Researchers at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in northern England recently discovered a mouse-shaped strip of leather while sorting through previously excavated materials, reports Dalya Alberge for the Guardian.

The find, which dates to between 105 and 130 A.D., is thought to have been a toy or a practical joke, according to a statement from the Vindolanda Museum.

Measuring around five inches long and one inch wide, the swatch of leather boasts ears, four legs and a long tail, as well as scratches along its body perhaps meant to simulate fur.

Its a fabulous little piece. We werent expecting to find something like that, curator Barbara Birley tells the Guardian. If you were working in a dark Roman room, because they didnt have a huge amount of indoor lighting, you could definitely see it as a little mouse, especially because its not [like] Mickey Mouse with big ears. It looks very realistic.

Vindolanda sits one mile south of Hadrians Wall, a 73-mile stone barrier constructed around 122 A.D. to mark the edge of the Roman Empire and defend against incursions by the unconquered tribes of Scotland, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

The fort itself predates Hadrians Wall. Established as a permanent outpost by the late 80s A.D., Vindolanda was a classic turf and timber example of the Romans playing-card shaped military complexes, wrote Mike Ibeji for BBC History in 2012. The fort acted as an important base when the wall was under construction, keeping the project supplied with materials and labor.

Between its creation and the end of the Roman occupation of Britain in the early fifth century, Vindolanda was demolished and rebuilt nine times, according to the museum. After Romes exit, the site remained occupied for some 400 years, but by the ninth century, it had fallen into disuse.

To date, excavations have produced an archaeological bonanza of military equipment, personal effects, andperhaps most significantlywooden writing tablets detailing daily life at the fort.

Archaeologists are still sorting through the array of artifacts discovered at the site.

[Researching] the collection is an ongoing process, the museum notes in the statement. [I]t can take years after the excavation for every scrap and offcut to be examined.

With the fort and other British heritage sites closed due to COVID-19, staff have had ample time to revisit previously excavated objects.

In this case, the leather mouse emerged from a bag of scrap leather first discovered during a 1993 dig at the residence of a commanding officer. The strata of the find dates it to the second century, when the first Tungrains (inhabitants of what is now Belgium) were stationed at the fort.

Delicate artifacts like the leather mouse and the wood writing tablets are rare, as these materials are prone to rapid rot and degradation. At Vindolanda, such objects were sheltered from the ravages of time by a layer of oxygen-free soil created when heavy clay and concrete were laid down during construction, reported Alberge for the Guardian in a 2017 story on past finds at the fort.

Archaeologist Andrew Birley tells the Guardian that mice were common pests in and around Vindolanda. When staff excavated the forts graneries in 2008, they unearthed the skeletons of thousands of dead mice that had likely survived on fallen ears of grain.

It is perhaps therefore rather wonderful that someone 2,000 years ago made a toy mouse from leather, says Birley, crafting something to play with from their immediate environment.

The museum says the leather mouse will go on permanent display once pandemic restrictions are lifted.

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Ancient Leather 'Mouse' Highlights the Romans' Sense of Humor - Smithsonian.com

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LED bulbs: A sustainable lighting option for your home - Times of India

Analysis of the Global Remote Control Smart Lighting Market

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Business Impact Remote Control Smart Lighting Market Industry Analysis, Trend and Growth, 2019-2028 - News Distinct

In 2018, the market size of Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market is million US$ and it will reach million US$ in 2025, growing at a CAGR of from 2018; while in China, the market size is valued at xx million US$ and will increase to xx million US$ in 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during forecast period.

The report on the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market provides a birds eye view of the current proceeding within the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market. Further, the report also takes into account the impact of the novel COVID-19 pandemic on the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market and offers a clear assessment of the projected market fluctuations during the forecast period. The different factors that are likely to impact the overall dynamics of the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market over the forecast period (2019-2029) including the current trends, growth opportunities, restraining factors, and more are discussed in detail in the market study.

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This study presents the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market production, revenue, market share and growth rate for each key company, and also covers the breakdown data (production, consumption, revenue and market share) by regions, type and applications. Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System history breakdown data from 2014 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.

For top companies in United States, European Union and China, this report investigates and analyzes the production, value, price, market share and growth rate for the top manufacturers, key data from 2014 to 2018.

