Picture A Day

[MacGump 111]

Update on the Jabuticaba when all those little fuzzy looking things turn to fruit......

They make a fairly decent wine. Just smash and cover with cheesecloth for a few days. Enough natural yeast on the skins to get it fermenting.

[garimpo 2,249]

Last Sunday like every Sunday morning I went to the down town food fair. This is where all the farmers bring some of their produce in to sell. Nothing frozen here, just fresh out of the garden.

Approaching from the street at 0630 still not much light.

A little closer everything from fresh hog kill to fresh caught big fish.

This is one of several sugar cane presses squeezing out fresh cane juice. The red ice chest has the ice cubes if that's what you want.

Here just to the left and behind the sugar cane girl is the produce by the truck loads in the side parking lot.

For about $15.00 USD you can buy more than one person can carry. I know that for a fact every Sunday.

[garimpo 2,249]

Since Brazil has a 12 month growing season a lot of beautiful and different flowers are here.

Normally I can't tell the female from the male flowers, birds are a little easier.

Here's a flower that gets pretty big and not many people plant them but I think this is a female plant.

Standing next to "her" is most likely a male plant with a bunch of females.

I could be wrong but something just doesn't seem rigtht.

[Au Seeker 2,823]

That's a Century Plant Don, I have one in my yard here in S.C., that plant will die now that it has flowered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_americana

[garimpo 2,249]

Skip do they all flower like that and then die?

It looks like the big thick leaves here are different than yours are.

[Au Seeker 2,823]

The photo is not my plant, mine has yet to flower, it's the last thing the plant will do, after flowering it will die as all century plants will do, the plants in photo are starting to die as can be seen from the leaves deteriorating, but they usually have many little sucker plants around the base to continue the plant's propagation, the little suckers plants can be seen in your first photo, there are several different sub-species so the leaves could vary slightly from one sub-species to another I would think, but the flower stalk in your second photo is for sure from a century plant.

[Hoser John 1,238]

Definately of the same family. We had a huge one in our front yard as a kid and after it bloomed-shocking--that thang upn' died completely. John

[MacGump 111]

Of the same family. The ones in Brasil are used as a security plant. You'll notice it is along the fence--- this variety has large stiff thorns that will mess you up if you bump into them.

I've put done on the back edge of my chacara to help witht the " neighbors"

[weaver hillbille 488]

Careful with any agave....THe stuff is a nightmare( I am not exagerating) if you get the pulp on your skin in any amount- say if you were wanting to dispose of one/dig it out.

I attacked one with my neighbor almost 20 years ago after deciding that the flower stage was over/straddling the property line it was.

Shorts, t-shirt, shovel and axe was all that was needed. And caution( but I had none.)

EAsy to make short work of one of those if your tools are sharp. BUt pulp,will fly, and land on you. And there's the picking it up/disposal part.. Plenty of chance to come into contact with fresh pulpy interior of the leaf (or get poked!)

I was rather well covered in pulp.

Maybe 5 minutes into our attack, I was suddenly overcome by an intense, itching pain, that just seemed to pile on every second.

My neighbor was all gloved up, long sleeves and pants, bandana over his face... He was fine.

I was a screaming fool.

I ran into the house tearing off my clothes next to the laundry and dove into the shower.

Imagine itchy painful ant and mosquito bites all over your body. That's the best descriptive I can come up with for what I was feeling.

After much hot and cold water, soap, repeat ,,,for half an hour, the itching started to subside. I might have even washed with vinegar.( one link talks about sharp microscopic oxylate crystals being (one) a cause of the iritation).........

http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/php/plants.php?action=faqs&num=5

......

http://miami-dade.ifas.ufl.edu/pdfs/urban_hort/Calkins%2063%20Poisonous%20plants.pdf

"Another family of monocotyledons, Agavaceae (Agave americana, the century plant is most familiar) form six sided raphides and contain saponins (compounds consisting of a complex triterpenoid, or steroid core, to which one or more sugars are attached). Saponins (also referred to as steroidal glycosides) are found in various plant families; some are highly poisonous when taken internally, while others can cause severe skin irritation. The latter are found in agaves and aggravate the mechanical damage inflicted by raphides. Landscape agaves are only rarely reported as the cause of contact dermatitis. The fact that most possess fearsome spines no doubt warns people to be on their guard. If you need to remove a large agave (e.g., after flowering when they die) don protective eye wear, gloves and a long sleeved shirt and use a long handled cactus saw (definitely not a chain saw!). "

"

sunrise, 12 mi NNW of RH, AZ

Edited March 14, 2015 by weaver hillbille

[garimpo 2,249]

Thanks for the good info WH.

