#gulf of valencia

[unofficial-sean]

This study examines the stomach contents of the youngest sexually active Hexanchus griseus male ever recorded in the Mediterranean sea. At just 253cm, he overtook the previous male, who was 270cm in total length. The shark was caught by a bottom trawler operating at a depth ranged of 550m-730m in the Gulf of Valencia.

tw: animal death, tw: gore

Within the stomach of this H. griseus  were the right flipper and chunks from the thoracic region of a striped dolphin calf (Stenella coeruleoalba). The objective was to identify the species and examine the remains for signs of scavenging.

The age of the remains were determined by an established length-length relation for the species of dolphin, and compared to a linear regression model. The remains belonged to a calf. The remains retained their coloration, which suggested that this was a recent meal. A minor degree of uncertainty lies in whether or not these all belonged to a single dolphin, it is worth to keep in mind. It’s possible that multiple H. griseus converged on the corpse to feed, which we can infer from the partial remains. It’s also possible that the shark had simply ate its fill. Group feeding has been observed in adults, and a shoal of 21 subadults was trawled off the coast of Tunisia.

The striped dolphin has been noted to be a prey species of the bluntnose sixgill shark in the past, and this confirms it as such. From previous studies, cetaceans make up 6.3%-25% of Hexanchus griseus’ diet. This proportion is thought to be too high to be merely the result of scavenging alone. Recently, a massive die-off of striped dolphins occurred in the Gulf of Valencia from February 2021 to March 2021. Most of these corpses do no wash ashore, so it is likely that they ended up feeding scavengers, such as our subject shark.

Other studies have suggested that H. griseus may be an active predator. Evidence in support of this comes from the shark’s positive buoyancy, thermally-efficient body shape, and increased nocturnal activity. Hexanchus griseus may be able to motionlessly climb the water column in the cover of darkness, and quickly lung to capture prey. While the teeth of this shark are best suited for generalist, scavenging behavior, ram feeding is also well within this shark’s capabilities, as observed from bait station recordings outside the Seattle Aquarium. Ram feeding is usually reserved for prey or food in the water column; at a bait station, that’s buoyant feed, but in the natural environment, that’s be live prey. predation appears to be reserved for the young and sickly, however.

 A most compelling argument for active predation, indeed.

While no scavenging fauna were found in this shark’s stomach (such as echinoderms), it’s just as likely that this individual showed up first, if indeed this dolphin was consumed postmortem. Active predation or scavenging could not, ultimately, be ruled out in this case study. Further research is necessary to determine the frequency of active predation vs. scavenging in Hexanchus griseus. Name with direct observation and telemetry tags.

Lastly, the ectoparasitic copepod Demoleus heptapus was attached on the outer skin of the gill slits and around the cloaca of this shark. The first case of this parasite on a H. griseus in the western Mediterranean. This parasite appears to be occurring in greater frequency on this shark. Its primary host has yet to be identified, however, and is another subject for further research.

[detroit-grand-prix]

thistle and weeds - susie wolff x oc

iii. your strife strikes at you in your sleep

Summary: Maree's solution to her current dilemma isn't practical or wise, and she can't get away with it forever, but it's all she's got until it comes to a head during the Barcelona F1 academy round.

Tags/warnings: almost one-night stands, alcohol use

Author’s note: This one didn't come quite as easily to me as chapters 1 and 2 did, but, it is a bit longer and more in-depth as a consolation! I felt like I could have maybe limited most of this to a summary, but I didn't really want to cut Maree's character development off at the knees like that, so the bulk of this chapter is strictly about Maree. I hope you like it anyway!

By the time the Barcelona round arrived in mid-May, Susie was a regular feature in Maree’s dreams, and Maree had decided that the only way to deal with it was to start avoiding talking to Susie as much as possible.

Out of sight, out of mind, Maree thought. It was a reasonable line of logic, but she hadn’t expected the act of avoiding Susie to cause Maree to think about her even more than she did before.

Getting through the Valencia race weekend without running into Susie was easy enough, as Susie wasn’t there. She had traveled to Miami, in the United States, for the Miami Grand Prix weekend. She was slated to speak at an F1-sponsored business summit where she would be announcing the partnership of F1 Academy and Hello Sunshine, and the media production company that Reese Witherspoon had founded. Maree was proud of the fact that she had a significant hand in facilitating the deal, and that they would be making a docuseries about the first F1 Academy season to capitalize on some of the “Drive to Survive” buzz. 

Even aside from missing the Valencia round, Susie had a fairly demanding travel schedule and didn’t work out of the London office much of the time. She worked mostly from her home in Monaco, or on the road when she went to F1 races with Toto, but she was in regular contact with Maree via email and WhatsApp, but their conversations had started becoming more social, sometimes about things that weren’t strictly related to F1 Academy business.

For instance, while she was in Miami, Susie sent Maree a picture of the view of the beach from the balcony of her and Toto’s room at the Four Seasons, right on the Gulf of Mexico. She also sent a picture she’d taken of herself standing on the balcony of her suite, showing off the blue-and-white striped button down she was wearing. Maree limited her response to something about how the weather looked lovely. The pictures she’d sent Maree were very different from the photos she’d posted on Instagram, one of which was a photo of herself reflected in the glass sliding door of her suite. Maree did her best to keep her responses to Susie’s more social messages simple, and did her best to avoid scrolling back through their WhatsApp chat to look at the pictures Susie sent her pictures too much in hopes of not focusing on the details, like the way the Miami sunlight made her hair look like actual spun gold, or the way the sea breeze was gently ruffling it, or the way that she could see the skin just above Susie’s bra line because she’d left the topmost buttons of her shirt undone. She definitely tried to avoid imagining herself walking hand-in-hand with Susie down the long stretch of beach, enjoying the glow of the sunset and the roar of the tides as they kissed. 

On the days that Susie was in the office, Maree hunkered down behind the locked door of her own office. She declined Susie’s usual lunch invitations, preferring to say that she already had lunch plans or that she had to run an errand. She spoke to Susie in meetings, but dashed back into her office as soon as they ended. She tried to artificially block off her schedule with check-ins with various colleagues, but the plan fell apart when her colleagues reasonably never had any updates for her.

By the time the Barcelona round started, Maree hardly had the nerve to even look Susie directly in the eye any more, and had resorted to very ungracefully turning around and walking the other way whenever she saw her approaching, loudly announcing that there was something she’d forgotten about in the other direction. She resolutely tried to ignore the confusion writ plainly on Susie’s face and tried to tell herself that there wasn’t also a touch of sadness or confusion with it, too.

The hammer came down on Saturday, just after the medal ceremony for the third and final round. Susie was taking photos with the girls that had made the weekend’s final podium. Maree was on her way back to the pit lane, chatting with one of the engineers for PREMA racing, Camilla, who had come to watch her driver, Marta García accept her third place trophy, when she heard someone call her name from behind her. 

She turned around to see Delphine half-jogging toward her from the direction of the podium. 

“Susie was looking for you earlier,” Delphine said as she caught up. “I don’t know if you talked to her already, but she just said she wanted to check in on a few things before she left.”

Maree swallowed against the lump that formed in her throat. She supposed she couldn’t reasonably evade her boss forever, but she was hoping in vain that she could make it a bit longer. 

“Oh, thanks!” Maree said, trying to feign gratitude at the heads-up. “I’ll wait until she’s done.” She nodded a farewell to Camilla and walked back in the direction of the podium, trying to ignore the sudden onset of the desire to vomit. 

Susie caught Maree’s eye as she finished up taking photos with the drivers and moved to descend the stairs.

“Hey,” Susie said. She didn’t sound upset, or like she was about to reprimand Maree for her absenteeism during the weekend. 

“Delphine said you were looking for me?” Maree asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

“Oh, yes. I’ll be in the office on Tuesday, I was just hoping you and I could check in. You’ve been a difficult woman to keep track of lately,” Susie said, giving Maree a pat on the shoulder. She leaned in a bit closer, and Maree swore she could feel the air around her getting thinner. “I just wanted to make sure everything is okay. Let’s say right at nine. If you have any other meetings scheduled then, go ahead and move them.” 

Her voice was as kind and even as ever, but Maree could read very clearly what Susie was telling her between the lines, or at least what she was imagining. “Something is going on with you, and I want to know why you’ve been ignoring me. You’re going to tell me why.”

It was a miserable weekend, and Maree spent all of it, including her flight from Barcelona to London, ruminating on what she would say, and for the first time, why she was having these dreams in the first place. 

It wasn’t like she hadn’t had professional relationships with other women previously, but Susie was different. Maree had noticed that gravitational pull she had with the people around her, sure, but there was something else. 

Somewhere in the air over France, she allowed herself to finally admit it: more than likely, she really was gay.

Maree had long wrestled with her sexuality. Even in secondary school, actually, she suspected that something was different. While most girls her age had boyfriends, she had no interest in dating at all. The first time she did kiss a boy, one of her classmates named Greg that she convinced herself she fancied, felt like she was a toddler at a Christmas party being forced to give an elderly relative a kiss against her will - more like something to be endured than something enjoyable. 

Rowan threw a wrench in the works, giving her the thrill of an honest-to-god crush on a man for the first time, making her throw every conclusion she’d come to about herself in doubt. She even experienced the sort of intense, white-hot jealousy that they write pop songs about when Rowan briefly had a fling with another girl at the end of their first year at King’s, but it ended quickly. 

After he and the other girl called things off, Rowan came to visit her in Glasgow at a summer music course for children where she was working as a trumpet lesson tutor. She remembered the thrill of sneaking him into her room in the dorm, and the way she felt when he kissed her goodbye in the car park before he left to head back to London, like she was finally experiencing what she had been missing all along. 

