Well here we are, three lines in to the offering formula and about to start on the fourth and last.  And here it is:

en ka en imakhy Senwosret, maa-kheru: for the ka of the revered one Senwosret, true of voice.

Sound like anyone you know?  Do you revere the colleague whose card or whiteboard you are embellishing?  Are they known for their honesty, the accuracy of their pronouncements or their karaoke prowess?  Never mind, it’s only a formula.  Let’s look at the first bit of it.

en ka en:  for the ka of.  Let’s do the easy bit first.   The Sherlock Holmeses among you will instantly have deduced that the squiggly lines top and bottom correspond to the en. 

Elementary.   And speaking of elements, the squiggly line in hieroglyphs represents the watery one.  It’s a ripple of water:

See the resemblance?  We’ve already seen wavy lines representing water, in the post on wabet.  But we haven’t had them as the actual letter n.  Here’s an original:

It’s a zigzag line.  What else is there to say?  The ka, on the other hand…

The Egyptians didn’t have souls.  Or rather, they didn’t just have single souls.  The deceased Egyptian exploded into a whole menagerie of afterlife entities:  the body, the shadow, the akh (a heron-like bird with a lamp who circled the skies with the stars), the ba (a human-headed bird that hung around the necropolis and twittered mournfully – they’ve made a comeback on the Internet lately) and the ka, or life force.

The ka had its advantages and disadvantages.  A disadvantage was that it was confined to the tomb, unlike the ba and the akh.  Maybe it kicked the ba and the akh out, so it could get some elbow room, with the body and the shadow.  Maybe that was why the ba twittered mournfully.  The advantage was that the ka got to ascend the burial shaft, come out through the false door into the offering chapel and feast upon the food and drink brought by the family or magically invoked by the passer-by.  The ka was the life force, and it fed upon the life force of the food.  But we’ve been through all this before.

The hieroglyph for ka is a pair of upraised arms, as found on the head of this royal ka statue:

What a beautiful, slender yet well moulded pair of arms and  shoulders, and delicate, detailed hands.  They didn’t always put so much work into the hieroglyphs,

although they have taken care to paint this ka the dark red colour they used for male skin (men being more likely to be outdoors than women, and therefore more tanned).  I draw my kas very simply:  three straight lines plus a little crescent at each end for the hands.

NB:  this ka is not to be confused with the ka meaning bull of a few posts ago.  Katie Hughes tweeted a good idea about that some time ago:  kh1369  @SusanLlewellyn Egyptians would be sustaining the ka (“spirit”) with ka (meat)? What a multi-purpose word! Also, is “kau” like “cow”? Easy!  She’s great at making these connections.

And I thought I’d share the two, or two types, that we ran into (figuratively speaking) today!

First, I’d promised you a curly tail lizard. They are fun to shoot because they stop in their tracks if you stop, and sometimes look the other way to make sure you can’t see them. If I can’t see you, you aren’t there!

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I like how his curl is in the shadow. And this guy’s got one heck of a lovely curl.

While walking along the harbour I was amazed to see something black in the grass alongside one of the little rental houses. He also stood still – and let me approach a bit before he began to quietly walk away. So I stopped too, since I didn’t want to upset him. Rudi says he is a heron, or in the heron family. A baby heron? Maybe one of you know? Let us know!

Here are some closeups of the piece, Heron Lake

PhotoHunt | PhotoHunt

This week’s theme is ”Bird(s)” which is one of my favourite subjects – here are a few I don’t think I’ve shared before (not the full sized versions anyway).

Blue & Gold Macaw:

Mandarin Ducks:

Sun Conure:

And my favourite bird of all time, Mallard Duck:

Alligator Lake, originally uploaded by Century Club.