Now I've been warned!

[Au Seeker 2,823]

That's something I didn't know WH, good info, if I ever dig mine up it will be time for the HazMat suit!!

[weaver hillbille 488]

No problem. Always glad to pass along good information

Mind you , I had pulp splattered on my arms, legs, face, , well , everywhere. even my feet itched as pulp dropped down inside my boots

( shorts are no help here.) ANd I probably had some get inside the waist band of my pants.

HAzmat bunny suit,absotively posilute! ,,or just full coverage clothing with gaps taped up/buttoned up/zippered up(gloves/long sleeves,pant legs boots).

Or just cut like a surgeon with very sharp tools and lots of control.

Thanks for the good info WH.

Now I've been warned!

[Hoser John 1,238]

OMG duly noted for further reference,thanx much-John

[weaver hillbille 488]

[garimpo 2,249]

[garimpo 2,249]

                      Think you can hide in a large crowd? Not anymore

Ever wonder how they found the Boston bombers in just a few days?  This may help you to understand what the government is looking at. This photo was taken in Canada and shows about 700,000 people.

  

Hard to disappear in a crowd.     Pick on a small part of the  crowd click a couple of times -- wait -- click a few more times and see how clear each individual face will become each time. Or use the wheel on your mouse.

  

This picture was taken with a 70,000 x 30,000 pixel camera  (2100 Mega  Pixels.)  These cameras are not sold to the public and are being installed in strategic locations.

  

The camera can identify a face among a multitude of people.

  

Place your computer’s cursor in the mass of people and double-click a  couple times.

  

Scary sharp!!  Not so easy to hide in a crowd anymore.

      http://www.gigapixel.com/mobile/?id=79995

[homefire 2,566]

Crazy stuff.  And just think.  They have better on the new spy satellites. 

[clay 805]

There is no such thing as a 70,000 x 30,000 pixel camera  (2100 Mega  Pixels) the largest sensor is 250 mega pixels and is only experimental. As your link points out right in the text at the top of the page:

Quote

It is made up of 216 photos (12 across by 18 down) stitched together, taken over a 15-minute span, and is not supposed to represent a single moment in time.

So really what you have there is a 12 mega pixel camera that took 216 pictures and those were put together in a computer at a later date. Not much different than taking pictures in a circle around yourself with an iPhone and joining them together later with your laptop or tablet.

These stitching type cameras are available to the public. You can buy cameras up to 360 gigapixels. That's 36,000 megapixels.

Here's a 360 megapixel stitching camera on Amazon for only $2,230 just add a Nikon D800 sensor body (another $1,800) and an appropriate lens (another $1,500) you have a 360 Gigapixel automatic stitching camera for under $6,000.

The image shown from Canada is nowhere near the highest resolution stitching done today. If the government wants high resolution pictures of crowds they can buy a $2,000 dollar off the shelf camera and get even better quality than the picture in your link. So can you and anyone else who has the inclination and the money.

[garimpo 2,249]

                         Weird looking tree but the fruit is delicious

[Au Seeker 2,823]

Don, what does the fruit taste like?

Also isn't there something about the seeds/pits that isn't good or something like that, I seem to remember Steve talking about eating this fruit and had to be careful of the seeds/pits?

[garimpo 2,249]

Skip the juice is more like a white thick juice, real good flavor. The pit is a little smaller 

than a raisin, most people here just swallow the seed also and some even eat the 

skin. I just eat the juice and chunk the rest. A lot of people have them in their yards. 

[garimpo 2,249]

If I can get the image off my cell phone I'll post what I have that we found at the

lake house my wife has. 

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5379175577001/?#sp=show-clips

Had to jump through a lot of hoops to get this image from my cell 

on the computer, this was taken a few days ago by a neighbor 

woman at the lake. Same kind of snake. We killed three about 

six feet long and one about eight feet long, think this is the mamma.

Guessing her about 15 feet or so. She is about 1/2 mile from my 

lake patch. First day there I saw one just like her slide into the 

water at the edge of my new patch. 

[Hoser John 1,238]

OMG  never turn your back on a python? What a slow horrendous death....John

[homefire 2,566]

Dang.  That would be one messed up way to go out .

[garimpo 2,249]

Homey and HJ my first time here I was with a buddy about 300 km North of here

beeping a farm that bordered a small river. One morning a town Doc and his 8 year

old son were fishing the river, the dad wondered down the river and about an hour 

later heard a commotion up river, when he got there he saw some other fishermen

that had just lost the battle with a big snake. The snake had swallowed the kid and

when the fishermen found them the kids feet were sticking out of the snakes mouth. 

They tried to pull him out but the snake out powered them and went into the river.