In global Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market, the following companies are covered:

Market Segment AnalysisThe research report includes specific segments by Type and by Application. This study provides information about the sales and revenue during the historic and forecasted period of 2015 to 2026. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth.Segment by Type, the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market is segmented intoCentralized control typeNon-centralized control type

Segment by ApplicationFire TunnelIndoor

Global Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market: Regional AnalysisThe Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market is analysed and market size information is provided by regions (countries). The report includes country-wise and region-wise market size for the period 2015-2026. It also includes market size and forecast by Type and by Application segment in terms of sales and revenue for the period 2015-2026.The key regions covered in the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market report are:North AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalyRussiaAsia-PacificChinaJapanSouth KoreaIndiaAustraliaTaiwanIndonesiaThailandMalaysiaPhilippinesVietnamLatin AmericaMexicoBrazilArgentinaMiddle East & AfricaTurkeySaudi ArabiaU.A.EGlobal Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market: Competitive AnalysisThis section of the report identifies various key manufacturers of the market. It helps the reader understand the strategies and collaborations that players are focusing on combat competition in the market. The comprehensive report provides a significant microscopic look at the market. The reader can identify the footprints of the manufacturers by knowing about the global revenue of manufacturers, the global price of manufacturers, and sales by manufacturers during the forecast period of 2015 to 2019.The major players in global Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market include:TigerFire(Guangzhou) Lighting TechnologyhenZhen Hocen Emergency LightingGUANGDONG DP COLoseZFEMPNDP

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The content of the study subjects, includes a total of 15 chapters:

Chapter 1, to describe Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market driving force and market risks.

Chapter 2, to profile the top manufacturers of Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System , with price, sales, revenue and global market share of Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System in 2017 and 2018.

Chapter 3, the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System competitive situation, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are analyzed emphatically by landscape contrast.

Chapter 4, the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System breakdown data are shown at the regional level, to show the sales, revenue and growth by regions, from 2014 to 2018.

Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to break the sales data at the country level, with sales, revenue and market share for key countries in the world, from 2014 to 2018.

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Chapter 10 and 11, to segment the sales by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2014 to 2018.

Chapter 12, Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2024.

Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System sales channel, distributors, customers, research findings and conclusion, appendix and data source.

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Weekly Update: Global Coronavirus Impact and Implications on Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market 2020- Global...

NOTE FOR 2020 READERS: This is the eleventh in a series of open letters to the next century, now just 80 years away. The series asks: What will the world look like at the other end of our kids' lives?

Dear 22nd Century,

For all the pain, grief and economic hardship the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has sown, a handful of green shoots seem to have taken root in its blighted soil.

Green being the operative word, because many of these developments could be a net positive for the planet. In lockdown, many of us are seeing what our cities look like without smog. Office workers are experiencing office life without the office; just last week, Twitter announced that most of its employees could work from home forever, while much of Manhattan is reportedly freaking out about what could happen to commercial real estate. Thousands of companies just discovered they can still function, and maybe even function better, when they dont chain employees to desks or force them to make a soul-crushing, carbon-spewing commute 10 times a week.

And what do more people do when theyre spending more time at home? Well, if youre like my wife, you start literally planting green shoots. Our house is filling up with them as I write this: lettuce, chard, tomatoes, basil, strawberries, to name the first five shoots poking out of dozens of mason jars now taking up residence on every windowsill. Shes hardly alone; garden centers and seed delivery services are reporting as much as 10 times more sales since the pandemic began. Even the mighty Wal-Mart has sold out of seeds. Ifviral Facebook postsand Instagram hashtags are any guide, pandemic hipsters have moved on from once-fashionable sourdough starters to growing fresh fruit and veg.

Another one of our cyclical back to the land movements seems to be underway, just like during the 1960s and the Great Depression before that. Only this time, we dont need land. We dont need soil. We dont need pesticide of any kind. We dont even need natural light. Thanks to giant leaps forward in the science of hydroponics and LED lighting, even people in windowless, gardenless apartments can participate in the revolution. With a number of high-tech consumer products on the way, the process can be automated for those of us without green thumbs.

In previous letters Ive discussed the inevitable rise of alternative meat, a process that has been acceleratedby the pandemic. I talked about the smaller, more nutritious plant-based meals we're going to need for life extension; I assumed such meals would be delivered by drone. But now I see a future with no food deserts, in which every home is filled with rotating space-station-like hydroponics run by artificial intelligence a cornucopia of push-button farming providing the side salad to your plant-based meat.

Even if you dont grow your own, robot-run vertical farms and community agrihoods, now springing up everywhere, will make amazing-tasting produce abundant and cheap. The locavores of our era like to boast about their 100-mile diet. Yours will look more like a 100-yard diet.

Its worth remembering that it wasnt supposed to be this way. The 2020s, in fact, is when we were slated for starvation, food riots, and big business quietly processing our corpses into food.