Eventually, though, the shine wore off for Maree. Their relationship was completely devoid of any intimacy at all by the end of their marriage, and any physical contact with Rowan gave her that feeling once again of being a toddler receiving unwanted affection from a relative. She braced herself any time they kissed, and couldn’t help but notice how unpleasant it was, like the romantic equivalent of a limp handshake. Maree found herself being jealous of her lesbian friends, wondering what it would be like to date women. She was thrilled when one of her closest friends from uni, who had been out as long as Maree had known her, started dating the woman she would eventually marry, but felt a pang of jealousy when she saw how effortless their affection with one another was. She wanted that for herself, and had trouble picturing a man - Rowan or not - treating her with such tenderness. 

There were other little moments in Maree’s life that made more sense in this new framing, like the time a woman with a stocky build and a boyish haircut from Maree’s Greek Literature class, sat down with her at the dining hall in Bush House, eager to discuss “the literary history of our people” after they’d listened to their professor’s lecture about Sappho. 

“Our people?” Maree asked, confused. She wasn’t English, the other woman wasn’t Scottish, and she wasn’t sure what the poetry of Sappho had to do with the history of the British Isles as a whole.

“You know, lesbians. You’re lesbian, right?”

Maree remembered panicking and denying it without a second thought, and she didn’t remember ever talking to that woman again.

The other moment that bore reconsideration came just before her and Rowan decided to go forward with the legal separation. They had a lot of serious discussions about their relationship in the months leading up to it, but a particular question Rowan asked stuck in Maree’s mind. 

“If we had never gotten together and you were single right now, would you ever start a relationship with someone that, well, looks like me?”

Maree assured him that yes, she still found him attractive, as she still had a vested interest in avoiding divorce at the time, that interest being that the prospect of having to up-end her life was terrifying. As she reflected on it two years post-divorce, she knew she would have answered differently. 

As Maree got ready for bed on Monday night, hours away from her meeting with Susie, she comforted herself with the thought that her dreams were just years of denial boiling off under all of the pressure. It was just chickens coming home to roost.

She felt eerily calm the next morning as she walked into Susie’s office and shut the door behind her. It had helped that she couldn’t remember what she dreamed about the night before, but she was nervous as she sat down and saw the expression on Susie’s face. She looked rather cross as Maree sat down in the chair in front of her desk.

“I just wanted to chat about something.” Susie said, folding her hands together on the surface of her desk. She was looking directly into Maree’s eyes, which Maree found a bit unnerving. “We have an issue that we need to discuss if we’re going to continue to work together successfully. I am trying not to assume negative intent here, but you are giving me the impression that you no longer wish to work on this team, and I was just trying to get some insight on what I can do to improve the situation.”

Maree blanched. “N-no, that’s not it at all. You’re a great boss, and I love working on this project with you.” She felt the serenity she felt when she sat down dissipating, leaving anxiety in its place. 

“Okay. I’m glad to hear that, but I’m just… confused. I thought you and I were getting on quite well together. As I said, I’m not one to assume the worst, but it seems like you’re going out of your way to avoid me.”

“It’s not that, I -”

“Did I say or do something to upset you?” Susie went on, an edge in her voice that made Maree feel like she was being scolded. “If it’s something you’re more comfortable discussing with HR, feel free to do so, but I’d hate to think that I’ve done something to make you upset.”

The worry and guilt on Susie’s face twisted something in the pit of Maree’s stomach. 

“No, it’s nothing you’ve done, I just -”

Maree paused in thought. She obviously couldn’t tell Susie the truth. She couldn’t tell her boss that she had inspired Maree to spiral into a crisis of questioning a large segment of her sense of self. She couldn’t tell her boss - her married, heterosexual boss - that she was the opposite in the romantic movies that Maree’s mind was forcing her to watch every time she went to sleep, and that those movies definitely could not be played on television until after 10pm. There was no way. She would sooner go lay down in traffic.

Still, Maree couldn’t say that everything was fine when Susie obviously had noticed that things were very much not. 

She could lie, but what would she even say? As she thought about it, her mind flashed to something she’d read in a spy novel she liked, where the main character was reflecting on his past and how he had used parts of it to construct a convincing cover identity. Half-truths make the best lies.

“It’s not you, I promise. It’s something I’ve been trying to deal with outside of work. I’m just going through something sort of…” Maree sat back in her chair and shifted uncomfortably. Now, it felt like she was talking to her therapist. 

“You know how people go through midlife crises?” 

Susie nodded, and Maree continued. 

“It’s something like that. It’s something that’s been on my mind a lot, and I’m sorry if it’s made me seem distant or distracted. I guess I hadn’t realized that it was having a noticeable effect on my work. I’m sorry about that.”

Susie’s expression turned from curious to sympathetic.

“Oh, it’s no trouble. I was just a bit concerned. You’ve been doing a fine job still. It’s just that our team is so small it’s easy to tell if something is amiss with someone. You certainly don’t have to get into the details of it if you don’t want to. If you do, I’m happy to listen, and do anything I can to help, but you certainly don’t have to. Whatever you tell me is in complete confidence, of course.” 

“I -” Maree stuttered, biting her lip for a moment. She certainly wouldn’t have ever talked to any of her bosses in the Premier League about this, or even James, her last boss, as kind as he was. But, she felt like she could trust Susie with this. She couldn’t not tell her at this point; the look of pure earnestness and care that she was giving Maree from across the expanse of her desk almost unlocked a desire to tell her almost anything. Giving up a half-truth was her only defense against telling Susie the whole truth.

She was at the edge of a precipice, like she was staring down a cliff into the roil of the ocean against the rocks. 

“Fuck it.” Maree thought. “Maybe I’ll feel better if I say something out loud.”

“This is going to sound immature, like the sort of thing most people have figured out by the time they leave university at the latest, but I never thought about it until after the divorce.”

Maree took a deep breath. 

“I guess it started when I got divorced, but I’ve been questioning a lot of things about myself lately, including my sexuality, and I… I think I’m a lesbian.” 

Maree watched as Susie raised her eyebrows momentarily, and dread curled around her heart. For a moment, she thought she had misjudged both the situation and Susie’s character horribly, until Susie’s expression softened again nearly immediately, and she gave Maree a gentle smile. Maree couldn’t help but notice the way Susie’s entire posture seemed to relax, as she crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in her chair a bit. 

“Well, that is a rather significant development,” she said. “I can see why you’ve been stressed out. I, erm, have known people, you know, friends of mine, that have gone through that process. I know it’s hard, especially because they’ve talked about not knowing who will be supportive and who won’t be. But, I will say that I will be here for you if you ever need to discuss anything. And, of course, it won’t leave this room until you want it to.”

Maree felt her entire body relax like every muscle was being tensed and that she let go of a breath that she wasn’t even aware that she was holding. 

“I… appreciate that, thank you,” Maree murmured. She took a moment to glance around. This was the first time Maree had been in Susie’s office since it had been redecorated and set up as her permanent workspace. The entire space, including the furniture, was very minimalist.. She had the room done mostly in shades of cream, but had a few carefully selected objets d’art in a matching teal blue that reminded Maree of the shopping bags from Fortnum and Mason, an incredibly upscale department store in London. She and her flatmate from university once put on their nicest dresses to go to the tea salon for high tea, just for a laugh, but Maree secretly had a wonderful time, and didn’t really want the day to end. Maree held onto the elegant paper shopping bag and the miniature tea tins that came in it for years, until she moved in with Rowan. 

As Maree spoke, she couldn’t bear to meet Susie’s gaze again. The sincerity on Susie’s face was almost overwhelming, so she focused her attention on something sitting on Susie’s desk; one of the only things on the surface other than Susie’s laptop, a small cup that had the remnants of Susie’s usual morning espresso, and a lamp with a glassy teal base. The prism was likely just a paperweight, some sort of six-sided glass prism in a shape Maree couldn’t name, but she caught herself wondering briefly if the light was ever just right in the office for it to project rainbows onto the walls.

“And…” Susie chuckled, making Maree look back up at her. “If you want some of my unsolicited advice, don’t worry about timelines with these sorts of things, or when you think you should have done something. I know it’s probably your project manager brain, but your sense of self and feeling comfortable in your own skin not a deliverable.” 

She ignored Maree’s incredulous expression and continued on.

“Growing up, and into adulthood, I never wanted to become a wife and mother. I met Toto, fell in love, and got married, but I didn’t really want children, because I couldn’t focus on my racing career and putting myself in danger with someone at home depending on me, and Toto had two children of his own already that were almost teenagers when we started dating. But, once I retired from motorsport, I realized that I wanted to have a family with Toto. I was 35 when I had Jack, and most women my age that I knew already had kids in primary school. But, the good thing is, you have an opportunity for some self-discovery, you know? Change is good, even if it’s not always comfortable, but it will give you what you need to grow. “

It was with Susie’s advice in mind that Maree found herself at a lesbian bar in Soho, appropriately named “She”, a few days later, at the suggestion of her friend Evelyn. Evelyn, or Evie, as Maree called her, was her friend that she had been jealous of when she started dating a woman, desiring the effortless affection that Evie and her wife showed each other. 

Maree reasoned that being conservative with taking risks and insisting on sticking to the familiar was what had gotten her into a job and marriage that made her miserable, so there was no reason not to go all in. So she called Evie and asked if she knew of any gay bars frequented by women, and after dealing with Evie’s excited line of questioning over the phone, Maree found herself waiting to meet Evie and Ada, her wife, at the start of the bar’s weekly Wednesday karaoke night.

The bar was not large, but it was loud, likely owing to the fact that it was built out of what looked like the remnants of an old RAF Nissen hut, given the ceiling and walls were made of a single piece of cylindrical corrugated metal. 

Maree sat at one of the uncomfortable metal yellow cafe tables that were arranged around the place, nervously glancing between her phone, the door to the bar, and the girl on the small stage singing above an instrumental track of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl'' to an audience that didn’t look particularly interested. She was desperately wondering where Evie and Ada were, and nothing remained of her Moscow Mule other than some half-melted ice pooled at the bottom of its copper mug, a damp napkin, and the spent peel of the lime garnish. 

