#St Peters Field fossil

[uk-fossils]

RARE: GLEVICERAS VICTORIS Fossil Ammonite, Jurassic Lower Pliensbachian, Radstock UK - Genuine w/ COA

This is a RARE GLEVICERAS VICTORIS Fossil Ammonite from the Lower Pliensbachian stage of the Jurassic, discovered in St Peters Field, Radstock, United Kingdom. This exceptional specimen originates from the renowned Alice Purnell Collection, one of the largest and most significant ammonite collections in the world, making it an extraordinary piece for collectors and paleontology enthusiasts alike.

Geological Information:

Formation: Lower Pliensbachian, Jurassic

Age: Approx. 190 - 183 million years old

Location: St Peters Field, Radstock, United Kingdom

Preservation: Well-preserved, showcasing detailed suture patterns and ribbed shell morphology typical of Gleviceras species

Specimen Origin: From the prestigious Alice Purnell Collection

Fossil Type & Species:

Genus: Gleviceras

Species: Victoris

Category: Cephalopod fossil (Ammonite)

Morphology: Gleviceras victoris is characterized by its strongly ribbed, coiled shell with intricate suture patterns. These ammonites thrived in Jurassic marine environments and serve as valuable index fossils for dating rock formations.

Why This Fossil?

100% Genuine Specimen – All of our fossils are authentic and come with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Collector's Item – Sourced from the Alice Purnell Collection, ensuring its authenticity and historical significance.

Perfect for Display – Ideal for museums, collectors, educators, and enthusiasts.

Unique & One-of-a-Kind – The fossil shown in the photos is the exact one you will receive.

Scale Rule for Sizing – A 1cm scale cube is included in the photo for accurate size reference.

Ideal for:

Fossil collectors

Paleontology enthusiasts

Museum and educational displays

Unique scientific gifts

Geological study

This rare Jurassic ammonite fossil is a scientifically valuable and visually stunning specimen, perfect for any fossil enthusiast or professional collector. Don’t miss the opportunity to own a piece of Earth's prehistoric history from one of the most prestigious fossil collections in the world!

Ships securely packaged with full documentation and a Certificate of Authenticity.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Upupa

Eurasian Hoopoe by Jaiprakashsingh, CC BY-SA 3.0 

Etymology: Hoopoe

First Described By: Linnaeus, 1758

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Inopinaves, Telluraves, Afroaves, Coraciimorphae, Cavitaves, Eucavitaves, Picocoraciae, Bucerotiformes, Phoeniculidae, Upupidae

Referred Species: U. africana (African Hoopoe), U. antaios (Saint Helena Hoopoe), U. epops (Eurasian Hoopoe), U. marginata (Madagascan Hoopoe)

Status: Extinct - Extant, Least Concern

Time and Place: Between 12,000 years ago and today, in the Holocene of the Quaternary 

Hoopoes are known from all over the Eastern Hemisphere 

Physical Description: Hoopoes are extremely distinctive birds! They have very long, thin, and curved bills that extend out greatly from their heads, and huge crests on their heads that are easily spotted. They have long, thin bodies, and feet built for perching. THeir wings are very square-ish, and they have shorter tails than other birds. However, their coloration is decidedly where they are most distinctive of all. They have bright orange heads, with orange crests - but the crests end in very slight white bandings and then black tips. Their bodies are orange, but their wings and rumps and tails are black and white striped all over! They are such beautiful, distinctive birds. The shades of orange can differ in brightness or redness based on species (for example, the African Hoopoe tends to be redder than the Eurasian Hoopoe), but they do tend to be overall similar to one another in appearance. Living species range between 19 and 32 centimeters long; the extinct Saint Helena Hoopoe, though it had smaller wings, probably could have reached 36 centimeters long.

Madagascan Hoopoe by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 

Diet: Hoopoes primarily feed on insects, especially larvae, though some larger animals are also fed upon by these animals. 

Common Hoopoe by Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 

Behavior: Hoopoes are very curious, adventurous birds, spending a lot of their time foraginging on the ground - they’ll dig with their bills into soft earth, using them to turn over leaves and probing into the mud and dung for insects and other invertebrates. They’ll even use their bills to prise off the bark from trees, or forage for insects in lichen! Sometimes, these birds also smash their food against the ground to They’ll usually forage in pairs or alone, spending a lot of their days looking for food. Some Hoopoes - especially the Madagascan Hoopoe - will forage in even slightly larger groups, of up to six individuals. Fascinatingly, Hoopoes have their own version of Penicillin - Anting! They’ll find piles of ants and roll around in them, allowing the ants to cover their feathers. The ants then secret substances that will kill bacteria, fungi, and other insects - protecting the Hoopoe (and other birds that Ant) from illness! These birds also take dust and sand baths to clean themselves; they’ll also sunbathe by spreading out their wings and tail low to the ground and tilting their heads up! 

Madagascan Hoopoe by Charles J. Sharp, CC By-SA 4.0 

Hoopoes are distinctive in one very special way that lead to its name - their voice! They literally make calls that sounds like “hoo-poo-poo” and “hoop-oop hoop-oop” - leading to the name, Hoopoe, as well as the genus  name, Upupa, and the species name of the Eurasian species, epops. Interestingly enough, the Madagascan Hoopoe does not make this sound - but rather, more cooing sounds, like doves. These birds will also make harsh, scolding calls, trills, and hisses, depending on the situation. The females and males will communicate primarily in trilling sounds while watching out for their nests. These birds are often sedentary, not migrating over long distance, but northern populations usually do come south in the winter to avoid colder climates, creating a variety of populations with very distinctive seasons and migrational patterns from one another within the species. 