Thats the plot of the 1973 movie Soylent Green, set in the year 2022. Fruit and veg have all but vanished. In one scene, Charlton Heston's detective hero smuggles home a single tomato and a wilted stick of celery, enough to reduce his roommate Sol (Edward G. Robinson) to tears. On the other end of the future, in a lighter but equally depressing vein, the 2006 comedy Idiocracy showed the Americans of 2500 running out of crops because they couldnt figure out that water, not "Brawndo" (a spoof on colorful sports drinks), is what plants crave.

But these dismal future visions are receding thanks to the science of hydroponics which dates back to the 19th century, no matter its present-day association with growing marijuana. By the 1930s, wed figured out that what plants crave is surprisingly minimal: nitrogen, a handful of minerals, something to anchor the roots like rock wool or coconut husks, and H2O. Early hydroponic farms helped feed U.S. soldiers as they hopped through the Pacific during World War II.

Minimalist methods multiplied, and are still multiplying. Were tweaking the spectrum of LED lights for maximum growth, and figuring out ways to use progressively less water and nutrients. My wifes mason jar seedlings use something called the Kratky method, where you don't even need to change the water. It turns out this method wasinvented by a Hawaiian scientist as recently as 2009. And its the closest science has yet given us to a free lunch.

Im nowhere near as excited by hydroponics as my wife is. But during our quarantine time, even my head has been turned by the Rotofarm, which Ive come to think of as the iPhone of gardening. Its a beautiful device inspired by NASA research on growing plants in space. It uses anti-gravity literally, when the wheel rotates around its LED light source and the plants are hanging upside down to grow plants faster. A magnetic cover reduces the glare and increases the internal humidity. You manage it via an app.

Humankinds oldest technology turns out to be the most efficient use of space for growing plants; even in this 15-inch-wide wheel, you can really pack them in. At the bottom of the wheel, plants dip their roots into the water and nutrient tanks. An owners only job is to refill the tanks every week or so, and to snip off their dinner with scissors a few weeks after germination. Some leafy greens, like my favorite salad base arugula, can be regrown without replanting.

Still, to be fully self-sufficient, a future apartment is going to need to have multiple Rotofarm-style devices on the go at once but theyre designed to live anywhere you can plug in, on coffee tables, on desks, on walls, as eye-catching as artwork.

The main problem with the Rotofarm: It isnt actually on sale yet. It feels like weve done everything in reverse, Rotofarm creator Toby Farmer said when I reached him via video chat from his home in Melbourne. Weve got the patents, weve got the design awards, weve got the customers. Now we need to finish the prototypes. (One key tweak: reducing Rotofarms energy requirements, which as it stands could double many users household electricity bills.)

Still, orders have come from as far afield as Japan and the Netherlands, from retailers and regular users alike. Farmers biggest regret: When Ron Howards production company called, hoping to use eight Rotofarms in an upcoming Nickelodeon show set in space, Farmer didnt have enough to spare.

Rotofarm has been in the works for a few years, but acrowdfunded Indiegogocampaign that closed last month exceeded its $15,000 goal by a third of a million dollars. Farmer, despite his name, had no experience in this area; just 23 years old, he had been a web designer since the age of 12. But hes scaling up fast, hiring teams in LA and Singapore, soaking up their knowledge (he was keen to assure me hed hired a lot of 40-somethings for this very reason).

After a projected 2021 release date, Rotofarms business model involves making money on proprietary seed pods though Farmer admits that theres a DIY aspect where customers can make their own. His hope is that official Rotofarm pods will be competitive because theyll have fewer germination failures, but he'd rather see a world where more people own the device itself. In that spirit, hes making it modular the LED light bar can be upgraded separately, for example, rather than making customers buy a whole new device. (As for cost, Farmer says he can't comment yet though Indiegogo backers were able to secure one for $900 a pop.)

Might the Rotofarm fail? Of course, just like any other crowdfunded project. Much depends on its price point, as yet unannounced. But its far from the only next-level, set-it-and-forget-it hydroponic station taking aim at your kitchen. Theres a Canadian Kickstarter called OGarden that also grows food on a wheel, albeit a much larger wheel. The OGarden was funded in its first six minutes online and is set to cost around $1,000 per unit. Theres Farmshelf, a $4,900 pre-order hydroponic device that looks like a see-through refrigerator, backed by celebrity chef Jose Andres. Users will pay a $35 monthly subscription to get all the seeds they need.

One of these models is the future; maybe all of them are. Right now, these are high-end devices aimed at early adopters (and restaurants, which get a lot of benefit out of showing off how fresh their produce is as customers walk in). But with scale, with time, and with the growing desire for grow-your-own food that Rotofarm and its brethren have revealed, they will get cheaper and more widespread.