“Come on, Evie…” she murmured to herself, staring at the WhatsApp message window on her phone, desperately waiting for the checkmark in the corner of her last message to turn blue.

“I’ve never seen you here before,” Maree heard someone say. She whipped her head around to see a petite woman sidle up to her table and sit down in the other chair. “You new in town? Just visiting?” They practically had to yell over the noise of the small crowd and the karaoke music.

The woman was very smartly dressed, wearing a pinstripe business suit, but the fact that the shirt - well, more like a bralette - she was wearing underneath was made of black lace and left her midriff exposed made Maree think she definitely had not come straight from work like Maree had.

“Uh… n-no, I live here… well, not in Soho, but, you know… London.”

The woman smiled. “So you’re just new to this bar, then? Good to know. What’s your name, gorgeous?”

“M-Maree.”

“That’s a pretty name. I’m Tara. Can I buy you another drink - Moscow Mule, looks like?”

Tara barely waited for her to nod before getting up and walking toward the bar. Maree thought that having a man come on so strongly would be an unnerving experience that would have probably had her sprinting for the exit door, but something about this - the novelty of it, maybe, had Maree wanting to stay and see what might happen.

It didn’t take more than a minute before Tara returned. She sat down and moved her chair a bit closer to Maree’s, putting a copper mug down with a new drink for Maree. Maree glanced at Tara’s drink - she couldn’t tell what it was, but it was in a rocks glass, garnished with a cherry and a slice of lemon.

“So, Maree, what brings you here? I’m guessing it’s your first time?” 

Maree nodded, setting down the copper mug after taking a generous sip.

“Yes. A friend of mine from uni and her wife were supposed to meet me but, I don’t think they’re coming.” 

“That’s a shame,” Tara said, with a bit of a smirk. She shot a very intense gaze directly into Maree’s eyes, a look that made her feel a blush starting at her chest and rising to her cheeks. “Hopefully you find my company acceptable.”

Tara was gorgeous, Maree thought. She was trying to remain circumspect and examine whether or not it was honest-to-god attraction, but being one and a half Moscow Mules in already was making it a bit of a task. She was petite, with a delicate frame. Her eyes were a shade of green that likely looked more intense and vibrant than usual, thanks to the flawless eyeliner and eyeshadow she was wearing. She had a delicate nose with a shiny stud piercing, and was wearing silver stud earrings that seemed to match it. She had a choppy blonde haircut that grazed the bottom of her chin. Her hair had dark roots that indicated that her hair color likely wasn’t natural, but it still reminded her of someone. She’d just finished her second Mule, but still had the wherewithal to not allow herself to complete that thought. 

Maree loosened up as the two of them talked, doing their best to talk over the goings-on of their surroundings. She found out that Tara was some sort of musician, not enough of a following to be particularly well-known yet, but, according to her, “big enough to pay her bills after one of her songs got some traction on TikTok”. She had the sort of crisp, polished public school accent that made Maree think that she likely didn’t have many of her own bills to worry about in the first place, but she shoved that thought away. It wasn’t as if she often used her real accent, after all. 

Maree preferred to keep details of her life spare, only telling Tara that she was in programme management for a sports management company, and not which particular sports management company. Tara did not press for details, even when she returned with another round of drinks. 

By the end of Maree’s third Mule, Tara… Maree thought that was her name, at least, as it was getting hard to remember - had gotten quite touchy, stroking the exposed skin on Maree’s arms and shoulders occasionally, and Maree couldn’t find it in herself to mind the attention one bit. At one point, Tara had reached out to tuck a lock of Maree’s dark hair behind her ear, and Maree couldn’t help but involuntarily giggle, before wondering the last time she’d made a noise even remotely similar. She felt a pleasant full-body tingle, her limbs becoming increasingly fluid and pliable, her nerves and apprehension at the beginning of the night a distant memory She wasn’t drunk, not quite, but pleasantly buzzed enough to know that she likely would’ve found this situation horribly embarrassing if she were still sober.

The fatal blow to Maree’s will to resist… what was her name again? Clara, maybe? Clara’s charms, though, came when the woman delicately grasped one of Maree’s hands, holding it gently in place for a moment. The fourth Moscow Mule, along with the shot of Fireball they’d done, certainly wasn’t hurting either. 

“You have nice hands, you know.”

For reasons she wasn’t aware of, Maree felt her entire body blush, while trying to think of something to say in response.

“I, uh… thank you? I think?” 

She didn’t think there was anything exceptional about them. She preferred to keep her nails short; a holdover from taking piano lessons, and thought that most colors of lacquer would just make her fingers look short and stubby. She preferred neutral or nude shades when she wore nail polish. Her nails were currently a light, almost-invisible pink. 

Clara laughed, but didn’t deign to explain further before abruptly changing the subject. 

“Come on,” she said, standing up, practically dragging Maree with her. “There’s an open spot on the roster, let’s go do a song.”

Maree did not object, even as they scrolled through the selection on the console. She let Sara pick the song, one that Maree remembered getting heavy radio play not long after she’d graduated from uni. It was one of those top 40 radio pop-driven dance tunes that Maree couldn’t think of the name of or which artist made it, but she somehow knew all of the words to.

“I crashed my car into the bridge, I watched, I let it burn, I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs, I crashed my car into the bridge”, they yelled in unison into the singular karaoke microphone that… uh, was it Clara, or Sara? It was definitely Sara, Maree thought, was holding. Thankfully, the crowd was a bit more lively than when earlier on in the night, and were yelling along and dancing along with the bass-boosted karaoke instrumental track booming over the club’s speakers. It did a lot to make Maree feel 

“I don’t care! I love it!” 

The intensity seemed to ramp up as the song went on, and by the time the song was over, Sara… or was it like, Sierra? was practically in Maree’s arms, not an inch between them as she clung to her shoulders. The expression on her face was one of delight, her eyes were huge, sweat forming on her forehead. Maree could feel it too, her breath coming in sudden sharp pants, her heartbeat thundering against her ribcage. 

“Let’s go take a little break,” Mara said, her breathing just as quick. Somehow, Maree knew exactly what she meant.

They stumbled into the ladies’ room, which was thankfully empty, giggling as they practically dove into an open stall. Maree could barely throw the bolt on the door before Mara… or maybe it was something like Teri? Maree was really having a hard time remembering, but she didn’t think it really mattered at this point, focusing more on the feeling of whoever-she-was pressing her against the stall door, grasping at her hips to hold her in place. 

“Wait,” Maree said, pushing Clara’s shoulders back a bit, putting the slightest bit of distance between their mouths. “I have to tell you something… I’ve never done this before.”

“Done what?” Teri said, still panting. 

“I’ve never kissed a girl before,” Maree said, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I’m still not sure… well, you know, if I like it.”

Sierra laughed a little, but it sounded light and friendly, not the sort of teasing, cruel laugh that Maree was half-expecting. 

“That’s okay,” she said, whispering too. “Just follow my lead.”

Sara brought her hands - which were wonderfully warm and soft, Maree thought - to the sides of Maree’s face. She’d adjusted her pace from something fevered and frenzied to something gentler, probing Maree’s mouth with her tongue as her thumbs stroked gently against her cheeks. Maree caught the taste of whiskey sour, she thought, as she closed her eyes and let her lips slide open, just like she did in her dream, when Susie…

Remembering her dreams about Susie made her eyes snap open, catching sight of the blonde of Sara’s hair. She was unable to resist combing her fingers through it, trying to imagine that it was Susie’s. Maree felt a pang of momentary guilt, but between the bass thumping against the walls of the bathroom stall and their shared frantic breathing, she let it go and closed her eyes and allowed herself the fantasy that it was Susie kissing her. She wasn’t exactly in a position to tell herself not to.

The adrenaline fizzed and sparked deliciously under Maree’s skin as she imagined that it was who was kissing her so passionately. Each of them let hands each start to wander, and she grasped at Maree’s ass as Maree let her thumbs travel over the exposed skin on Tara’s abdomen, inching ever upward to the lacy bralette she was wearing.

“You’re doing so well for your first time,” Mara whispered, pulling her lips away from Maree’s for a moment. Imagination was a powerful thing, and it caused Maree to keen as she could’ve sworn that what’s-her-name even started sounding like Susie, her voice having taken on the same warm, almost-maternal affect that Susie used with her. “I wouldn’t have ever guessed if you hadn't told me. I imagine that answers your question.” 

Maree giggled. “I guess it does.”

After a few minutes, Maree started feeling more adventurous,  moving away from Teri’s mouth and kissing along the delicate skin of her neck, and let her thumbs venture under the hem of her bralette. Maree grazed the underside of Mara’s breasts with her thumb, and she giggled, rewarding Maree by shoving her thigh between the junction of Maree’s legs. Maree canted her hips a little, grinding lightly into her knee as her excitement started reaching a delirious fever pitch. She was wondering how far they would go until the exterior door to the ladies’ room burst open, and a group of what sounded like four other women, all of them drunk and enormously loud, spilled in. Both Maree and… shit, who is she again? jumped, startled, and stumbled out of the stall together to a round of boisterous, supportive peanut-gallery commentary - it was incredibly obvious what they were doing in there, and according to the blonde girl, they weren’t the first ones to do so, nor would they be the last.

As the girl with the name Maree couldn’t remember settled her bar tab, Maree perched on the barstool next to her, and felt like she was in a different world. She wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the adolescent thrill of making it to second base with someone even at her age, but everything seemed softer and warmer, the colors of the tinted spotlights and the pulse of the music all blending into one mass of pleasant sensation. She barely paid attention as the blonde woman slipped her the bar receipt with her phone number and her Instagram handle on it. 

They sat at the bar and talked for a few minutes as Maree knocked back a water or two and bid farewell to the blonde woman, telling her that she had to be up for work the next morning. They kissed in the stairwell of the bar as Maree left, whispering a promise to message her later on.