Saint Helena Hoopoe by Apokryltaros, CC BY 2.5 

Hoopoes are monogamous each breeding season (which varies throughout the year as Hoopoes live all over the Eastern Hemisphere), forming strong pair bonds (that only last for that period of time). Males make very frequent calls to establish their territories, and they often fight with each other very brutally - including stabbings that can leave their opponents blinded. Females will then mate with the winners of these contests, and together they make nests out of holes in trees and walls with very narrow entrances. They usually aren’t lined with much. The female then incubates the egg, while the male defends her and the nest. Clutch size tends to depend on location, varying between 4 and 12 eggs per nest. They are incubated for nearly three weeks. At hatching, the chicks are very white and fluffy after a few days, and the crest develops after two weeks. The chicks are able to leave the nest after about a month, though they still stick with their families for a little while. Sometimes, when males defeat each other and replace each other in the mated pair, they will kill the offspring of the replaced male. Females can produce foul-smelling liquid, as do the babies, to protect themselves from predators - since they smell like rotting meat, they can fend off meat-eaters and parasites, and potentially fend off bacteria. Chicks in the nests also are able to literally poop at intruders, helping them to protect themselves! After leaving the nest, they stay with the parents for another week as they gain their bearings; they then become sexually mature between ages one and two. 

Eurasian Hoopoe by Frank Vassen, CC By 2.0 

Ecosystem: Hoopoes live mainly in open country - pastures, orchards, steppe, dry savanna, wooded savanna, short grassland, and bare ground. They congregate near scattered, isolated trees for their roosting and nesting. They do need perches and shade, but they want the trees they get these services from to be rare in the environments - so they can go down to the ground to get their food! They are fed upon by herons, falcons, and many other birds of prey. 

African Hoopoe by Derek Keats, CC BY 2.0 

Other: Most hoopoes are not currently threatened with extinction - they are extremely common, widespread birds, that are even protected in many localities (being highly venerated in many cultures - it’s even mentioned extensively in the Quaran - and made the national bird of Israel; it is also considered a pest controller and thus is protected on that front also. Some local populations, such as those in Morocco, are more threatened due to local practices (such as selling them for medicine), but overall they seem to be doing well. In fact, there are probably as many as 10 million Hoopoe around today, if not more. Still, in more northern countries such as Germany they are more endangered, primarily due to changes in habitat, hunting, and human activity giving pressure to the populations. The numbers in Madagascar are slightly vulnerable too, given forest clearance. Hoopoes are closely related to the Hornbills! 

Saint Helena Hoopoe by Scott Reid 

Species Differences: The four species primarily differ based on location: The African Hoopoe is found in Africa; the Eurasian Hoopoe is found in Eurasia; the Madagascan Hoopoe is known from Madgascar: and the late Saint Helena Hoopoe - now extinct - was known from the island of Saint Helena off the coast of Africa! The Saint Helena Hoopoe differed from the other species in other ways, too - it had smaller wings, was somewhat larger, and was probably flightless! A giant flightless Hoopoe! And, like most large flightless birds of the recent past, it went extinct due to human activity on the island - this time, sometime in the 1500s.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources Under the Cut 

Ashmole, N. P. 1963. The extinct avifauna of St. Helena Island. Ibis 103b:390-408

Burney, D. A., N. Vasey, L. R. Godfrey, Ramilisonina, W. L. Jungers, M. Ramarolahy, and L. Raharivony. 2008. New findings at Andrahomana Cave, southeastern Madagascar. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 70(1):13-24

Carroll, R. L. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution 1-698

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017

del Hoyo, J., Collar, N. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Madagascar Hoopoe (Upupa marginata). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.  

Goodman, S. M., M. J. Raherilalao, and K. Muldoon. 2013. Bird fossils from Ankilitelo Cave: inference about Holocene environmental changes in southwestern Madagascar. Zootaxa 3750:534-548

Kri?tín, A. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Common Hoopoe (Upupa epops). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.  

Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis. Editio Decima 1:1-824

Olson, S. L. 1975. Paleornithology of St. Helena Island, South Atlantic Ocean. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 23:1-49

Sinclair, Ian; Ryan, Peter (2009). Complete Photographic Field Guide: Birds of Southern Africa. Struik Nature.

[aemperatrix]

Keats Is Coughing

by Marianne Boruch

Everything is made of everything. — Leonardo da Vinci

I found Rome in the woods.

Fair to admit it’s mostly tundra to the west in the park, past Toklat the Denali I revised, low grasslands engineered to freeze deep by October — this being Alaska — the great

           Tabularium close to the Temple of            Castor and Pollux I rebuilt that same summer —             not superimposed, exact as any scheme

in secret — the Arch of Septimius Severus at the gravel bar        where fox drank from a river turned stream,           a Theater of Marcellus near               the ranger station where one raven,                                                                                    such a brat,   complained of                      my Circus Maximus, Trajan’s Column,                              my Baths of Diocletian, too many spots soaked in unpronounceable Latin.

                   I really did, I shouldered bits of it,      a ruin-hushed haunted business, my brain                                                         a truck bed, a lift, pulleys big as a whale’s heart, expletives of cheap wonder all over                                                                  my woodlot and expanse.                          One self-anoints to embellish day, years, life thus far, and think oneself so...    

                      Then busted — 

by a raven!

Well, that’s memory for you, that’s so-called        civilization for you, to layer up,                         to redo the already done.

I mean it’s a fact, the puny life span we’re allotted.              And proof — Denali in August, fireweed, spunky scrawny first Latinate — Erechtites hieracifolia — 

              giving off flowers to mark               what weeks left, little               time bomber, time traveler, ancient               slips red-flagging the countdown to winter               by climbing its own stalk.