After all, the first Motorola cellphone, in 1983, cost $4,000. It looked like a brick and had 30 minutes of talk time. Now sleek, supercomputer-driven smartphones are accessible to pretty much everyone. The same process will happen in home hydroponics.

Give it 80 years, and I can see apartments with built in hydroponic farms provided as a standard utility, much as a fridge is seen as a standard feature today. As more humans move to urban environments two out of every three people will be in cities by 2050, according to the latest UN estimate the need for such devices will only grow.

We strongly believe the future of gardening is indoor gardening and more individual gardens, OGarden CEO Pierre Nibart told us last year. Stopping mass agriculture and starting to produce their own little stuff at home. He said this while demonstrating his family's daily OGarden routine: His kids harvest most of what they need for dinner from the spinning wheel.

Mass agriculture hasnt exactly covered itself in glory where produce is concerned. And in the post-coronavirus age, we are surely going to become less tolerant of the disease its intensive farming methods have caused.

Food poisoning caused by romaine lettuce, which makes up a quarter of all leafy greens sold in the U.S., has become depressingly familiar. The 2018 E coli outbreak was the worst it sickened 240 people in 37 states, hospitalized almost half of them, and killed five. But the CDC has logged 46 E coli outbreaks since 2006, and says that every reported case of infection is likely matched by 26 unreported ones. And theyre only just starting to figure out the most likely cause: groundwater contaminated by nearby cattle manure. There could also be infection from passing birds, another major vector of bacteria.

Never mind the wet markets of Wuhan that likely caused the coronavirus pandemic. Were already sickening ourselves on the regular with a problem that is baked directly into our food system and its affecting vegans as much as meat eaters.

I have no doubt youll look at our barbaric farming methods and shake your heads. Why did they use so much water? Why did they transport produce an average of 1,500 miles? Why did they grow it outdoors, where its vulnerable to pests, and then use pesticides that had to be washed off? Why did they think triple washing did anything to remove bacteria (it doesnt)? Why did they bother using soil, for goodness sake? Didnt they know what plants crave?

The force of legacy agriculture is strong, but an increasing number of companies are figuring out a better way: the vertical farm, so named because they can stack hydroponic produce in shelves or towers. As I write this, there are more than 20 vertical farm operations being constructed and tested around the country. They use around 90 percent less water than regular soil farms, can grow roughly 10 times more food per acre than regular soil farms, and using precision software they can harvest their produce 30 percent faster than regular soil farms.

Sure, theyre spending more on electricity, but theyre also spending nothing on pesticide. The economics seem irresistible.

Last year, less than 20 miles from where I write this, in highly urbanized South San Francisco, a company called Plenty unveiled its flagship operation, a vast vertical farm named Tigris. Its sheer scale invites the correct usage of Californias favorite word, awesome. Tigris can grow a million plants at once, harvesting 200 of them every minute. With $226 million in funding, Plenty says it has already farmed 700 varieties of produce. Right now, the cost to consumers is comparable to non-hydroponic products (I can get their baby arugula at my nearest Safeway for a dollar an ounce); in the long run, it should be cheaper.

And they are far from the only success story. A Chinese startup, Alesca Life, is turning disused parking lots into vertical farms as well as selling plug-and-play shipping container farms. Back in Silicon Valley, a company called Iron Ox is developing robot arms for indoor farmwork. The future looks green, and bountiful, and mostly automated (which is yet another reason youre going to need Universal Basic Income).

Which is not to say that outdoor agriculture is going away completely; its just going to shrink to the size of a community garden. Thats the basis of new urban developments called agrihoods, or multihome communities centered around a professionally managed farm; a just-published book called Welcome to the Agrihoodrepresents their first directory.

Rooftop organic farms, urban allotments: These are places where city dwellers can connect to the land and feel the satisfaction of nurturing their seeds from scratch. Soil may not be necessary to feed us, but sometimes its good to feel the dirt in your fingers. Similarly, farmer's markets are unlikely to go away. In a world where grocery stores are increasingly becoming delivery centers for services like Instacart, there will still be value in meeting and buying direct from the growers of high-end produce.

With big agribusiness heading indoors, with our apartments growing much of what we need and vertical farms providing backup in every city, well also be able to let most of our present-day farmland go fallow. That in itself should take care of a chunk of climate change, considering the amount of carbon-soaking vegetation that springs up on fallow land. Lab-grown and plant-made meat will remove the need for those disease-ridden feedlots. Aquaponics, another discipline where the science is expanding by leaps and bounds, may even let us grow our own fish for food, reducing the strain on our overfished oceans.