By the time she had regained her senses enough to walk down to the Lebanese joint down the street for some a shawarma and some chips to chase the Moscow Mules with and ordered a Bolt back home, the bar receipt was crumpled and forgotten about at the bottom of her purse with the receipt for the falafel shop and the other detritus that tended to gather there. 

Maree woke up early the next morning - well before she had to get ready for work, thankfully -  feeling nauseous and greasy, and like her head was stuffed with cotton balls but somehow weighed twenty kilos by itself. She had managed to remove her pants before falling into bed, but not her bra or her blouse, both of which had left angry red indents in her skin. Her mouth tasted like the sour remnants of the garlic sauce that was on her shawarma, and she had a message from Evie explaining that she had fallen asleep and that Ada didn’t want to wake her, and that she was sorry and that she had hoped Maree had a good time regardless.

She popped a paracetamol and downed a glass of water before getting in the shower. As she stood under the hot spray, hoping that it would be enough to revive her before she had to leave for work, she tried to piece together the previous night. She remembered getting to the bar and waiting on Evie and Ada to show up, and she remembered that song she did karaoke to, but most of the details were like dust to the wind. All that she could recall with clarity and certainty was the girl with the blonde hair pressing her against the bathroom stall, the way her hands felt as they cradled her face, and the way her lips felt against hers, and the way she closed her eyes and let herself believe that it as Susie kissing her. 

It was really too bad she couldn’t remember the girl’s name. 

[jeenaindia2]

A Status Report on the Current Condition in the Gulf of Aden

We would like to bring your attention to the current situation unfolding in the Gulf of Aden and its potential impact on global shipping. As many of you are aware, over 30% of global containerized traffic passes through the Suez Canal. Due to recent developments, there has been a necessary decision to reroute vessels away from the Suez Canal, a decision that will undoubtedly have a profound effect on supply chains to and from Asia.

As of the latest update on December 24th, all carriers, except Maersk, have decided to resume voyages through the Suez Canal. Maersk will operate voyages both via the Suez Canal and the Cape of Good Hope.

Vessels rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope will incur Transit Disruption Surcharge (TDS) and Emergency Contingency Surcharge (ECS). Vessels via the Red Sea will only attract ECS. This rerouting will impact transit times by approximately 10-14 days, potentially increasing further. The additional nautical miles will add approximately 3000 miles to the journey from Asia, incurring additional fuel costs and putting severe pressure on services.

Key Points and Considerations:

Potential Delays: The rerouting may add 3-4 weeks to total round-trip voyages, effectively removing around 25% of capacity, leading to potential equipment shortages.

Supply Chain Impact: Inventory instability, vessel delays, and skipped calls at ports may occur.

Financial Implications: Additional fuel costs and potential rate increase due to the extended journey.

New Surcharges: Effective January 1, 2024, new surcharges, including ECS, TDS, GRI, PSS, and ERSS, will come into effect. The ERSS (Emergency Red Sea Surcharge) is subject to change based on insurance premiums.

Additionally, please note that the MEDEX service for West Med (Nhava Sheva - Genoa - Barcelona - Valencia) may experience blank sailings, impacting rates. For the upcoming month, if MEDEX experiences blank sailings, alternative options would be MSC, Hyundai, and Maersk, with a potential rate increase for West Mediterranean ports.

To know more: https://jeena.com/blog-read.php?slug=a-status-report-on-the-current-condition-in-the-gulf-of-aden

[chomals]

Citrus season is coming #mandarin #lemon #lime #grapes #clementine #oranges #navel #valencia #Dubai #uae #fresh #fruit #vegetable #vegfruit #fruitveg #new #gulf #produce #freshproduce #freshfood #freshfruit #freshveg https://www.instagram.com/p/B3360nNA0KM/?igshid=1p54y25wpyway

[rabbitcruiser]

Platja de la Ribera, Cabanes (No. 3)

Prat de Cabanes-Torreblanca is a representative example of the marshes found in the Gulf of Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast. It was formed during a long sedimentation process, which gave rise to the formation of a littoral cord of sand and gravel that little by little was isolating it from the sea. The site is made up of the littoral cordon, an area of ​​marshes with temporary and permanent waters and alluvial fans. In the marsh, the fresh water from the aquifer and the salt water mix, which makes the wetland have different levels of salinity. Six of the wetland plant species found in the area are threatened, and three of these are endemic. Threatened species of fauna are also present, such as the fartet fish (Aphanius Iberus), which is in danger, and samaruc or samaruco (Valencia hispanica), which is critically endangered. In addition, four of its habitats are classified as priority in the Habitats Directive of the European Union, and two of them are in an excellent state of conservation. Human activities include agriculture, livestock, commercial peat extraction, hunting, tourism, and recreation. The site, with its two visitor centers, plays an important role in conservation education.

Source

[ducavalentinos]

Bellonci clearly had a nasty and evident hostility towards Cesare and throughout her book there are several moments of her bringing him up only to badmouth him, but this page here, that is right at the beginning, I thought it was the most interesting because is kind of an intro to how she will be presenting Cesare, and it sets up the stage for the bad fratricide telenovela she explores later on. Her claims here doesn’t escape the pattern too much of other works when dealing with Cesare, but that’s also why this page is so interesting, because it’s a good example of how many so-called “facts” about him and his life are only presented as such because they were repeated over and over again, and not because there is any substantial documented evidence behind it. So, she starts by saying: “No one could have had less vocation for the religious life than Cesare Borgia, and he was the first to admit it.” This claim is always present in most Borgia works, but it ends up being misleading because what Bellonci and other scholars considers as having the vocation for the religious life wasn’t much of a thing during Cesare’s time, not on his circle at least, at the Vatican. Having piety didn’t mattered as much as having diplomatic skills, political intelligence and the right connections. These men’s families, wealthy and noble in most cases, put them there to secure and support their interests within the Church. It was to guarantee themselves on both fronts, secular and ecclesiastical, to maintain their power and riches. That actually makes Cesare Borgia the rule and not the exception of the rule.