I went a little later this morning to see if the wildlife likes to sleep in some days. For the most part I didnt see much again today. I great blue heron startled me as it took off from the side of the boardwalk below me and a little blue heron was on the side of wood duck pond.
The new thing was I saw the first alligators on a long time at alligator lake. WHen I entered 3 birds were sitting on the floating raft and a smaller alligator was next to the dock. Over time I am getting better at spotting logs with eyes so this sort of stood out. He was maybe 5-6 feet long and content laying there.
Walking around the park didnt yield much other than the birds mentioned above. The last pond didnt even have a turtle to be seen. After the loop is done you walk back by alligator lake so I tried one more time. The birds that were on the raft were replaced by a gator maybe 6-9 foot long.
In all not a bad day but still not the day I was looking for with the photography contest coming up soon.

More of the pics can be seen on my flickr site

Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri’nin terörle mücadelede kullanmak üzere İsrail’den aldığı ancak kabul testlerini geçemeyen İnsansız Hava Aracı (İHA) Heronlar, sessiz sedasız İsrail’e geri gönderildi.

İsrail’e geçtiğimiz günlerde gönderilen iki Heron’un motorlarının iyileştirme çalışmalarının Türkiye’de yapılacağının açıklanmasına karşın İHA’ların İsrail’e gönderilmesi, ‘Proje iptal mi ediliyor?’ sorusunu gündeme getirdi. Batman Üssü’ne bir yıl önce konuşlandırılan iki Heron, kabul testlerinde kendinden beklenen irtifa ve havada kalış süresine erişemeyince, İsrailli firma tarafından motorlarının güçlendirilmesi fikri geliştirildi. Takvime göre, Batman’da konuşlandırılan iki Heron’un iyileştirme çalışmaları Türkiye’de, henüz teslim edilmeyen diğer 8 Heron’un motor iyileştirme çalışmalarını ise İsrail’de yapılacaktı. 8 Heron’dan 4′ü Ağustos sonuna kadar Türkiye’ye teslim edilecekti. İsrail bu taahhütlerini yerine getiremedi. Aselsan’ın ASELFLİR-300 adı verilen kamera ve hedefleme sisteminin de entegre edildiği insansız hava araçları havada toplam 52 saat kalması isteniyor.

PICT9150, originally uploaded by Century Club.

After a few trips recently to Six Mile Cypress Slough I decided to head to Bunche Beach and Ding Darling.  I ahd read a lot about all the birds at Bunche Beach and really wasnt disappointed.  When I got there a great blue heron was posing for a photographer.  Another person walked up and started to take pictures as well  I felt out of place with my little minolta so I walked the beach for a bit and left.

I stopped at Ding Darling and was there as the wrong tide.  The tide was coming in and all the birds were on the right side of the drive.   For some reason I like them better on the left side.  The bay was covered with birds but again too far for my camera to get a decent shot. 

The best pics I got were of the ablove bird.  I assume this is a heron but need help witht he type. 

Next trip will be to Lovers Key Park and possible Six MIle Cypress in the afternoon.

Interspecies sunbathing?  YES!!  This lovely heron seemed to know that it was posing for the camera as it gracefully posed to fully show off its figure.  And the turtles?  Well, I’m loving the little guy in the middle who seems to be trying to replicate  the heron’s moves, complete with outstretched neck and head.  He’s (she?) just trying so hard.  I think he achieved the overall effect, albeit by replacing a bit of the grace with comedy.  The other turtle, well, I just don’t think he got the memo about the sunbathing photo-op.  That, or he’s just not quite as proficient as his cronies at “finding the light”.  Or perhaps he feels his backside is his best angle…

Taken, of course, with the Canon Powershot G7.  The location:  Central Park, NYC.  The post processing:  a quick crop and contrast fix.

Enjoy.  I found  few more photos from my NYC trip that I forgot to add into the NYC series.  They’ll slowly make their appearances!

Along the Yucatan Peninsula, in a land of heat and drenching humidity thrives a rare mangrove ecosystem, important for coastal life and home to jaguarundi, hundreds of bird species and, yes, maybe a mosquito or two.  I hope you enjoy this short jaunt into the mangroves, sans the mosquitoes, near Celestun in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. One afternoon doesn’t do a place like this justice, but it is a glimpse into this vulnerable ecosystem that is increasingly under threat from climate change, deforestation, pollution and coral reef degradation.