No doubt it wont be all smooth sailing. No doubt we, as humans, will stumble upon fresh ways to mess up the planet and make life worse. But from where Im sitting, surrounded by soilless germinating jars, the future looks very green and nutritious indeed.

Yours in leafy goodness,

2020

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The indoor farm revolution - Mashable SE Asia

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds added movie theaters, aquariums, museums, wedding venues, and bars to the list of businesses that will soon be allowed to reopen, but FilmScene's doors will stay closed for the time being.

Movie theaters made the list of Iowa businesses included in Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Wednesday announcement that will allow more businesses to reopen beginning May 22, but Iowa Citys FilmScene wont be firing up its popcorn machines for movie-goers just yet.

The nonprofit theater announced on their website and social media that FilmScenes locations will remain closed while the theater continues to prepare its facilities and create a plan for reopening.

Todays announcement by Gov. Reynolds that movie theaters would be allowed to reopen is a necessary step towards our eventual reopening. We will continue to monitor public health conditions, film availability, and public confidence to determine the right opening date, FilmScene announced on their website Wednesday.

The theater closed its doors at both its Chauncey and Pedestrian Mall locations on March 16 in order to help mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus, and has been offering rentals, curbside concession sales, and virtual screenings in order to continue doing business amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The theater stated it will continue to offer these services as it determines a reopening date.

Movie theaters were among several other businesses that will be allowed to open in the coming weeks, including aquariums, museums, wedding venues, and swimming pools for lap swimming and swim lessons only on May 22. Bars will be able open both indoor and outdoor seating at half capacity beginning May 28, and starting June 1, school-sponsored activities including high school baseball and softball seasons will be allowed to resume.

We look forward to lighting up the big screen again when the time is right, FilmScene stated in the announcement.

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Movie theaters get green light from Reynolds to reopen, but FilmScene will remain closed for now - UI The Daily Iowan

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LED Secondary Optic Market 2020: Industry Growth, Competitive Analysis, Future Prospects and Forecast 2027 - AlgosOnline

Dutch commercial photographer Roelof Bos has, like many of us, been looking for a creative outlet ever since his professional work ground to a screeching halt. But while many photographers have opted for in-door projects or porchraits, he wanted to create something more stylistic and striking.

Thus was born Lockdown, a series of poignant twilight portraits of his fellow countrymen (and women) coping with isolation in various ways.

The imagery is highly stylized and symbolic. By shooting at blue hour and compositing multiple shots, hes able to capture photos that feel simultaneously intimate, and symbolic of the dark and lonely times were living through. Each image seeks to tell a complete story in a single frame.

But dont take our word for it. Roelof was kind enough to share his experience in detail, explaining how the project came to be, how it has evolved, and what each individual image represents. Scroll down to hear the story from Bos himself.

Here in the Netherlands we also experienced a sort of lockdown (of course). Not as tight as in other countries, yet it had a serious impact. I was thinking about what other photographers or artists were doing in reaction to this lockdown, and I felt some light urge to do something myself, especially while my workflow had dropped.

But taking family shots at home (porch photography I believe you call it) or portraying care workers for example isnt really my thing too journalistic.

In my daily work as a commercial photographer I most like to work with art-directors who have a great concept, which then can be turned into photographic images by choosing the best location, model, lighting, etc. and when necessary combining several images into one composite. All to achieve an image that tells the story at its best. As a painter more or less.

Recently, while I was walking my dog at twilight, I saw people in their homes with the lights on during the magic moment when the sky is still blue. It struck me that this time of daywhich is known to me (and many photographers) to produce a nice look when day turns into nightwas in fact perfect to show the isolation of people, locked in their homes as seen from the outside.

You could shoot a whole house with its environment in near darkness with just one room lit with a person standing there.

Despite the small seize of the person in relation to the entire image (necessary to emphasize the isolation/loneliness), because of the lighting, your eyes immediately go to this person and thus to the story of the image. The images could be very beautiful while simultaneously tapping into current events, and the dark setting of the images are also symbolic for the dark times of this pandemic.

At first the plan was to just show people in their homes, doing basic things like staying connected on their smartphones with friends. So this was the first one, a daughter of friends in my village:

The result was a composite of the houses at the right time of twilight, the best shot of the girl (different lights in the bathroom were explored) and an added night sky shot of the stars. I also added some fake light pollution for suspense. The light on her face is actually from the phone. No strobe used.

I posted it on my Facebook, mentioning that it was my plan to make it a series and hence the invitation to participate in being a host/model for a new photo. This resulted in two more images, but the rest were arranged by myself.