As for his admittance of his “lack of vocation” it can’t be seen as some definitive proof as Bellonci intends here, because whether he was being genuine or not (we will never know) we can’t ignore the political background of his “admittance”, that being: Rodrigo needed someone he trusted to accomplish his design of: 1. bringing the papal states under the full authority of the Church, and to destroy the Roman barons who were a constant source of trouble for the papacy and the city itself, and 2. to carve out a State for his family like other nobles italian families had done over the centuries. So Cesare’s speech had a very specific and difficult goal to achieve: to convince the cardinals and get the necessary votes so he could resign his cardinalate. It would be naïve to think that this speech, one in which their family’s advancement depended on, wouldn’t have been meticulously prepared by Cesare, alongside others, and with the supervision and approval of Rodrigo beforehand. And there is a some debate and assertions that Cesare forced his father into releasing him from his cardinalate, but there is no evidence for this. If anything Cesare seemed unsure, or at very least cautious about leaving his ecclesiastical life which brought him immense wealth and security, for a secular life where everything was yet to be determined. In any case, his feelings over this would have hardly mattered, the final decision about the family’s matters always came from Rodrigo. To think that Cesare had a voice, a “dark influence” over Rodrigo about these things is to underestimate the power and character of Rodrigo Borgia. He was a loving and generous father, but for that he expected nothing less than full obedience from his children, and he did not liked being contradicted. Cesare didn’t had a voice in these things anymore that Lucrezia, Juan or Gioffre did. If Rodrigo wanted him to stay a cardinal, then he would have stayed a cardinal, if Rodrigo wanted him to leave his cardinalate, then he would leave, whatever benefited their house better. “But after the collapse of the marriage negotiations with King Ferrante of Aragon, his hopes of escaping from the ecclesiastical life evaporated and it looked as if he was prepared to accept the career that his father had planned for him.” Cesare never accepted the career his father planned for him, and that he wanted to escape his ecclesiastic life, but are there any grounds for these claims? In all his years in the Church, there is not one recorded instance of Cesare showing an overwhelmingly distaste or any rebellion towards the career Rodrigo chose for him. And there is nothing, not even anecdotes hinting that he was trying to “escape it.” Taking a look at the administrative and pastoral activity that his vicars developed in their dioceses, demonstrates Cesare exercised his role dutifully and responsibly, and with interest. There is evidence of this intense management from the man he appointed for the headquarters of Pamplona, Martín Zapata. And from Jaume Conill’s pastoral work in the archbishopric of Valencia. There’s even a report from Conill to Cesare from August of 1494 in which he updates Cesare on the increase of confessions and rejoices at the shortage of victims due to the plague. Moreover Cesare wasn’t exactly as faithless as some authors like to claim he was, he had piety. It wasn’t a fervent, fanatical, blind piety, because it didn’t seem to be a trait in his family, from his father to his sister, they all had a pretty interesting and particular relationship with religion, but there’s more than one example where we can see religion was a part of his life also (another topic that needs exploring and maybe I’ll do it later), so there is nothing serious indicating that the ecclesiastical life was so alien, so dreadful for Cesare as that he sought to escape it, as it is assumed by Bellonci and others. Then she says: “What mattered to him most in any career was to avoid servility and mediocrity and to direct his energy towards the immediate acquistion of some position of authority.” I love this bit because I love how she mixes shady, groundless claims along with claims that do have more ground of being true. It’s true that Cesare always seemed to have tried to avoid mediocrity, although that wasn’t exclusive to him, the upbringing of noble children didn’t exactly leave room for mediocrity, it didn’t for Rodrigo Borgia’s children, he gave them the best education money could buy, and I don’t think he would have been satisfied with anything less than excellence from them, which in retrospect could be another reason why his relationship with Joffre wasn’t the same as his relatioship with Lucrezia, Cesare and Juan. As for avoiding servility, it’s actually difficult to ascertain. He doesn’t come across as someone who had an excessive willingness to please others (I don’t think that’s a bad thing btw lol), and maybe he did avoid it. But there’s some evidence that indicates he did enjoyed pleasing others, when possible, esp. those he appreciated it, just not at his and his family’s expense, which wasn’t that different a behavior from the rest of his family. He was generous and overall he seemed to liked being useful to people and to help solve problems. And the acquistion of some position of authority, it’s kinda of strange that Bellonci seemed to think that’s where he directed his energy towards, given that by 1492 right after his father became pope, if we judge by his letter to Piero de’ Medici, Cesare already had a pretty high position of authority, and he was perfectly aware of it. I mean after Rodrigo himself, Cesare was the one who had the most authority to deal any political affairs. Rodrigo trusted and relied on him, he was constantly by father’s side so he was privy to matters few others or no one else was. What Cesare seems to have directed his energy towards was trying to secure himself and his family’s power as much as he could so that when Rodrigo died, he wouldn’t be in a poor situation having to rely on others. It’s an entirely subjective point, we will never know what truly were his plans and feelings, but he doesn’t come across as someone wanting authority for the sake of wanting to have authority over others, nor does he seemed to have wanted power simply because he was power-hungry or something, but because he was painfully aware that all of his wealth and privileges were tied to his father, that power was essential for his survival and well-being, and that it was his responsibility (just as once it had been Rodrigo’s) to advance his family’s glory and perpetuate the legacy of the house of Borja. “Cesare was well aware of the gulf between his aspirations and reality and he had learnt the art of dissumulation. From infancy he had been destined to follow a career to which he knew he was unsuited, just as he knew Juan was ill-suited to his destined career of arms.” Bellonci is going on the premise that there was such a gulf between Cesare’s aspirations and his reality, when honestly there really wasn’t. This is a fabricated notion that comes from a modern perspective that men of the Church are men who are only fit for matters of spirituality, but as I said above, that doesn’t correspond with the reality, not even today, and definitely not in Cesare’s times. Men of the Church were first and foremost politicians and they acted both on spiritual matters as well as secular ones, even commanding armies and going full-on warriors if it was necessary. Bertrand du Pouget is a good example, also Ippolito d’Este, pope Leo IX, pope Clement VII, although he’s seen more as an anti-pope, and of course Della Rovere. Except for marriage, a churchman could do pretty much anything a layman could. Cesare surely knew that, so he wouldn't necessarily have felt this “gulf” between his reality and his aspirations, whatever those might have been, as it is claimed. His “warrior” side could be accommodated just fine within his ecclesiastic role. As for him learning the art of dissimulation, of course he did, as did Lucrezia and Rodrigo. It would a mistake to think they wore their hearts on their sleeves in public. If we’re being honest, any noble that wanted to survive the court they lived in needed a goal deal of dissimulation to go about with their lives. Cesare was no different than any of them on that. And finally, Bellonci has no way of knowing that Cesare from infancy knew he was unsuited for the career Rodrigo chosed for him, much less what he thought about Juan and his career. Bellonci is mostly projecting her own beliefs onto Cesare here and presenting it as a fact. His so-called unsuitablessness is unsubstantiated, apart from him sharing the same small vices his fellow cardinals did, as Alvisi amusingly says here: “Nè gli mancavano i piccoli vizi de’ giovani cardinali, e con loro fuggiva dalla mensa papale cui era convidato, perché vi era servita una sola vivanda. /Nor did he lack the small vices of the young cardinals, and with them he fled the papal table to which he was invited, because only one meal was served there.” And him apparently prefering to dress more as a layman than in his cardinal robes—which could have been for any number of reasons honestly, maybe he didn't liked it, yes, but also maybe it was just because they were more comfortable? esp. during the summer? and drew less attention to him? it's just a big leap to use his apparent dislike for ecclesiastical clothing as proof he hated being a churchman lol—there is surprisingly no scandals, nor accusations of bad behavior during these years of his life. Surely if he was so ill-suited, we would have at least one anecdote like the one about Rodrigo when he was still a cardinal at Siena? There is nothing of the kind. These claims come from a hindsighted stance of events, and it just serves to build up a motivation for the crime that is about to happen, without motivation, you can’t accuse Cesare as the culprit of Juan’s murder, and this personal drama is easier to sell than the simple jealousy over Sancia d’Aragona. “And so, twenty years earlier than most men, he had had to face the reality of a solitary existence, and he experienced either burning ambition or icy pessimism. His rancour doubtless played a large part in alienating him from the rest of the world, and he passed his complicated youth in that silence which is the first and last refuge of the frustrated. His sensitiveness got twisted into cruelty and made him monstrously lucid, he understood his father’s weakness, but the second-sight by which he infallibly got his own way was diabolical.” Beautiful writing, one that is meant to convince the reader he/she has a grasped the soul and mind of Cesare Borgia. But then again, as most of this paragraph, it’s all just literary without any substance. Reading Bellonci I wondered many times if she had a time machine or the Borgia family’s secret journal, because she speaks as if she were there with them, and they confessed all of their feelings and private thoughts to her. This is fiction.  She is implying that his solitary existence came from the fact that his reality was at odds with his desires, when there’s no proof to suggest that was the case, and that he was kind of a lone wolf? and that’s just blatantly incorrect. Maybe we can guess he might have felt lonely sometimes in a way that people with a high intellect, people who are ahead of their time usually does because it’s difficult to find other like-minded people, but he was and remained very close to his family and some friends until the end of his life, he was far from being a solitary man. He must have experienced “icy” pessimism and burning ambition just like any human being, but it certainly wasn’t his only two emotions, and very likely had nothing to do with Juan and his own career, and more with his family’s enemies and the political scenarios he was a part of. Was it really his rancour that alienated him from the world or was that the world he lived in so hostile to him and his family that they alienated themselves in order to feel safe? Hmmmm. And I’m sorry but, throwing complicated youth and Cesare Borgia in the same sentence is simply absurd. Are we talking about the same Cesare Borgia? The handsome, incredibly rich young man? Whom his contemporaries had to admit was charming, cheerful, polite and graceful? The one that when he wasn’t studying or working hard, we see him having fun with his Spaniard buddies, have love affairs, hunting, finding any excuse for dancing and bull-fighting, basically enjoying life wherever he could, this Cesare Borgia? Give me a break, I wish my youth was as complicated as his djsdjsds. The image of this dark, sulking, frustrated man, full of bitterness is very much a product of fiction, and totally incompatible with the reports written about him. As for “his sensitiveness” that got twisted “into cruelty”, i find it irking when scholars throw these words out there and don’t bother pointing out exactly what they are referring to. Borgia scholars are always talking about Cesare’s cruelty, his alleged “mean-streak”, but they don’t give any examples. If you are going to say a person is cruel, then I, at the very least, expect you follow that by an event where their cruelty is revealed. Explain your thought process, that’s all I’m asking. What are the pieces of evidence that revels Cesare’s sensitivity? and what are the pieces of evidence that revels Cesare’s cruelty? Otherwise it’s impossible to know what you mean and I’m not going to take your assessment of this person’s character seriously. Now I understand that when scholars speak of Cesare’s sensitivity, they are usually referring to his reaction towards the men responsible for the libels slandering him and his family, and although it would be understandable for him to feel outraged, I think it’s a mistake to link Cesare’s punishment of those men with his inability to take insults as Rodrigo says to the Venetian ambassador. If Cesare really was so sensitive about insults against him and his family, wouldn’t we have a long list of his victims that died simply for the deed of having offended him? which remarkably we don’t. That implies that Cesare could take insults, but when these insults were tied up with politics, he acted. The men spreading these libels, the Savelli letter being the main one, weren’t doing so to entertain the people of Rome and Italy. It wasn’t just titillating gossip. It was a clever and effective political propaganda made by Rodrigo and Cesare’s enemies to “kill” their reputation since they couldn’t, at that moment, literally kill them. It was meant to overshadow any and all positive policies their governments were doing, and put public opinion against them. Cesare understood what his father couldn’t, and he rightly tried to contain it somehow, which brings me to these men’s punishment and how it’s the only documented example I can think of that would fit the general definition of cruelty, and even so, it’s not a great one. There’s an anecdote about Cesare shooting bandits from his balcony at the Vatican with Lucrezia by his side that imo, would fit better the definition of “wanton cruelty” and having a “mean-streak”, but the authenticity of this story can't be verified, and it seems to have been just slander. Although it is odd Lucrezia’s biographers never mention this in their works, given that they don’t seem to mind authenticity when it comes to Cesare, and it would provide them with the best example for Cesare’s cruelty they go on so much about. I wonder why that is.  But when Bellonci wrote this sentence, she is aiming to conclude both her presentation of Cesare and why he murdered Juan. The whole point of this page she wrote was to create the right environment for the fratricide act. Cesare’s sensitivity made him incapable of dealing with his feelings of anger and frustration over his life, and that manifested into cruelty, that here is tied to the murder of his brother along with other crimes she uncritically pins on him, which turned him into a monster and only then he had the lucity to see what it had to be done since his father was too weak when it came to Juan. If he were to get his way, then he would have to commit a diabolical act. But apart from what I already wrote on why all the claims about Cesare’s being unsuited for this career, how he hated it and envied Juan are baseless, there’s another hole in this narrative, Rodrigo Borgia’s own decisions about Juan. They’re ambiguous af, and I think his plans weren’t always so set in stone as it is sometimes imagined, he was a shrewd, pragmatic man, so he probably changed his plans according to the political scenarios around him, and the benefits it would bring to his family and the papacy. Yes, he appointed Juan as Gonfalonier and Captain General of the Church, and invested many benefices upon him, but he also married Juan to Spain, and after the fiasco with the Orsinis (which to be fair, wasn’t just Juan’s fault) it seems he was sending Juan back to Spain, and it really looks as if Rodrigo’s design was to secure the Borgia’s power in both his native country and Italy. Juan seemed to be the one ensured to make that happen in Spain, while in Italy, it was up to Cesare, Lucrezia and Gioffre. Considering all this definitely puts obstacles to Bellonci’s assertions, and it’s easy to see why she ignored it. “His solitude was his fortress, and he used his inhuman courage and self-sufficiency to serve his idolatry of power.” No, his family was his fortress, again he was not a lone wolf, he worked in sync with his father, his brothers and his sister, and he very much relied on them and on others. He was brave, but it was far from being inhuman, and I absolutely have no idea what Bellonci means with his self-sufficiency given that his whole life was depended on others, and he knew it too, and he tried to change that. And his idolatry of power, it’s another thing scholars like to claim about him, but Cesare’s fascination with power, if we can call it that, wasn’t all that different from other nobles, and it wasn’t such to say he worshipped it.  I have no idea where there came from, probably from bad interpretations of The Prince. It wasn’t a fascination of power for the sake of it. Having power at Cesare’ time and environment was tightly connected with your survival. If you were a person in a high position of power, maintaining that power was important if you wanted to keep breathing. If you lost it, you could die. Just like many spaniards did when Della Rovere became pope. The reason Cesare wasn’t among them is precisely because he had enough influence and power within the College of Cardinals to afford some protection. If he hadn’t cultivated that, if he hadn’t accumulated power in the Romagna, he would have been murdered not long after his father died, like it happened with the children of other popes. And I guess that finishes it. It’s a powerful page, but then again I do think that most Borgia authors are very talented when it comes to writing, and constructing narratives, but when you break it down phrase by phrase, weighting in the evidence that exists for such claims, 80% of the time you will come up empty handed, or with contradicting information. Many of the things said about them, esp. about their characters, it’s a historical construction, or authors’s personal interpretations of the material they studied, since much of the Borgia’s history (that was shaped by their enemies) is wrapped in mysteries and subjectivity. Bellonci’s biases are all over her work, and it’s the strongest I’ve read with so far with Borgia bios. She had a mentality of only being fair to those she sympathized with. She detested Cesare the most, so she didn’t cared about being fair to him, she accepted all sources and gossip said about him without any discernment. He is the embodiment of only bad traits and his actions only carries chaos and “dark unrest”, but also I do believe she believed most of what she wrote about him. It’s not difficult to see why. Cesare’s black legend, alongside the unfortunate Machiavellian prince image, that is usually attached to his name with its awful connotations are always looming in the back of people’s imagination, and it’s almost impossible not to carry these preconceived notions to his historical figure when writing about him I imagine, not that she tried lool, she didn’t. She seemed to have already made her judgment about Lucrezia, Rodrigo and Cesare even before she studied all the material about their lives. Her mission was to rescue Lucrezia from her horrible reputation at all costs, and put her on a pedestal, while dragging the Borgia men and anyone else she didn’t liked, and well, she did succeeded at that, at least to a general audience and some academics.