There is so much beauty in the world arround us… all we have to do is open our eyes and see it.

Paint with Me

hehe i'm gonna eat youu

chillin' out

foraging in the shallows

Super upload for today! I spent like four hours out by the lake taking pictures and I had sooo many good ones I obviously had a really hard time picking.. These three went into my project for species identification which was really fun (: The species are the florida red-bellied turtle (Pseudemys nelsoni), alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), and the great white heron (Ardea herodias).

Last night was one of the stormiest nights in a long time here in Dublin, there were floods in many locations. The weather caused concern to several people who intended coming on the Dawn FlickrMeet and I think because of the weather one or two just turned over in their beds this morning.
Having said that, ten brave souls joined me for a very enjoyable morning. We met at 07.30 under a mostly cloudy sky and negotiated some very wet ground to sneak into the park. We had our one and only casualty (who shall remain nameless) at this stage as somebody slipped and ended up at the bottom of a slope in a muddy state. They were not injured apart from bruised pride.
From there we walked through the park and then the wood eventually arriving at the lake. Bertie, Celia & Co were very curious to see visitors at this time of the morning and provided plenty of photo opportunities.
Some of the group were curious to see the turtle but I reckon she has probably gone into hibernation as we had some cold & frosty mornings during the past week.
Having traversed most of the lake we strolled the muddy path toward the temple, stopping off for a second to pay homage at the rabbit skull on the way.
We took a group shot, as you can see near the temple before leaving the park. Then we took a walk to Costa Coffee where we overwhelmed the one member of staff with our demands for extra shots (of the caffeine kind). We all sat around a big table for at least an hour before saying our goodbyes and returning to our Normal Saturday lives.
I for one would like to say that it was a most pleasant experience & I could not have asked for a nicer group of people to spend a morning with. Therefore despite some people having cried off I declare the Dawn FlickrMeet was a huge success and as far as I am aware everybody else enjoyed it too. Thank you to all of you who came and ensured that success.
When we left Costa and were walking as a group past the Crowne Plaza I spotted the heron sitting on a low wall at the lakeside and sneaked over to take the last picture of the day.

© Strictly All Rights Reserved. If you like my Photographs please respect me and remember that they are mine.

You can see a Slide show of all of my Northwood Photographs here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebfotos/sets/72157618909099414/show/

You can see all of my pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebfotos

© Strictly All Rights Reserved. If you like my Photographs please respect me and remember that they are mine.

You can see a Slide show of all of my Northwood Photographs here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebfotos/sets/72157618909099414/show/

You can see all of my pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebfotos

(photos to come)

Woke up in the morning at 6h00, and was unable to fall back asleep. However, that most definitely did not prevent me from valiantly attempting to do so, and lazing in bed for another two hours. The bed was just so utterly divine, I felt like I had slept upon a mattress lined with 600+ count sheets, upon a pillow stuffed with the down of heavenly geese. Yes, there are geese in Heaven.

Went a-searching for sustenance with which I could break my fast: read, I wanted more frozen yogurt. Unfortunately, the place apparently didn’t open until 11h00 (seriously? I’d thought that in the interests of being…well, capitalists, you’d open at a more normal—i.e. 9 to 5—hour…guess them Woodlanders don’t eat frozen yogurt in the mornings), and for a moment I was dismayed at the thought of not having any breakfast at all. However, ma pauvre ventre was saved by my finding a corner market thing. Much relieved, I went in, to be greeted by a very French-esque scene.

I was smiling outrageously (the last three-ish months of my French living, out the window in an instant) the entire time I explored the market. They had stations devoted to specific food stuffs: I bought pain au lait and a mini-baguette at their breads bloc, and then a tiny little thing of Morbier cheese (yum, imported French cheese) for 8 USD in their cheese stand (sad face, why so expensive?), and then flitted around tasting their free samples of baguette and olive oil, and les petits gateaux secs with raisins and nuts and myriad other tasty trucs.