Something perverse about that. Something perfectly fiendishly self-conscious about that.

•

From the start perverse, any premise.      Ask...We can’t know. To be compelled

           makes an occasion. Rome’s grand     past horrific, fire and ash, swamp into bog, lust              and bloodlust — 

The Alaska Range dreams lurid as Rome,                                        the worst way below being fire, summer snow at night      off the highest peaks by noon              as distant from our cabin as the size of a hand if I                         held up the one with                         an eye in the middle

to know how this works. Some have the power to raise from the dead a before, before scary and beautiful           back to mystery cults, in caves, rubble far under a Roman street, the altar to Mithras still slaying his bull, crumbling the stonework.

            All things being equal. But they’re not.                    Agony, it’s older.                      Ask the moose at Denali,                         the snowshoe hare, the lynx,

such a wily courtly lot.                                           Ask Ovid      banished to his hovel on the Black Sea, aching                for Rome’s exalted rude cacophony, each      exiled month a big thick X down

                                  Februarius,                                 Aprilis to home-shattered sick enough

for an undersong. Look it up! Undersong: a strain; a droning; the burden of a song —                                              Maybe that lowest common denominator is contagious. Rome or Denali, a mash-up of lunge and cry out, predator and prey throwing coins to a fountain, footholds made first by a hoof, pickpockets at buses and trains, nuns queuing up their no-nonsense, thorny brambles, raggedy spruce groves,                                           a look, a nod to sell loveless love on the street, a chain of mountains in choral repeat, saints stained to glass, how ice gouged rivers from rock-bound,                                 the one-lung rapturous common-sense Pope all outstretched arms, his little popemobile circling the thrilled at St. Peter’s up on our rickety chairs to see in six, seven languages how radiant —                             Cross my heart, he was. And Keats, Keats is coughing.

•

You find the fossil record everywhere. In woods, tundra, under streets, in cadaver labs.                                 Not those bright transparencies, wistful orderly page after page in biology, a lie, a kind of flip-book romance. It’s the one big mess of us in us, the generous extraordinary dead prove that, signing a paper, giving themselves away                                            to be cut, disembodied for the knowing it, sunk to their chemical depth in some afterlife, opened on a table by kids really,                                             belabored doctors-to-be, our shabby shared wilderness to untangle, bones   joints   arteries   valves,                                                         The Dissector in hand, weirdest how-to book on the planet. For Keats too, 1819, his scribbled roses and sunflowers in margins,                                                                  his training,                                                           his anatomy theatre, looking down and later: still London, then Rome (he who gets it,  body fails, second floor, beside the Spanish Steps).                                           Heart, not my heart anymore.                                     Forgive me. I’m worse than the hopelessly confused misnamed English sparrow, descendant of the great weaver birds of Africa, a finch that lost the gene

      for nest, how to beneath, to across so intricate, precise, bringing bringing sticks and hair and bits of shiny paper. Undersong: the burden of a song.                                                       Poor bird. Poor sweet muddled middle of it. I watched morning after morning, his offering...                                                                           It’s Keats who made claims about beauty and time. His bed at the last                        too low for the window, his must-have                                 tell me, what’s out there — 

I admit: a ridiculous layering, Rome in Denali. Just because? Because I went to both in short order? Two continents, an ocean apart. My mother loved hand-me-down expressions — never the twain shall meet. They do meet.                           To repeat: that’s civilization for you. Happenstance and right now drag along future and past                             and why the hell not the Denali, the Rome in any of us, no two states of being more unalike, worn-out compulsion to collect and harbor, piece together,                                                                    stupid into some remember machine.

  Such fabulous unthinkable inventions we’ve made to merge or unmake: the trash compactor,   the poem, all tragedy and story, pencils sharpened to

a point that keeps breaking, wilderness gone inward as

                  an ocean-going ship’s container,                         a Gatling gun,                                 the AR-15 of the seething deranged,                                         the H-bomb,                                             Roman legions to Canterbury to blood-up fields into legend then dig the first plumbing but

                                            how can you                                             be in two places at once                                             when you’re not anywhere at all!

       (Thank you, Firesign Theatre, brilliant wackos,              old vinyl on a turntable still in the game... )

                     Fine. Fuck it. Start over.

•

See the sheep on high ledges, the arctic squirrels below.

See the way Dante saw, sweeping his arm across Vasari’s great painting as Boccaccio looks off, the plague sealing city after city. Dante

in hell, steady-luminous     those fact-finding trips to service           his worldly Inferno.

Winter sleeps through. August at Denali, bears shovel it down       a razor-edged maw —                                                 twigs! berries! more stems! —  Fate hoards to prepare, sub-zeros, fattens into...   

See the park’s camper bus, 92 miles how most of us jolt and slow, crossing hours more daylight than night all summer, rattling tin can with its exhaust and hissing gravel, the fear landslide                  an undersong just-possible, how we zigzag a mountain. Look!

                 Nearing a bear, the young caribou abruptly                             hesitant, shy as a leaf — 

No! Don’t! Do not! That grizzly huge, bent to his ploy just                                                 these berries around here, his ignore ignore, sure, quiet-tense as a trigger, and we of                      fogged scratched windows so hard to open — 

stop! The bus stopped. Jesus. The thing curious, closer...                          They’re not

that smart anyhow, a stage-whispering drunk from the back      of our imperial realm, mile 62, the Park Road.

What did Venus decree in her temple up whichever narrow street in Rome, the Ancients’                             stink of slops, standing water,           a bear chained to a slave (out of slav, by the way,                             backdrop is horde, human spoils)

both shackled to a grindstone for                                                             a later mob and roar.

Here’s what we saw: the little caribou  in reverse wanders sideways and safe.                                             Our bus one big sigh or like a wheezing asthmatic the brakes unbrake.