[yoxelen]

"El lunes empiezo la dieta" así es que se dice no? 🤪🤭 . . . . #fitness #comidasaludable #comidasana #yoxelen #trinidadandtobago #venezuela #ccs #caracas #chile #colombia #lunes #martes # monday #keto #tuesday #sexy #siguemeytesigo #perderbarriga #followforfollowback #tbt #añonuevo #felizañonuevo #vidasaludable #love #gym #fit #vida #BuenaVibra #valencia #tachira #dieta (en Fitness Zone Gulf City Mall) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7CJ-hIB3XJ/?igshid=3r8elry1p4g9

[sokarieu]

L'Albufera de València A freshwater lagoon and estuary on the Gulf of Valencia. The natural biodiversity of the nature reserve allows a great variety of flora and fauna to thrive and be observed year-round. — at Albufera.

Photo By - www.sokari.eu

[passiongracelb]

Bucket Full of Memories, Theme Parks around the United States

I love going to theme parks so here is a list of all the theme parks from around the United States

Alabama Alabama Splash Adventure, Bessemer Southern Adventures, Huntsville Spring Park, Tuscumbia Waterville USA, Gulf Shores Alaska Roadrunner Amusement Park, Anchorage ArizonaEdit Castles N' Coasters, Phoenix Enchanted Island, Phoenix Funtasticks Family Fun Park, Tucson Golf n' Stuff, Tucson Golfland Sunsplash, Mesa Schnepf Farms, Queen Creek Wildlife World, Litchfield Park Arkansas Fast Lane Entertainment, Lowell Funland Amusement Park, North Little Rock Magic Springs and Crystal Falls, Hot Springs California Northern California Blackbeard's Family Entertainment Center, Fresno Boomers, Fresno Funderland, Sacramento Fun Town at Micke Grove, Lodi Gilroy Gardens, Gilroy Golfland, Castro Valley, Milpitas, Roseville, San Jose, and Sunnyvale Kiwanis Kiddieland, Merced Roseville Golfland Sunsplash, Roseville Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Santa Cruz Scandia Amusements, Rohnert Park and Sacramento Sonoma TrainTown Railroad, Sonoma San Francisco California's Great America, Santa Clara Children's Fairyland, Oakland Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, San Jose Pixieland Amusement Park, Concord Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo Los Angeles Golf 'N' Stuff, Norwalk Mountasia Family Fun Center, Valencia Pacific Park, Santa Monica Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia SpeedZone Los Angeles Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal City Orange County Adventure City, Anaheim Boomers, Fountain Valley Disneyland Resort Disney California Adventure, Anaheim Disneyland, Anaheim Golfland, Anaheim Knott's Berry Farm, Buena Park Riverside County Castle Park, Riverside San Bernardino County Alpine Slide at Magic Mountain, Big Bear Lake Boomers, Upland Fiesta Village Family Fun Park, Colton Scandia Amusement Park, Ontario and Victorville San Diego Belmont Park, San Diego Boomers, El Cajon Frasier's Frontier, El Cajon Legoland California, Carlsbad SeaWorld San Diego ColoradoEdit Elitch Gardens, Denver Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, Glenwood Springs Heritage Square, Golden Lakeside Amusement Park, Lakeside Mile High Flea Market, Henderson City Park, Pueblo Santa's Workshop, Cascade ConnecticutEdit Lake Compounce, Bristol Quassy Amusement Park, Middlebury Delaware Funland, Rehoboth Beach Jungle Jim's Adventure World, Rehoboth Beach Florida North Florida Adventure Landing, Jacksonville Beach Big Kahuna's, Destin Cobra Adventure Park, Panama City Beach Fast Eddies Fun Center, Pensacola Race City PCB, Panama City Beach Sam's Fun City & Sam's Surf City, Pensacola Shipwreck Island, Panama City Beach Wild Willy's Adventure Zone, Fort Walton Beach Central Florida Andretti Thrill Park, Melbourne Boardwalk Amusements, Daytona Beach Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa Celebration Station, Clearwater Daytona Lagoon, Daytona Beach Dinosaur World, Plant City Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Merritt Island Legoland Florida, Winter Haven Weeki Wachee Springs, Weeki Wachee Greater Orlando Fun Spot America - Kissimmee, Kissimmee Fun Spot America - Orlando, Orlando Gatorland, Orlando Give Kids the World Village, Kissimmee Holy Land Experience, Orlando Magical Midway, Orlando Old Town, Kissimmee SeaWorld Orlando Discovery Cove, Orlando SeaWorld Orlando, Orlando Universal Orlando Universal Studios Florida, Orlando Universal's Islands of Adventure, Orlando Walt Disney World Disney's Animal Kingdom, Bay Lake Disney's Hollywood Studios, Bay Lake Epcot, Bay Lake Magic Kingdom, Bay Lake South Florida Kidstar Park, Port Charlotte Santa's Enchanted Forest, Miami Uncle Bernie's Amusement Park, Fort Lauderdale Zoomers Family Amusement Park, Fort Myers Beach Georgia Adventure Crossing, Augusta All American Fun Park, Albany Alpine Park, Helen Black Mountain Alpine Coaster, Helen Fun Spot Atlanta, Fayetteville Lake Winnepesaukah, Rossville Six Flags Over Georgia, Austell Wild Adventures, Valdosta Hawaii Maui Golf and Sports Park, Wailuku Sea Life Park Hawaii, Oahu IdahoEdit Silverwood Theme Park, Athol Wahooz Family Fun Zone, Meridian Yellowstone Bear World, Rexburg Illinois Donley's Wild West Town, Union Enchanted Castle, Lombard Go Bananas, Norridge Grady's Family Fun Park, Bloomington Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort, Utica Haunted Trails, Burbank and Joliet Knight's Action Park, Springfield Odyssey Fun World, Tinley Park Pirates Cove, Elk Grove Village Safari Land, Villa Park Santa's Village AZoosment Park, Dundee Six Flags Great America, Gurnee Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Gurnee Indiana Team Combat, Tactical Laser Tag for Adults, Teens & 8-12 Year Olds, Hobart Holiday World & Splashin' Safari, Santa Claus Indiana Beach, Monticello Iowa Adventureland, Altoona Arnolds Park, Arnolds Park Lost Island Amusement Park, Waterloo Kansas All Star Adventures, Wichita Kiddieland, Pittsburg Kentucky Beech Bend Park, Bowling Green Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville Malibu Jack’s Indoor Theme Park, Lexington Louisiana Blue Bayou and Dixie Landin', Baton Rouge Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, New Orleans Celebration Station, Baton Rouge Maine Funtown Splashtown USA, Saco Palace Playland, Old Orchard Beach York's Wild Kingdom, York Beach Maryland Adventure Park USA, New Market Baja Amusements, Ocean City Jolly Roger Amusement Park, Ocean City Jolly Roger at the Pier, Ocean City Laugh Out Loud Stations, Greenbelt Six Flags America, Upper Marlboro Trimper's Rides, Ocean City Wisp Resort, McHenry Massachusetts Edaville USA, Carver Salem Willows, Salem Six Flags New England, Agawam Michigan A-Maze-N Mirrors, Mackinaw City Adventure Island Family Fun Park, Cadillac Arzo Sports & Fun Park, Alpena Cedar Valley's Wild Frontier Fun Park, Comins CJ Barrymore's Family Entertainment Center, Clinton Township Deer Acres Storybook Amusement Park, Pinconning Full Blast, Battle Creek Funland Amusement Park, Houghton Lake Jeepers, Sterling Heights Kokomo's Family Fun Center, Saginaw Michigan's Adventure, Muskegon Nelis' Dutch Village, Holland Minnesota Como Town, St. Paul Nickelodeon Universe, Bloomington Paul Bunyan Land, Brainerd Spirit Mountain, Duluth Valleyfair, Shakopee Mississippi Brookhaven Exchange Club Park, Brookhaven Missouri Branson Coaster, Branson Branson Tracks, Branson Branson Mountain Adventure Park, Branson Hydro Adventures, Poplar Bluff Miner Mike's Adventure Town, Osage Beach Mountain Adventure Resort, Branson Silver Dollar City, Branson Six Flags St. Louis, Eureka Worlds of Fun, Kansas City MontanaEdit Amusement Park Drive In, Laurel Big Sky Water Park, Columbia Falls NebraskaEdit Fun-Plex, Omaha SkateDaze, Omaha Nevada Adventuredome, Las Vegas Akita Plaza, Las Vegas Buffalo