The Magnificent Splendour Never Dies.

[Araucaria]

Obviously the distance across the table is too great to talk to the person in front of you unless you shout. I would think the dinner might be marginally tolerable if the food is good, the guests on either side of me are good people who can manage a decent conversation, the music or speaker or whatever is fairly good, and that I can get the hell out of there and rip off my suit in three hours. If any one of those things is lacking, it would be a night in hell.

 

[Rand]

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[Alistair]

 

[gsdx]

When lightning meets the Northern Lights

 

[Kulindahr]

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That looks scarily like a place not far from here where I misjudged the waves and had to plaster my back against the rock and take a deep breath so I wouold have air to let out when the monster breaker coming in slammed into me. The rocks left an interesting pattern of bruises on my chest.

 

[Alistair]

Michael Murfin (b.1954) British. Man & Conveyor, 2023Oil on board

 

[Alistair]

Can you believe this ball is made from a single piece of ivory? Highly skilled craftsmen carved a sphere and made conical incisions to form each layer. They worked from the innermost layer outward, creating intricate designs that still awe today.
“Reticulated Ball,” 19th century, made in China

 

[Kahaih]

They are lovely.

Elephant ivory?

Sometimes I wonder if all of the old elephant ivory items should be destroyed or at least packed away out of sight so as not to arouse anyone's appetite for more/new items.

 

[Alistair]

 

[Alistair]

 

[Alistair]

I’m posting this because I love it and I know belamo would hate it

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

 

[Kulindahr]

They are lovely.

Elephant ivory?

Sometimes I wonder if all of the old elephant ivory items should be destroyed or at least packed away out of sight so as not to arouse anyone's appetite for more/new items.

Makes me wonder what happened to efforts I read about maybe thirty years ago -- scientists were trying to grow ivory in a lab.

 

[Rand]

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[Alistair]

 

[Alistair]

Niels Smits Van Burgst: The Summer is Magic, 2013

 

[smokeshadow]

View attachment 2155116






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Isn't that Chicago's Carbide Building?

 

[Kulindahr]

This is a strangler fig tree. A seed germinated somewhere on the original tree and its root slowly made their way to the ground. Once in contact with the ground, the roots grow around the trunk of the original tree and choke off the flow of water and nutrients. The original tree weakens and dies, eventually rotting away and leaving the eerie network that now serves as a trunk.

 

[Rand]

Smokeshadow ~ yes sir, it is the Carbide & Carbon Building in Chicago. I typoed the name of the file.

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[Kahaih]

View attachment 2155275

This is a strangler fig tree. A seed germinated somewhere on the original tree and its root slowly made their way to the ground. Once in contact with the ground, the roots grow around the trunk of the original tree and choke off the flow of water and nutrients. The original tree weakens and dies, eventually rotting away and leaving the eerie network that now serves as a trunk.

Fascinating, to say the least.

Strangler fig - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[smokeshadow]

Smokeshadow ~ yes sir, it is the Carbide & Carbon Building in Chicago. I typoed the name of the file.

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Thank you, Rand. I thought I remembered which high rise that was from my architectural history courses in college. . .a way back in the early 70's