Bad dream, bad dream, the undersong start to all fable if                        for real we’d seen that kill back to lions off their continent cornered, bloodied in the great amphitheaters, rearing up, a nail to hammer’s                                   bite and blow. The wilderness in us

is endless. Near the cabin, near evening, a warbler                               in the fireweed                                                    hawk saw or heard,                          his switchblade clicked to —                                                                         I was and I was                      whirling feathers, either bird —    Every hunger                            is first century. Forever-thus   feral cats at the Forum about to leap too.                                                        The Forum, last homage   I shoveled holes and rocks to   remake, mile 82, while the haymouse riddled the meadow   down deep, her catacombs.

•

Time + beauty = ruins. Perfect shapes in the mind       meet my friends Pointless and Threat and Years of       Failure to Meld or Put to Rest. Ruthless                                                                                 is human.

I ask a composer: How to live with this undersong thing                             over and over, how to

                                                                   get rid of it,                                                                        the world of it — 

 He looks at me. What undersong thing? And shrugs       I’ll put it on the test! Let students define it.

     So I dreamt such a test: Go there. To Rome.                    Half-doze against a wall                      two thousand years of

    flesh    sweat    insect wing ago, stone laid by hand, by a boy when a whip, a whip, a welling up, his will not speak.

   Have at it. Please explain. Please fill in this blank.

Grief punctures like ice, moves like a glacier   to flat and slog and myth, low blue and white flowers       we hiked trail-less. The rangers insist. They insist — 

      never follow or lead, never lay down a path.

                                                                       From above the look of us spread out, our seven or eight a band, little stray exhausted figures                                           as over the land bridge from Asia,

circa: prehistory keeps coming, older than Rome, both   both underfoot, understory, underway

        miles below numb, it’s burning.

•

To see at all, you time                                         and this time and time again.

The spirit leans intrigued, the other part bored, then there’s want,                                                                    then there’s wait.

Once a city began with a wolf whose two human pups would      build, would watch it fall, nursing                                              at her milk for centuries               in marble               in bronze.

         She stands there and cries of                                                               that pleasure, by turns a blood-chill. The tundra. At night.

A snake eats its own tail, forever at it on a fresco. A real snake                       leaves his skin near the gravel bar. Some words sting, some are sung. Another life isn’t smaller.

[earthstory]

Opalised belemnites.

The bullet shaped fossils are the guards of an extinct order of Mesozoic predators that resembled squid or cuttlefish, and lived from the early Jurassic to the late Cretaceous. In some places they are very useful for establishing the stratigraphy, since, in a similar manner to ammonites, they evolved fairly rapidly. Their changing forms can guide us to which exact period the rocks in question date from. Such identifications are invariably made on the basis of as complete a faunal assemblage as possible, but since many of the organisms used are microscopic, belemnites and other easily identifiable larger fossils serve as an excellent rough and ready field guide to the knowledgeable geologist.

They had 10 equal sized tentacles studded with hooks to ensnare prey, without the two longer ones that characterise modern squid. They also had internal skeletons made of calcite, unlike their modern counterparts, and the most commonly fossilised part pictured here was at the rear of the animal. Rare examples with preserved internal parts indicate that they had ink sacs, hard beaks, large eyes and tailfins similar to modern cephalopods. They are often found in the stomachs of larger predators such as ichthyosaurs.

They have intrigued humans since time immemorial, and were called thunder stones in England (as they were thought to fall from the sky), along with bullet stones, and both the devil's and St Peter's fingers depending on religious inclination. The Chinese called them sword stones and the Scandinavians gnome's candles, testifying to the interest paid to these odd shaed rocks around the globe. Belemnites are also the state fossil of Delaware.

Loz

Image credit: cobalt 123

http://www.ukfossils.co.uk/guides/belemnites.htm http://www.abc.net.au/dinosaurs/fact_files/sea/sealife/belemnite.htm

[lebrisereve]

2011 -> 125

pure x - pleasure 

youth lagoon - the year of hibernation

patrick wolf - lupercalia 

kurt vile - smoke ring for my halo 

altas sound - parallax

metronomy - the english riviera

black lips - arabia mountain 

girls - father son holy ghost 

destroyer - kaput

vivian girls - share the joy 

yuck - st

john maus - We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves

puro instinct - headbangers in ecstasy 

thee oh sees - carrion crawler/ the dream 

washed out - within and without 

tennis - cape dory

the feelies - here before

wild flag - st 

real estate - days

grouper - alien observer  / grouper - aa dream loss 

cut copy - zonoscope

blouse - blouse 

veronica falls - st 

asap rocky - livelovesasap

the rapture - in the grace of your love 

sean nicholas savage - tripple midnight karma / flamingo 

beach fossils - what a pleasure ep 

m83 - hurry up, we're dreaming 

the horrors - skying 

dirty beaches - badlands

oneohtrix point never - replica

la sera - st 

twin sister - in heaven 

the men - leave home

battant - as i ride with no horses

yelle - safari disco club 

iceage - new brigade (8)

ty segal - goodbye bread 

neon indian - era extraña

the drums - portamento 

widowspeak - st 

the field - looping state of mind

christian aids - stay positive ep 

grimes - geidi primes 

james blake - st 

king krule EP 

braids - native speaker

miracle fortress - was i the wave? 