Bill's, Primm Las Vegas Mini Gran Prix, Las Vegas Playland Park, Reno New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas Stratosphere Las Vegas, Las Vegas Wild Island, Sparks New Hampshire Attitash Mountain Resort, Bartlett Candia Springs Adventure Park, Candia Canobie Lake Park, Salem Cranmore Mountain Adventure Park, North Conway Clark's Trading Post, Lincoln Fort Jefferson Fun Park, Jefferson Fun-World, Nashua Santa's Village, Jefferson Story Land, Glen New Jersey Action Park, Vernon Blackbeard's Cave, Bayville Bowcraft Playland, Scotch Plains Casino Pier, Seaside Heights Central Pier Arcade & Speedway, Atlantic City Clementon Amusement Park, Clementon Fantasy Island, Beach Haven Funplex, Mount Laurel Gillian's Wonderland Pier, Ocean City iPlay America, Freehold Jenkinson's Boardwalk, Point Pleasant Beach Keansburg Amusement Park, Keansburg Land of Make Believe, Hope Morey's Piers, Wildwood Playland's Castaway Cove, Ocean City Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson Steel Pier, Atlantic City Wild West City [1], Byram Township, New Jersey Storybook Land, Egg Harbor Township New Mexico Cliff's Amusement Park, Albuquerque Western Playland, Sunland Park New York Downstate New York Adventureland, Farmingdale Adventurers Family Entertainment Center, Brooklyn Country Fair Entertainment Park, Medford Boomer's Family Fun Center, Medford Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, Brooklyn Fantasy Forest at the Flushing Meadows Carousel, Flushing Fantasy Shore Amusement Park, Staten Island Kids 'N Action, Brooklyn Luna Park, Coney Island, Brooklyn Playland, Rye Victorian Gardens, New York City Upstate New York Darien Lake, Darien Enchanted Forest Water Safari, Old Forge Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom, Lake George Greek Peak Mountain Resort, Cortland Hoffman's Playland, Latham Holiday Valley, Ellicottville Huck Finn's Playland, Albany Magic Forest Park, Lake George Fantasy Island, Grand Island Midway State Park, Maple Springs Legoland New York, Goshen (starting construction in 2017, planned to open in 2019)[1] Party Zone USA, Middletown Santa's Workshop, Wilmington Seabreeze Amusement Park, Rochester Sylvan Beach Amusement Park, Sylvan Beach North Carolina Carolina Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park, Carolina Beach Carowinds, Charlotte Deadwood, Williamston Ghost Town Village, Maggie Valley Great Wolf Lodge, Concord NASCAR Speedpark, Concord Santa's Land, Cherokee Tweetsie Railroad, Boone North Dakota Grand Forks Theme Park, Grand Forks[citation needed](Scheduled) Super Slide Amusement Park, Bismarck Ohio The Beach at Adventure Landing, Mason Cedar Point, Sandusky Cherry Valley Lodge, Newark Comfort Inn Splash Harbor, Bellville Coney Island, Cincinnati Coshocton Lake Park Recreational Complex, Coshocton Erieview Park, Geneva FunTimes Fun Park, Alliance Howard's Apples Farm Market, Bainbridge Jungle Jack's Landing, Powell Kings Island, Mason Lincoln Park Family Aquatic Center, Marion Long's Retreat Family Resort, Latham Memphis Kiddie Park, Brooklyn Pioneer Waterland & Dry Fun Park, Chardon Richland Carrosuel Park, Mansfield Sluggers & Putters, Canal Fulton Stricker's Grove, Ross Swings-N-Things Family Fun Park, Olmsted Township Tuscora Park, New Philadelphia Oklahoma Bell's Kiddieland, Tulsa Eagle Park, Cache Frontier City, Oklahoma City Kiddy Park, Bartlesville Oregon Enchanted Forest, Turner Oaks Amusement Park, Portland Pennsylvania Brandywine Picnic Park, West Chester Carousel Village at Indian Walk, Wrightstown Camelback Mountain Resort, Tannersville Conneaut Lake Park, Conneaut Lake DelGrosso's Amusement Park, Tipton Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, Allentown (Dorneyville) Dutch Wonderland, Lancaster Fun Fore All, Cranberry Township Hersheypark, Hershey Idlewild and Soak Zone, Ligonier Kennywood, West Mifflin Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg Lakemont Park, Altoona Pocono Play Park, East Stroudsburg Sesame Place, Langhorne Split Rock Resort, Lake Harmony Waldameer Park, Erie Rhode Island Adventureland, Narragansett Atlantic Beach Park, Westerly South Carolina Broadway Grand Prix, Myrtle Beach Carowinds, Fort Mill Family Kingdom Amusement Park, Myrtle Beach O.D. Pavilion Amusement Park, North Myrtle Beach Pavilion Park, Myrtle Beach Pedroland, Dillon South Dakota Evan's Plunge, Hot Springs Flags & Wheels Indoor Racing, Rapid City Rush Mountain Adventure Park, Keystone Storybook Island, Rapid City Thunder Road Family Fun Park, Aberdeen Tennessee Anakeesta Gatlinburg Goats on the Roof, Pigeon Forge Dollywood, Pigeon Forge Fun Stop, Pigeon Forge Gatlinburg Mountain Coaster, Gatlinburg Incredible Pizza Company, Cordova The Island in Pigeon Forge, Pigeon Forge NASCAR Speedpark, Sevierville Ober Gatlinburg, Gatlinburg Rockin' Raceway, Pigeon Forge Rowdy Bear Mountain Gatlinburg Sir Goony's Fun Zone, Chattanooga Smoky Mountain Alpine Coaster, Pigeon Forge Wilderness at the Smokies, Sevierville Texas Adventure Kingdom, Lumberton Aquatica, San Antonio Austin's Park N Pizza, Pflugerville Downtown Aquarium, Houston Elise's Family Fun Center, Winnie Funtrackers, Corpus Christi Funplex, Houston Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier, Galveston Grand Texas Theme Park, New Caney (planned, opening April 2020) Joyland Amusement Park, Lubbock Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah Kiddie Park Of San Antonio, San Antonio Morgan's Wonderland, San Antonio NRH2O, North Richland Hills Sandy Lake Amusement Park, Carrollton SeaWorld San Antonio, San Antonio Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington Tilt Studio, Katy (inside Katy Mills) Wonderland Park, Amarillo YesterLand Farm, Canton ZDT's Amusement Park, Seguin Zuma Fun Center, Houston Utah Boondocks Fun Center, Kaysville-Draper Cherry Hill Resort, Kaysville Lagoon Amusement Park, Farmington Vermont Bromley, Vermont's Summer Adventure, Peru Killington Resort, Killington Virginia Atlantic Fun Park, Virginia Beach Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Williamsburg Central Park Fun-Land, Fredericksburg Go-Karts Plus, Williamsburg Kings Dominion, Doswell Motor World, Virginia Beach Washington Pier 57, Seattle Remlinger Farms, Carnation Riverfront Park, Spokane Washington State Fair, Puyallup Wild Waves Theme Park, Federal Way West VirginiaEdit Camden Park, Huntington Wisconsin Bay Beach Amusement Park, Green Bay Knucklehead's Bowling & Family Entertainment, Wisconsin Dells Little Amerricka, Marshall Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park, Wisconsin Dells Paul Bunyan's Adventure Golf, Wisconsin Dells Riverside Amusement Park, La Crosse Riverview Park & Waterworld, Wisconsin Dells Timbavatvi Wildlife Park/Storybook Gardens, Wisconsin Dells Timber Falls Adventure Park, Wisconsin Dells Wyoming Cowboy Carousel Center, Buffalo Puerto Rico Cayo Lobos Marine Park, Cayo Lobos Children's Dream Park, Añasco Fun Valley Park, Arecibo Jungle Park PR, Bayamón Parque de las Ciencias, Bayamón Villa Campestre, Guaynabo

[2topnews]

The land of bulls is also famous for its passionate flamenco dance and is also famous for its beautiful scenes that are truly captivating. Spain is full of sunshine, wind, and fairyland always waiting for the footsteps of tourists everywhere. When preparing your Spain travel plan, do not forget to include the following 10 places in the list of destinations not to be missed!

1. Madrid 

This is a very vibrant place, for there are magnificent palaces, modern neighborhoods, and extraordinary architectural lines. The glamor mixed with the ancient, the quiet mixed with the bustle, mixed with the music and romantic flamenco, you will never forget.