Sometimes I was triggered just by the house and the location itself, the story then arose together with the model/owner of the house. For instance in this shot:

I used a big light stand as a tripod (height in photo is approximately 4 meters) and off camera strobe with warm filter (1 CTO) in the street for the guy. However, I used the house from a shot without the strobe and added the cat from yet another shot, and added the sky and moon. The whole shoot took only half an hour at most, but it took several hours in Photoshop to make it look like this.

In most images of the series it is a search for the ideal composition as well as finding a balance in the different brightnesses in the images. Often, I had to darken large parts of the image to not let your eyes be distracted by bright parts in the empty spaces. To obtain the right proportions, I sometimes transformed houses or moved or removed elements which were otherwise attracting too much attention.

The more the series evolved, the more the plan for the image was in my head beforehand, soI began searching for people and locations to best suit the idea. And sometimes I met people whose story or situation were already interesting enough to make it a good image.

For instance this man: he loved old wall-maps (used for education purposes). Thats how the idea arose to show someone who longs to travel.

Although you could use the available light from the living room, I did use a strobe indoors, radio-triggered from camera (again with warming filter).

People tend not to be able to stand still for half a second, and I didnt want to raise the ISO too much because most of the times I shot really wide. I wanted to have the ability to crop afterwards (to avoid making the wrong framing decision because I was losing the light) and sometimes the crop was severe. To end up with a messy grainy person is not what you want. The sky was not replaced, but stars were added.

I noticed that people were more into decorating and construction work in their houses, so I added my friend who is just in the middle of expanding his house.

Ironically, as the model in the shot it looks like hes making a lot of hours constructing it by himself, while the whole project is done by a building company. This shot was pretty straightforward, although I used different exposure values for the house to give the black wood some visible structure. Stars and Venus added.

After the first images and the good reactions I got from social mediaI posted on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TwitterI really got inspired to keep going. At the same time, there were special days coming.

The 27th of April is Kingsday (birthday of the king, all flags in the streets and normally much festivity), and the 4th of May is Memorial Day (victims of WWII, 75 years this year) and Liberation Day (comparable with VE-day I think). So I starting making images especially for these days, to be posted on these very daysimages that would be relevant to both the lockdown situation as well as the day itself and how different people were experiencing them.

For Kingsday, I did this one, with a wife singing the national anthem and a husband who dislikes that and rather enjoys his beer:

For Memorial Day, I asked my wife to play The Last Post, flag is at half-mast to show mourning, and I added a black edge on the image as well. This shot was taken during daytime, partly because I had a different shot planned in the evening, and partly because the Last Post is at 8pm, a time when it is still not twilight.

To emphasize the mourning, I added the dark sky.

Then came Liberation day (VE-day). Now I could add more layers into the story. Celebration of freedom in a time when one is restricted to ones home. My father, who has witnessed WWII as a child, saw the bombers fly over his house. Now he sees pigeons (symbol of freedom) as a squadron flying freely outdoors, while he is stuck at home.

This shot took heavy manipulation. I adapted the house (got rid of window and wall on the left), added a flag, a new sky in the reflection, as well as the pigeons of course. My father is taken from a separate shot with strobe, indoor shots mixed with reflection in windows:

Then there was going to be a Supermoon. This phenomenon is often over-hyped (IMHO) so this shot is a wink to that hype: a boy searching for the moon yet its behind him. The size of moon is also highly overdone by design.

The camera is my own, because while I was hoping for a real telescope with star tracker, I insisted on getting the photo posted on May 7th so there wasnt enough time. In the end, the boy (instead of the dad) was willing to pose, so actually a camera on tripod suits the situation betterits more of an amateur look.

This shot was captured with strobe once again, and I added some red to the sky.

The last image to mention is the reference to the holiday season, camping on your own property. All the images in this series were taken by myself, but to add to the feel of a holiday in beautiful nature I came up with the idea of adding the northern lights as a backdrop for a befriended couple in the camper.

Although I have lots of skies and landscapes in my personal stock, I had no northern lights shots. The dont occur on our latitude, so I would have travel to Norway to shoot it. I could have bought a stock image, or use a creative commons image from Wikimedia, but I would rather make it myself, just for the sake of the fact that the whole series was made by me.

So, instead, I searched for clouds more or less in the shape of these northern light flames and transformed them in post, changing the color and stacking several clouds in different opacities, some with motion blur, to get a sky as shown.

All images were taken with a 50MP full-frame camera (Canon 5DsR), mostly with a EF 16-35mm f/4L lens, except the moon photo, which was taken EF 70-200mm f/4L, and the moon itself, which was shot on with an EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L + 1.4x teleconverter.