toro y moi - underneath the pine

spectrals - bad penny (7.5)

the pains of being pure at heart - belong

minks - by the edge 

mogwai - hardcore will never die but you will 

francois and the atlas mountain - evolo love 

moon duo - mazes

korallreven - an album by korallreven 

cass mccombs - wit's end 

zomby - dedication

sleep over - forever

adventure - lesser known 

cat's eyes - st 

white denim - D

cold cave - cherish the light year

the war on drugs - slave ambient 

bill callahan - apocalypse 

crystal stilts - in love with oblivion

julianna barwick - this magic place

holy ghost! - st

I break horses - hearts

clams casino - instrumentals 

explosions in the sky - take care take care take care 

zola jesus - conatus

the ladybug transistor - clutching stems

thee oh sees - castlemania 

feist - metals 

lykke li - wounded rhythm 

kuedo - severant 

peaking lights - 936 

banjo or freakout - st 

the cult of youth - the cult of youth

panda bear - tomboy 

jens lekman - an argument with myself 

wild beasts - smother 

comet gain - howl of the lonely crowd 

chelsea Wolfe - apokalypsis 

baxer dury - happy soup

nicolas jaar - space is only noise 

the antlers - burst apart 

quilt - quilt 

sonic youth - simon werner a disparu

thurston moore - demolished thoughts 

unknown mortal orchestra - st 

the weeknd - house of balloons 

cant - dreams come true 

kate bush - 50 words for snow 

the shoes - crack your bones 

dum dum girls - only in dreams 

psychic paramount - II 

fucked up - david comes to life 

tuneYards - w ho k i l l 

beirut - the rip tide 

connan mockasin - forever dolphin love 

wolves in the throne room - celestial lineage 

sebastian - total 

araabmusik - electronic dreams 

frank ocean - nostalgia, ultra 

the sandwitches - mrs jones cookers

still corner - creatures of an hour 

david lynch - crazy clown time 

mikal cronin - st 

mazes - a thousand heys 

smith western - dye it blonde

battles - gloss drop 

stephen malkmus and the jicks - mirror traffic

keren ann - 101 

ema - past life martyr saints

dom - family of love

low - c'mon 

bjork - biophilia 

r e m - collapse into now

com truise - galactic melt

peter bjorn and john - gimme some 

sbtrkt - st 

[j-kaiwa]

Discussion Article August 21st~27th

11 reasons to be excited about the future of technology

In the year 1820, a person could expect to live less than 35 years, 94% of the global population lived in extreme poverty, and less that 20% of the population was literate. Today, human life expectancy is over 70 years, less that 10% of the global population lives in extreme poverty, and over 80% of people are literate. These improvements are due mainly to advances in technology, beginning in the industrial age and continuing today in the information age.

There are many exciting new technologies that will continue to transform the world and improve human welfare. Here are eleven of them.

1. Self-Driving Cars

Self-driving cars exist today that are safer than human-driven cars in most driving conditions. Over the next 3–5 years they‘ll get even safer, and will begin to go mainstream.

"so what did you do before self-driving cars?" "we just drove 'em ourselves!" "wow, no one died that way?" "oh no, millions of people died"

The World Health Organization estimates that 1.25 million people die from car-related injuries per year. Half of the deaths are pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists hit by cars. Cars are the leading cause of death for people ages 15–29 years old.

Just as cars reshaped the world in the 20th century, so will self-driving cars in the 21st century. In most cities, between 20–30% of usable space is taken up by parking spaces, and most cars are parked about 95% of the time. Self-driving cars will be in almost continuous use (most likely hailed from a smartphone app), thereby dramatically reducing the need for parking. Cars will communicate with one another to avoid accidents and traffic jams, and riders will be able to spend commuting time on other activities like work, education, and socializing.

2. Clean Energy

Attempts to fight climate change by reducing the demand for energy haven’t worked. Fortunately, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs have been working hard on the supply side to make clean energy convenient and cost-effective.

Due to steady technological and manufacturing advances, the price of solar cells has dropped 99.5% since 1977. Solar will soon be more cost efficient than fossil fuels. The cost of wind energy has also dropped to an all-time low, and in the last decade represented about a third of newly installed US energy capacity.

Forward thinking organizations are taking advantage of this. For example, in India there is an initiative to convert airports to self-sustaining clean energy.

Tesla is making high-performance, affordable electric cars, and installing electric charging stations worldwide.

There are hopeful signs that clean energy could soon be reaching a tipping point. For example, in Japan, there are now more electric charging stations than gas stations.

And Germany produces so much renewable energy, it sometimes produces even more than it can use.

3. Virtual and Augmented Reality

Computer processors only recently became fast enough to power comfortable and convincing virtual and augmented reality experiences. Companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft are investing billions of dollars to make VR and AR more immersive, comfortable, and affordable.

People sometimes think VR and AR will be used only for gaming, but over time they will be used for all sorts of activities. For example, we’ll use them to manipulate 3-D objects.

To meet with friends and colleagues from around the world. And even for medical applications, like treating phobias or helping rehabilitate paralysis victims.

VR and AR have been dreamed about by science fiction fans for decades. In the next few years, they’ll finally become a mainstream reality.

4. Drones and Flying Cars

“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need… roads.” — Dr. Emmet Brown

GPS started out as a military technology but is now used to hail taxis, get mapping directions, and hunt Pokémon. Likewise, drones started out as a military technology, but are increasingly being used for a wide range of consumer and commercial applications.

For example, drones are being used to inspect critical infrastructure like bridges and power lines, to survey areas struck by natural disasters, and many other creative uses like fighting animal poaching.

Amazon and Google are building drones to deliver household items.

The startup Zipline uses drones to deliver medical supplies to remote villages that can’t be accessed by roads.

There is also a new wave of startups working on flying cars (including two funded by the cofounder of Google, Larry Page).

Flying cars use the same advanced technology used in drones but are large enough to carry people. Due to advances in materials, batteries, and software, flying cars will be significantly more affordable and convenient than today’s planes and helicopters.