Don’t forget to visit Boulevards, museums, squares, and palaces all over the city! You won’t be able to stop admiring them when you see them. The experience of watching the sunset in an attic cafe is also really worth your while.

2. Barcelona is one of the most beautiful places in Spain

Barcelona, located in the north of Spain, is one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions. You can feel all the beauty of Europe when you come here. From architecture, from modernity, from services, from culture to people, all exude a bold European look.

The night in Barcelona is very vibrant and sparkling, festivals and music nights are regularly held to attract visitors. In addition to the nightlife experience, you can take a walk around La Rambla to see the romantic greenery or sunbathe at Barceloneta beach. Also, visit the Batllo Casa and the famous Sagrada Familia throughout Europe.

3. Cordoba

Cordoba, located in the south of the country, is a city of many cultures, with a rich history of trade spanning hundreds of years. The architectural style of this city is boldly ancient, the houses are all under a layer of yellow-brown paint, creating a charming beauty.

The most prominent place in Cordoba is the Mezquita Mosque, which has a dome typical of the Spanish Islamic renaissance. The church is considered a wonder of the world for its unique blend of antiquity and religious culture. Other parts of the city are also smartly planned to create beautiful features that every step visitors can take an impressive picture.

4. Valencia 

The city of Valencia, facing the Gulf of Valencia, is sometimes thought to represent the whole of Spain. The architecture of the houses here is a combination of futuristic modernity and artistic flair.

Come here, and go to the theaters, science museums, and aquariums that are extremely modern. The more you will recognize Valencia as a city of science and art. In August, there will be a very unique tomato-throwing festival and one of the largest food festivals in the world. Remember to bring lots of clothes if you travel at this time because the weather is still quite dry and hot.

5. Seville 

Seville is located in southern Spain, bringing together all the most unique and precious features of Andalusian culture. The works here are all in Roman style, with a little bit of beauty of Islamic architecture, and even Gothic art.

Madrid is very famous for its flamenco dance, but Seville is where it really originated. Besides, this is also home to famous bullfights and attracts the most spectators in this country.

The tomb of the great explorer – who discovered America – Christopher Columbus is located here. Giralda bell tower – an extremely complex architectural work of medieval architecture is also here. Therefore, it is not overstated when someone considers that Seville is the most vibrant and attractive city in Spain.

[l8in]

Satellites recorded another large methane leak at an offshore platform belonging to Mexico's Pemex in August, according to exclusive data shared with Reuters, even as pressure mounts on the state oil company to reduce these emissions.

Three satellites recorded images of methane plumes at the Ku-Maloob-Zaap oil field cluster in the Gulf of Mexico during six days between Aug 5 and Aug 29, said Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate, a scientist from the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

[scienceacumen]

Massive methane leaks, known as super-emitter events, have been taking place at oil and gas fields all over the world, from the United States to Turkmenistan. The releases, most of which can be traced to equipment failures, can last for weeks. One outside of a storage facility in Los Angeles in 2015 hemorrhaged almost 100,000 tonnes of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere over the course of four months.

In June, researchers at Spain’s Polytechnic University of Valencia, said they uncovered the latest known super-emitter event at an oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The installation discharged 40,000 tonnes of methane during a 17-day spell in December 2021 — equivalent to 3 per cent of Mexico’s annual oil and gas emissions. Researchers said the release may never have been known to the public if not for the fact that it was captured by a European Space Agency satellite.

While the discharge was caught, it remains challenging to trace emissions of methane, which is colourless, odourless and responsible for more than 25 per cent of the global warming the Earth is experiencing today. Due to its structure, methane traps more heat in the atmosphere per molecule than carbon dioxide (CO2) making it 80 times more harmful than CO2 during the 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere.

As countries develop plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst effects of climate change, experts say it's vital to have a better handle on how much methane is being released into the atmosphere, including from super-emitter events. Cutting human-caused methane by 45 per cent this decade would keep warming beneath a threshold outlined by the Paris Agreement.

Credit: UN Environment

[gourmet-camper]

Spectacular views of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Spain on our Emirates flight

Fantastic views of the great pyramids, Nile River, Gulf of Aqaba, Sinai peninsula, Gulf of Suez (Egypt), Adbullah royal reserve (Saudi Arabia), Formentera Island (Spain), and Pobles del Sud, Valencia (Spain).

[architectnews]

Sea Micro Hotel Concursos AG360 Competition

Sea Micro Hotel Ideas Contest, Concursos AG360 Competition 2022, Architecture Prize News

Sea Micro Hotel Ideas Competition

15 March 2022

The results of the International Architecture Competition “Sea Micro Hotel” are unveiled.

Winning design:

We want to inform you that the results of our International Architecture Competition “Sea Micro Hotel” have already been published. All the information can be viewed directly on the official page.

Designs by the winning teams:

The Sea Micro Hotel is presented as a real and different option for all those who want to be in balance with the natural ecosystem but with the comfort of modern life.

Sea Micro Hotel Ideas Competition 2021 Winners

Participants of the winning teams:

1st Place – Milano, Italy

Salvatore Centoni Nadia Centoni Caterina Folie Matteo Piano

‘Camping House’

A clean and transparent geometry blends into the Balandra landscape, with a minimal intervention that allows us to “capture the moment” within an abstract threshold, framing the images of a changing landscape in its natural environment.

The Sea Micro Hotel takes as a starting point the 100% contemplation of the beach and the natural resources of the area, with a careful and minimally invasive intervention, maintaining a geometric shape that simulates the camping activity, very common in the region, but with an architectural and aesthetic contribution that attracts even more international tourism.

1st Mention – Madrid, Spain

Javier Martínez Rodríguez Erik Detisov Ringuer Arik Detisov Ringuer

‘Sustainable Flashlight’

A hotel complex of 7 units distributed over two floors was developed to produce the least impact on the land (ground floor = day area, upper floor = night area). They are strategically oriented with North – South orientation.

The design of the architectural volume praises naval constructions, since their shape helps to reduce the impact of the wind and the resistance of the façade. It turns out a streamlined volume in the shape of an ellipse.

2nd Mention – Hermosillo, Mexico

Ana Marcela Pérez Romero Ramón Lorenzo López Yanez

‘Den’

Settled in front of the Gulf of California, a unique landscape between mangroves, desert and sea, dunes sprout that try to blend in with the environment.

Poured concrete dunes are erected creating continuity between the landscape and the roof-walls that protect the living space, creating a kind of “den”. A design inspired by the existing topography, without hard lines, like a dune in the desert.

3rd Mention – Mexico City, Mexico

Germán Sandoval Kesia Devallentier

‘Balandra Villas’

Located on one of the smokiest beaches in Mexico, Villas Balandra blend in with their surroundings, combining freshness, sustainability and safety, offering better experiences for guests. Each unit takes advantage of the panoramic view of the beach, with a platform 80cm above the level.

The aerodynamic geometry responds to the natural conditions and phenomena of the region; Thanks to its shape, it reduces friction and wind pressure, releasing it through its latticework and roof towards the unit’s outlet.

3rd Mention – Bogota, Colombia (tie)

Johan Camilo Romero Ana Belén Real Juan David Basto

‘Balandra Waves’

Balandra Waves rises up on the beach like the waves of the sea, seeking to merge with nature and provide a direct experience with the environment.

The concept of the form of unity is the “Fibonacci” sequence, of which it stands out among the complex geometry of nature and its prolonged presence in it. The unit seeks to generate a clear game between light and textures, creating experiences of routes that subtly mark between the exterior and the interior.

Previously on e-architect:

Snow Art Pavilion Ideas Competition 2021 Winners

The results of the International Architecture Competition Snow Art Pavilion:

1st Place – Shenzhen, China:

Snow Art Pavilion Concursos AG360 Competition

Floating House Ideas Competition Winners

1st Place – Valencia, Spain:

Floating House Concursos AG360 Competition

www.concursosag360.com

Floating House Concursos AG360 Competition information / image received 091020

August 2021 Architecture Competitions

arch8 Re-Vision Design Competition 2021 arch8 Re-Vision Design Competition 2021

Young Visionary Architecture Competition 2021 Young Visionary Architecture Competition 2021

REVERENCE: Memorial Structure Design Competition REVERENCE: Memorial Structure Design Competition

Architectural Contests

Recent Architectural Competitions Selection

Pandemic Dwelling – Home in times of Pandemic design contest Pandemic Dwelling Design Competition

Tomb of Waste Architecture Competition Tomb of Waste Architecture Competition

Kaizhou New City International Young Designer Competition, Sichuan, China Kaizhou New City International Young Designer Competition

Comments / photos for the Sea Micro Hotel Concursos AG360 Competition winners news page welcome

The post Sea Micro Hotel Concursos AG360 Competition appeared first on e-architect.

[yoxelen]

Querias saber que hice para verme tan linda el 31? 😏 El link está en mi perfil😏👉👉💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 💕 #felizañonuevo #2020 #añonuevo #vidasaludable #caracas #sabado #wikipedia #ccs #tbt #jueves #saturday #Sunday #china #valencia #chile #yoxelen #trinidadandtobago #youtuber #love #top #Venezuela #trump #iran #america #nuevovideo #youtube #venezuela #memesenespañol #meme #caracas #trinidadandtobago (en Gulf City Mall) https://www.instagram.com/p/B64X2emBVj3/?igshid=7t9zhiihs36s

[cells-stuff]

Parque Natural de la Albufera, Valencia, Spain 🇪🇸

L'Albufera, meaning "lagoon" in Valencian, is a freshwater lagoon and estuary on the Gulf of Valencia coast. The natural biodiversity of the nature reserve allows a great variety of flora and fauna to thrive and be observed year-round. Though once a saltwater lagoon, dilution due to irrigation and canals draining into the estuary and the sand bars increasing in size had converted it to freshwater by the seventeenth century.

20 km by bike from Valencia following the cycle path.