When flash is used, it was a Godox AD360 in a softbox, always with a 1 CTO warming filter to imitate tungsten light.

A big thank you to Roelof for sharing these images and the story behind them. To see more of his work and browse the entire Lockdown collection, visit his website or by giving him a follow on Instagram.

Originally posted here:
Striking Twilight Portraits Capture the Loneliness of Lockdown - PetaPixel

The LED Secondary Optic report provides independent information about the LED Secondary Optic industry supported by extensive research on factors such as industry segments size & trends, inhibitors, dynamics, drivers, opportunities & challenges, environment & policy, cost overview, porters five force analysis, and key companies profiles including business overview and recent development.

LED Secondary Optic MarketLatest Research Report 2020:

Download Premium Sample Copy Of This Report: Download FREE Sample PDF!

In this report, our team offers a thorough investigation of LED Secondary Optic Market, SWOT examination of the most prominent players right now. Alongside an industrial chain, market measurements regarding revenue, sales, value, capacity, regional market examination, section insightful information, and market forecast are offered in the full investigation, and so forth.

Scope of LED Secondary Optic Market: Products in the LED Secondary Optic classification furnish clients with assets to get ready for tests, tests, and evaluations.

Major Company Profiles Covered in This Report

Ledlink Optics, Carclo Optics, Auer Lighting, LEDIL Oy, FRAEN Corporation, GAGGIONE (Lednlight), Bicom Optics, Darkoo Optics, Aether systems Inc, B&M Optics Co., Ltd, ShenZhen Likeda Optical, HENGLI Optical, Brightlx Limited, Kunrui optical, FORTECH, Chun Kuang Optics, Wuxi Kinglux Glass Lens

LED Secondary Optic Market Report Covers the Following Segments:

Segment by Type:

Reflector, LED Secondary Lens, Others

Segment by Application:

Street Lighting, Commercial Lighting, Architectural Lighting, Indoor Lighting, Automotive Lighting, Others

North America

Europe

Asia-Pacific

South America

Center East and Africa

United States, Canada and Mexico

Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy

China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia

Brazil, Argentina, Colombia

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa

Market Overview:The report begins with this section where product overview and highlights of product and application segments of the global LED Secondary Optic Market are provided. Highlights of the segmentation study include price, revenue, sales, sales growth rate, and market share by product.

Competition by Company:Here, the competition in the Worldwide LED Secondary Optic Market is analyzed, By price, revenue, sales, and market share by company, market rate, competitive situations Landscape, and latest trends, merger, expansion, acquisition, and market shares of top companies.

Company Profiles and Sales Data:As the name suggests, this section gives the sales data of key players of the global LED Secondary Optic Market as well as some useful information on their business. It talks about the gross margin, price, revenue, products, and their specifications, type, applications, competitors, manufacturing base, and the main business of key players operating in the global LED Secondary Optic Market.

Market Status and Outlook by Region:In this section, the report discusses about gross margin, sales, revenue, production, market share, CAGR, and market size by region. Here, the global LED Secondary Optic Market is deeply analyzed on the basis of regions and countries such as North America, Europe, China, India, Japan, and the MEA.

Application or End User:This section of the research study shows how different end-user/application segments contribute to the global LED Secondary Optic Market.

Market Forecast:Here, the report offers a complete forecast of the global LED Secondary Optic Market by product, application, and region. It also offers global sales and revenue forecast for all years of the forecast period.

Research Findings and Conclusion:This is one of the last sections of the report where the findings of the analysts and the conclusion of the research study are provided.

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While New Jersey is famously known as the Garden State based on its bountiful produce, numerous forces here and abroad indicate that the delicate balance between food growers and consumers is reaching a dangerous tipping point. Among key concerns, the world population is currently growing faster than the food supply, agriculture accounts for nearly 25% of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, and modern commercial farming practices have led to a rise in dangerous and costly food-borne and antibiotic-resistant illnesses. Closer to home, a recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that between 1982 and 2007, New Jersey lost a greater share of its agricultural land to development than any other state in America, putting further strain on a local industry already under pressure.

Proving that necessity is the mother of invention, however, a new crop of innovators is tackling these challenges head-on.Based on the benefits of vertical farming a process by which crops are grown indoors in vertically stacked layers within highly controlled environments New Jerseys numerous vertical farms represent a bright spot on the Garden States agricultural horizon.