5. Artificial Intelligence

It may be a hundred years before a computer beats humans at Go — maybe even longer. — New York Times, 1997

Artificial intelligence has made rapid advances in the last decade, due to new algorithms and massive increases in data collection and computing power.

AI can be applied to almost any field. For example, in photography an AI technique called artistic style transfer transforms photographs into the style of a given painter.

Google built an AI system that controls its datacenter power systems, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in energy costs.

The broad promise of AI is to liberate people from repetitive mental tasks the same way the industrial revolution liberated people from repetitive physical tasks.

Some people worry that AI will destroy jobs. History has shown that while new technology does indeed eliminate jobs, it also creates new and better jobs to replace them. For example, with advent of the personal computer, the number of typographer jobs dropped, but the increase in graphic designer jobs more than made up for it.

It is much easier to imagine jobs that will go away than new jobs that will be created. Today millions of people work as app developers, ride-sharing drivers, drone operators, and social media marketers— jobs that didn’t exist and would have been difficult to even imagine ten years ago.

6. Pocket Supercomputers for Everyone

“I wanted a flying car and all I got was a way for the entire planet to communicate instantly via massively powerful pocket computers.”

By 2020, 80% of adults on earth will have an internet-connected smartphone. An iPhone 6 has about 2 billion transistors, roughly 625 times more transistors than a 1995 Intel Pentium computer. Today’s smartphones are what used to be considered supercomputers.

Crowds watching the pope in St. Peter's Square in 2005 and 2013. Notice anything different?AP

Internet-connected smartphones give ordinary people abilities that, just a short time ago, were only available to an elite few:

“Right now, a Masai warrior on a mobile phone in the middle of Kenya has better mobile communications than the president did 25 years ago. If he’s on a smart phone using Google, he has access to more information than the U.S. president did just 15 years ago.” 

[olwog]

So Facepeeps, the Moors are calling so a couple of phone calls and a text later we’re quorate for a ramble from Staithes to Kettleness.  I’m testing a new pair of boots. It’s a bit under 6 miles and has a couple of quite challenging ‘ups’ and that’s exactly what we need.

Staithes is a wonderful little fishing port with narrow cobbled streets. Cars are not welcome so we park at the top and make our way down the street with the intention of meeting up with Louise.

Staithes is definitely popular now and contrasts significantly with the Barry Slater/Vin Garbutt song Streets of Staithes. Vin’s beautiful rendition of the lament that illustrates the loss of fishing from the 1970’s is buzzing around in my head. I’m struggling with all of the words but the first couple of verses come readily to mind and they’re rattling about in my head as we walk down to the harbour:

One fine August day as I was making my way Along the hardship-troubled streets of Staithes, I saw the seagulls flying in the grey northern sky Heard the shifting chorus of the waves As Staithes looked so fair in the crisp morning air, Sea mist lifting to fragmented specks of light, And on the sea wall, though the mist’s lifting pall, An old man sitting there came into sight…

I’ll add the rest of the words and put a link to Vin’s web site at the bottom of the page but the words above are keeping me vigilant and I take in how vibrant the village is now.

Point

The contrast from the days when Vin wrote the song is significant. It was desperately sad during those days of transition but now there are people passing through on the Cleveland Way, visitors parking in the designated parks at the top of the bank and walking down to the quay as we are now. (Although the cost of the car parks are eye watering and whilst local services need to be maintained I think a balance needs to be struck between what is reasonable and what will put people off).

We pass tiny shops, a couple of pubs, The Royal George (recommended) and the Cod and Lobster (recommended but can get a bit busy) then spend some time at the quayside. The weather is overcast but dry and the wind is blowing hard so the water is angry and white. It’s great for photographs but the wind off the sea cuts through our clothes and when we get on to the cliffs we’ll be grateful for the direction as it’s blowing us on to the land. It’s much safer than our experience a few weeks ago when we had to deliberately walk inland slightly to avoid the gusts attempting to blow us over the edge.

The track bears right and begins a slow incline that becomes more acute as we pass the Mission Church of St Peter for Fishermen that must have given more solace than reassurance on stormy days when the menfolk were at sea in tiny open cobbles when prayers would be said for their safe return. Today it looks like an art centre and shop but still retains an element of its former religious role and the feeling of this exudes from the stone in its walls.

Now the climb starts. It’s not too bad if you’re fit but if this is your first outing for a while you may struggle a bit. The trick is to walk in bursts and before you know it, you’re fit again and start to enjoy the scenery rather than cursing the incline. We reach the top quite quickly then look back. Staithes is photographed from every angle but this is one of the least published views so it’s worth the time to appreciate this beautiful little village. Today is even better because of the wind so we have the village, the quay, Cowbar Nab, the cove and the open sea progressively getting wilder as the water becomes more exposed to the wind.

We haven’t met Lou yet so we split at a fork in the tracks so we don’t miss her. We take the cliff route and the Pilgrim and Dave head inland.

The cliff route is definitely recommended. We’re above Penny Steel and Jet Wyke, the latter illustrating the fact that the semi precious black stone of Jet can be found along this coast and is used extensively, after much polishing, in bracelets, necklaces and broaches and sold in local shops and more extensively in Whitby.

We walk for about a mile then turn inland, we can see the Pilgrim and Dave on the hillside about half a mile away and a hundred metres or so above us. The wind is behind us and does help us with this incline to the top of our path adjacent to Beacon Hill where we stop to catch our breath and look back at the sea breaking white over the rocks that are Brackenberry Wyke towards the point of Old Nab.