Returned to my room to find RS, my roomie, still lounging around in bed (cf them heavenly geese). We eventually decided that it’d probably be a good thing to attempt finding Sigma Xi within the hotel; we were a bit odd-ed out by the fact that neither banners nor fanfare greeted us upon our arrival (I exaggerate, but I definitely expected at least a booth with “Sigma Xi” embossed table cloths or some such thing). We didn’t manage to find them our first wandering, though we did come upon a group of people apparently prepping for another even for the evening—we were absolutely itching with curiosity over what said event was for, considering their outrageous theme (think neon blue and silver, glittery cowgirl boots, fake pink-flowered cacti and bales of not-necessarily-synthetic hay).

Strolled outside along the—this time very—synthetic looking canal along the back of the Marriott; Texas is very different from what I’d imagined. I’m actually far too embarrassed to elucidate in detail my true expectations, but it definitely wasn’t the ultra suburban, colourful, cardboard-yet-so-very-cute looking condos lining a synthetic canal, with pure white heron standing sedately along said canal. Yes, heron. The Woodlands, Texas, is like a retiree’s dream, sans the skin-cancer riddled beaches of Florida.

RS and I actually conversed at length about whether or not the heron were real, because I don’t think either of us had ever really seen one up close, and they looked just too perfect and huge to be real. The first one we saw was standing serenely alone along the edge of the canal, perfectly unmoving and undisturbed by the fact that we were talking very loudly and approaching rather close to it. RS and I actually commenced a bit of a diatribe about how all these fake houses-fake herons thing is exactly what’s wrong with consumerist, capitalist, Stepford America—imagine our astonishment when our second heron actually dipped its head down. We then commenced an avid discussion about whether or not the heron were actually automated, white-heron-robots programmed to move every couple minutes or so. Turns out they were very real, a fact we were only completely convinced of after we made our sneaky, sneaky way towards them Aves. Conclusion: ornithologists we are not, and we may have just lost the right to even pretend.

The rest of the afternoon was spent setting up posters, “networking,” and lounging around lazily in bed. I think I was planning on doing some massive cramming during this time. Needless to say, that didn’t get done (cf 600+count sheets).

At night, we attended the “Sigma Xi Café,” where we ate desserts (cheesecake, mmm), drank (tea for me), and yet again “networked” with our fellow attendees. Sorta. I’m not sure I really did that final one, except for sharing a brief bonding moment with an ecology grad student, over being SOL because there be no more hot water for me tea, and then another grad student, over…well, I don’t really remember. Watched a viewing of “Naturally Obsessed: the making of a scientist”àa movie that follows three graduate students and their mentor over the course of three painful years, and documents their “pursuit of scientific research”…One guy succeeded (the grad student who had previously dropped out three times), while the two others gave up their grad careers to work in industry. Most depressing movie ever.

Gave up on prepping for my presentation. Guess I’m going to wake up early and/or wing it tomorrow.

É a primeira instituição brasileira a ser autorizada no Portal de Operações do Cartão BNDES como fornecedora de serviços na avaliação e na implementação da qualidade de produtos e de processos de software MPS.BR e CMMI. As micros, pequenas e médias empresas que possuírem o Cartão BNDES poderão com ele pagar, diretamente, a SWQuality pelos serviços de implementação do Modelo MPS.BR e CMMI, assim como pelos serviços de avaliação. Para a obtenção da linha de crédito não será necessária a apresentação do projeto, uma vez que o Cartão BNDES é uma linha de financiamento com limite de crédito pré-aprovado. Esta é mais uma grande conquista da SWQuality que gera impactos positivos para toda a indústria nacional de software, uma vez que facilita em grande escala o atendimento de uma das principais demandas apresentadas pelas empresas de software e serviços de TI: a busca pela qualidade e certificação de seus processos e produtos

Por Heron Vieira Aguiar

Respect the spirit that moves in beasts:
Every flower a ghost that opens to Nature,
Every alloy harbors the secrets of love;
“Everything is sentient,” & everything can change you,…

- from Gilded Verse, part of The Chimeras, a series of poems by Gerard de Nerval

The Heron is back. Cold and fog prevail.