A Strategic Solution

Vertical farms lead back to the need to build a world in which the current food system must support the needs of an expanded population with a rapidly dwindling set of resources, said Irving Fain, founder and CEO of Bowery Farming, a 5-year-old, Kearny-based indoor farming company thats addressing the impending climate and food crisis by using the power of technology to grow fresh, high-quality produce closer to the point of consumption. With two commercial indoor farms located in Kearny and a third recently launched in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area, Bowerys model and proprietary technology,BoweryOS, enable the growth of high-quality crops year-round, regardless of weather or seasonality, using zero pesticides and over 95% less water, Fain said.

Were re-appropriating industrial space to grow crops indoors at a rate thats 100 times more productive per square foot of land than that of traditional agriculture, noted Fain, who said that Bowerys data-rich systems and ability to control the entire growing process enable it to trace every individual crop back to its original seed and deliver superior produce to restaurants and stores (including Whole Foods and Stop & Shop locations) within days of harvest.

Five miles away in Newark,AeroFarmsconverted a 75-year-old, 70,000-square-foot steel mill into the worlds largest indoor vertical farm in 2015 (soon to become the worldssecond-largestwhenAeroFarms completes construction of its new 150,000-square-foot vertical farm in Danville, Va.).Growing a range of fruit, vegetables and greens (under the Dream Greens label) without sun or soil in a fully controlled, indoor environment using a patented aeroponic growing system for faster harvest cycles, predictable results, superior food safety and less environmental impact, the companys annual yields are reportedly 390-plus times higher per square foot than conventional farming. Harvesting up to two million pounds of highly nutritious, premium-quality produce per year, AeroFarmswas recently named one of Times Best Inventions of 2019.

Farming 8,000 square feet of grow space within a historic greenhouse in Newarks Branch Brook Park, Radicle Farm grows hydroponically using a nutrient film technique (NFT) and flooded tray system. Though not a vertical farm per se, vertical growing makes sense within densely populated urban areas, and field farming and ground-level greenhouse growing will also continue to play a major role for quite some time, said Radicle Farm Co-Founder Tony Gibbons.

Hackensack-based Greens Do Good is proving that vertical farms can not only be rooted in food delivery but in social responsibility as well. At the 3,600-square-foot facility, which opened in April 2019, all proceeds from the growth of its dozens of different microgreens, lettuce and herbs all grown without soil, pesticides or herbicides go to REED Next, a nonprofit organization that provides continued education, life experience and work opportunities to adults with autism.

We believe that growing healthy food with minimal impact to the environment is the future of farming, and Greens Do Good is transforming the way our local community sources healthy produce by providing the freshest ingredients in a sustainable and socially responsible way, said Jennifer Faust, REED Foundations director of Communications. In a state like New Jersey, where urban communities dont have the space, access or optimal year-round outdoor growing conditions to provide fresh produce, Greens Do Good is solving that problem by creating a sustainable social enterprise that not only helps individuals with autism, but provides our community with produce thats deliveredhyperlocallyon the same day its harvested, 365 days a year. At its core, Faust said, were a community partner providing sustainable produce to local businesses while supporting adults with autism, a greatly underserved population.

With a similar desire to support its community, Bowery works closely with Table To Table, a food rescue program that delivers perishable food to organizations that serve the hungry in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties and also has developed lesson plans to aid local teachers and students in discussions about the modern agricultural landscape and its challenges.

Building A Better Future

Often located in urban settings in order to bring agriculture back to city centers, vertical farms incorporate the utmost in sustainable products and practices. At Bowery, for example, energy-efficient LED lighting mimics the spectrum of the sun for crops, while rooftop solar panels, a clean gas backup generator and a battery energy storage system further reduce the companys energy use and carbon emissions in New Jersey. In addition, Bowery uses over 95% less water by recirculating it continuously and only replenishing the amount thats used by the plants or lost during daily operations, Fain said.

Part of a current network of 2,000 vertical farms in America within an industry thats estimated to grow to over $3 billion by 2024, New Jerseys vertical farms are proud of the contribution theyre making to meet the states food challenges while transforming agriculture around the world.

Bowery was founded on the fundamental belief that technology applied at scale can solve difficult and important global problems, with agriculture sitting at the nexus of many of these issues, and our mission is to grow food for a better future, said Fain, whose company was honored as one of Fast Companys 2019 Most Innovative Companies in AI. Based on its benefits and success, he said, we see indoor farming becoming an even more meaningful and integral part of the farming and agriculture industries in the next 5 to 10 years and look forward to continuing to experience the positive impact of vertical farming on the environment.

Vertical And Indoor Farms In New Jersey

Following is a selection of several vertical and indoor farms located throughout the Garden State:

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Growing up in the Garden State: Vertical farms prove to be bright spot on N.J.'s agricultural horizon - Jersey's Best