At Port Mulgrave we meet up with Lou who’s had a couple of false starts due to a lack of communication between us that was the result of an old phone number. We’re at full strength now and take the path across the front of Port Mulgrave and look down at the collapsed path to the harbour. The National Park are still thinking about where they put the new one. The old path down was rickety anyway but was claimed in a massive land slide last year after some particularly heavy storms. There is still a way of getting down to the port but it does involve a rope and the ability to abseil, we’re not doing that today! Since the collapse and subsequent further erosion the fossil collectors have been having a field day even to the extent of taking portable ‘pneumatic’ drills and are now considered a menace rather than quaint amateur geologists.

We’re on Rosedale Cliffs now looking down on Rosedale Wyke. The wind is still cutting through us from the sea but we’re all well dressed and it’s not an issue. Occasionally, we’re protected by the track either going through cuts and small valleys or by beautiful gorse in full yellow bloom or by rough scrubby shrubs that don’t look pretty but are still welcome for the protection they give us from the wind.

At Runswick Bay the tide is in so we take the advice of our local expert Lou and head inland in search of the old disused railway track and it’s well hidden through a gap in the hedge no more than the size of an internal door. Our path is about a metre wide and climbs up a cinder embankment through elderberry and brambles then turns left on to the railway track proper. There are no rails of course, they were taken up when Dr. Beeching conducted his act of official vandalism in the early 60’s but the way is easy going and whilst adding two or three kilometres it has got us away from the high tide and gully walk.

The sun keeps threatening to emerge from the grey covering of stratus cloud and break into the welcome fluffy cumulus that we all adore, sadly, it’s just not strong enough but we’re a little warmer now with the protection of the shrubs, bushes and trees that have grown on the embankment.

Just before the hamlet and adjacent to Kettleness Mines (disused) we turn off the embankment and rejoin the Cleveland Way for the final kilometre or so along the cliff tops of the appropriately name High Cliffs above Hill Stones and Kettleness Sands.

Just as we reach the car, the sun breaks through, it’s still windy though!

This walk is about seven miles (11ish kilometres) and has some ascents but it’s rewarding a exhilarating in equal measure.

Oh, by the way, my new boots were challenging by the time we finished. Best to take my own advice and wear them for shorter walks to start with!

Enjoy the snaps…G…x

Feel free to share

Here are the full words of Vin and Barry’s beautiful lament “Street of Staithes”

One fine August day as I was making my way Along the hardship-troubled streets of Staithes, I saw the seagulls flying in the grey northern sky Heard the shifting chorus of the waves As Staithes looked so fair in the crisp morning air, Sea mist lifting to fragmented specks of light, And on the sea wall, though the mist’s lifting pall, An old man sitting there came into sight.

Well, we sat side by side until the turning of the tide But not the smallest craft put out to sea – As the water receded, still unheeded lay the boats, The pots and nets neglected on the quay. I asked him the reason why no boats put to sea. He looked long and thoughtfully at me And then, with a sigh, he said: “You might well wonder why For who’d have thought such things could ever be.”

“Aye, there’s days I remember when from March till November The men of Staithes set out with net and line And every day from morn till night, every man and boy would fight To take the family’s living from the brine, And when the men came back to land, their women lent a willing hand To get the hard-won catch safe on the shore; Work for women and for men, pots to pull and lines to mend Hooks to bait – all ready for the morn.”

“But now the boats come empty in – no fish will buy no bread. To fish today you need a radar screen Those trawlers with their fine mesh nets are out to take all they can get. Between them they’ll soon fish the North Sea clean. So Staithes now wears a different face – the fishwife’s bonnets trimmed with lace Are only curios and souvenirs And since they’ve taken buried hens, the lobster too are at an end. The only fish is frozen now in Staithes.”

“So now you see the fishing’s gone, the folks are moving on. If it’s Staithes you came to see, you came too late. Although the seagulls still fly high, our men now work at ICI – They’ve moved up to the council house estate. Ah, but think on now you’ve heard me tale, these cottages you see for sale For a way of life they are an unmarked grave.” And on the air’s salty breath, I seemed to catch the smell of death On the hardship-troubled streets of Staithes.

E&OE

You can see Vin’s full catalogue here: http://www.vingarbutt.com/

Copyright remains with original authors

Staithes to Kettleness So Facepeeps, the Moors are calling so a couple of phone calls and a text later we’re quorate for a ramble from Staithes to Kettleness.  

[uk-fossils]

13" RARE: GLEVICERAS SUBGUIBALIANUM Fossil Ammonite, Jurassic Lower Pliensbachian, Radstock UK - Genuine w/ COA

This is a RARE 13" GLEVICERAS SUBGUIBALIANUM Fossil Ammonite from the Lower Pliensbachian stage of the Jurassic, discovered in St Peters Field, Radstock, United Kingdom. This exceptional specimen originates from the renowned Alice Purnell Collection, one of the largest and most significant ammonite collections in the world, making it an extraordinary piece for collectors and paleontology enthusiasts alike.

Geological Information:

Formation: Lower Pliensbachian, Jurassic

Age: Approx. 190 - 183 million years old

Location: St Peters Field, Radstock, United Kingdom

Preservation: Well-preserved, showcasing detailed suture patterns and ribbed shell morphology typical of Gleviceras species

Specimen Origin: From the prestigious Alice Purnell Collection

Fossil Type & Species:

Genus: Gleviceras

Species: Subguibalianum

Category: Cephalopod fossil (Ammonite)

Morphology: Gleviceras subguibalianum is characterized by its strongly ribbed, coiled shell with intricate suture patterns. These ammonites thrived in Jurassic marine environments and serve as valuable index fossils for dating rock formations.

Why This Fossil?

100% Genuine Specimen – All of our fossils are authentic and come with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Collector's Item – Sourced from the Alice Purnell Collection, ensuring its authenticity and historical significance.

