Thomas Pell. The estate, replacing the one destroyed
during the Revolutionary War, reflects the period's federal architectural
style and is adorned by a terraced garden.

Several memorials in the park honor our country's troops. The Bronx
Victory Column and Memorial Grove honors the Bronx residents who
made the ultimate sacrifice--giving their lives to protect their country
in World War I. A second monument, a plaque at Glover's Rock,
commemorates the Revolutionary War battle at Pell Point which stalled
British troops, enabling Washington to reach White Plains, where he
was victorious.

Pelham Bay Park has many significant environmental features.
Its variety of habitats enables one to see a diversity of wildlife
throughout the park. A swamp in the Central Woodlands is a prime
environment for migrant songbirds and ruby-throated hummingbirds.
—New Yory City Department of Parks & Recreation

In your bedroom you keep an iron cage
Where a blackbird sings her freedom song
For you know the true value of having slaves
They sing the saddest of songs

— Brendan Perry

Point Loma Sea Anemones

   

An anemone is basically the typical polyp: a small sac, attached to the
bottom by an adhesive foot, with a column shaped body ending in an oral
disc. The mouth is in the middle of the oral disc, surrounded by tentacles
armed with many cnidocytes, which are unique cells that function as a defense
and as a means to capture prey. Cnydocytes contain cnidae, capsule-like
organelles capable of everting, giving phylum Cnidaria its name (Campbell
and Reece 2002). The cnidae that sting are called nematocysts. Each nematocyst
contains a small vesicle filled with toxins— actinoporins— an inner filament
and an external sensory hair. When the hair is touched, it mechanically triggers
the cell explosion, that fires a harpoon-like structure which attaches to
organisms that trigger it, and injects a dose of poison in the flesh of the
aggressor or prey. This gives the anenome its characteristic sticky
feeling. Interestingly the clownfish is immune to an anenome's sting.
The poison is actually a mix of toxins, including neurotoxins, which serve
to paralyze and capture the prey, which is then moved by the tentacles
to the mouth/anus for digestion inside the gastrovascular cavity.
Actinoporins have been reported as highly toxic to fish and crustaceans,
which may be the natural prey of sea anemones. In addition to their
role in predation, it has been suggested that actinoporins could act,
when released in water, as efficient repellents against potential predators.
—Wikipedia