Perfect for Display – Ideal for museums, collectors, educators, and enthusiasts.

Unique & One-of-a-Kind – The fossil shown in the photos is the exact one you will receive.

Scale Rule for Sizing – A 1cm scale cube is included in the photo for accurate size reference.

Ideal for:

Fossil collectors

Paleontology enthusiasts

Museum and educational displays

Unique scientific gifts

Geological study

This rare Jurassic ammonite fossil is a scientifically valuable and visually stunning specimen, perfect for any fossil enthusiast or professional collector. Don’t miss the opportunity to own a piece of Earth's prehistoric history from one of the most prestigious fossil collections in the world!

Ships securely packaged with full documentation and a Certificate of Authenticity.

[lebrisereve]

FLASHBACK2011INMUSIC

pure x - pleasure (10)

kurt vile - smoke ring for my halo (9.5)

altas sound - parallax (9)

metronomy - the english riviera (9)

black lips - arabia mountain (9)

girls - father son holy ghost (9)

destroyer - kaput (9)

vivian girls - share the joy (8.5)

yuck - st (8.5)

puro instinct - headbangers in ecstasy (8.5)

thee oh sees - carrion crawler/ the dream (8.5)

washed out - within and without (8.5)

tennis - cape dory (8)

wild flag - st (8)

real estate - days (8)

grouper - alien observer (8.5) / grouper - aa dream loss (7.5)

cut copy - zonoscope (9)

blouse - blouse (8)

veronica falls - st (9)

asap rocky - livelovesasap (8.5)

the rapture - in the grace of your love (8.5)

sean nicholas savage - tripple midnight karma / flamingo (9)

beach fossils - what a pleasure ep (9)

m83 - hurry up, we're dreaming (9)

the horrors - skying (8.5)

iceage - new brigade (8)

dirty beaches - badlands (8.5)

la sera - st (8)

twin sister - in heaven (8)

the drums - portamento (8)

minks - by the edge (8)

braids - native speaker (8)

cat's eyes - st (7.5)

araabmusik - electronic dreams (7)

smith western - dye it blonde (7)

toro y moi - underneath the pine (8)

spectrals - bad penny (7.5)

adventure - lesser known (8)

then 35 awesome records

the men - leave home (8)

battant - as i ride with no horses (8)

yelle - safari disco club (7.5)

ty segal - goodbye bread (7.5)

neon indian - era extraña (8)

widowspeak - st (7)

the field - looping state of mind (8)

christian aids - stay positive ep (9.5)

grimes - geidi primes (7.5)

oneohtrix point never - replica (7.5)

james blake - st (8/10)

king krule EP (8)

miracle fortress - was i the wave? (8.5)

the pains of being pure at heart - belong (8)

mogwai - hardcore will never die but you will (8)

francois and the atlas mountain - evolo love (7.5)

moon duo - mazes (8)

korallreven - an album by korallreven (8)

cass mccombs - wit's end (8)

zomby - dedication (8)

sleep over - forever (8)

white denim - D (8)

cold cave - cherish the light year (8.5)

the war on drugs - slave ambient (8)

bill callahan - apocalypse (7.5)

crystal stilts - in love with oblivion (8)

julianna barwick - this magic place (8/10)

holy ghost! - st (8)

I break horses - hearts (8)

and 40 more

clams casino - instrumentals (8)

julien doré - bichon (7.5)

explosions in the sky - take care take care take care (7.5)

zola jesus - conatus (7)

the ladybug transistor - clutching stems (7)

youth lagoon - the year of hibernation (8)

thee oh sees - castlemania (8)

feist - metals (8)

lykke li - wounded rhyme (7)

kuedo - severant (7.5)

peaking lights - 936 (7.5)

banjo or freakout - st (7.5)

the cult of youth - the cult of youth (7.5)

panda bear - tomboy (7.5)

jens lekman - an argument with myself (7.5)

wild beasts - smother (7.5)

comet gain - howl of the lonely crowd (7.5)

chelsea Wolfe - apokalypsis (7.5)

baxer dury - happy soup (7)

nicolas jaar - space is only noise (7.5)

the antlers - burst apart (7.5)

quilt - quilt (7.5)

sonic youth - simon werner a disparu (7)

thurston moore - demolished thoughts (7.5)

unknown mortal orchestra - st (7.5)

the weeknd - house of balloons (7.5)

cant - dreams come true (7.5)

kate bush - 50 words for snow (7)

the shoes - crack your bones (7.5)

dum dum girls - only in dreams (7.5)

psychic paramount - II (7.5)

fucked up - david comes to life (7)

tuneYards - w ho k i l l (7)

wolves in the throne room - celestial lineage (7.5)

sebastian - total (7/10)

frank ocean - nostalgia, ultra (7)

the sandwitches - mrs jones cookers (8)

still corner - creatures of an hour (7)

THEN I REALLY LIKED THOSE TOO

david lynch - crazy clown time (7)

beirut - the rip tide (7.5)

planningtorock - w (7)

connan mockasin - forever dolphin love (7.5)

mikal cronin - st (7)

bonnie prince billy - wolfroy goes to town (7)

british sea power - vahalla dancehall (7)

mazes - a thousand heys (7)

battles - gloss drop (7)

stephen malkmus and the jicks - mirror traffic (7)

keren ann - 101 (7)

ema - past life martyr saints (6.5)

dom - family of love (7)

low - c'mon (7)

deerhoof - deerhoof vs evil (7)

bjork - biophilia (7)

r e m - collapse into now (7)

modeselektor - monkeytown (7)

peste noire - l'ordure a l'etat pur (7.5)

com truise - galactic melt (7)

peter bjorn and john - gimme some (7)

sbtrkt - st (7)