Sparkle (Post 1- Comment 3)
View allAll Photos Tagged Competitive,
This photo reminds me of us (humans) living in a competitive concrete “jungle”. During dry season, at the Kalahari plains, only the toughest will survive. The rules are simple; first come, first served....
Have a lovely day!
I met this old man in Kobe. I wish I had the courage to ask what does he have to do with this tough and competitive oriental city.
Inspired by her 2 older sisters, this youngster is highly competitive. Posted with her parent's permission.
The Santa Fe–Southern Pacific merger was an attempted corporate consolidation of two of the major railroads in the Western United States at the time: the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The approximately US$5 billion deal was announced in September 1983 and in December 1983, both companies were acquired by a new holding company, the Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corporation Both companies' extensive non-railroad related assets were immediately combined. However, the Southern Pacific Railroad remained in a voting trust and the railroads continued to be operated independently and competitively while the merger worked through the regulatory process.
In March 1984, the companies asked the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) for approval to merge their railroads. Confident the deal would be approved, the company began repainting their locomotives into a new unified paint scheme that would allow the future railroad to be called SPSF.
I July of 1986 the ICC denied the merger and gave the companies two years to split assets.
Five years after the failed attempt I'm in a dry dusty barren landscape on the outer edge of the 40 Mile Desert in the ghost town of Hazen, Nevada. The ghost of SPSF lives on in the form of the "Kodachrome" paint scheme applied to two of the EMD's in this consist.
Both railroads would seek merger alternatives in the near future. Southern Pacific with the Denver, Rio Grande & Western, and Santa Fe with the Burlington Northern.
Thank WikiP for an easier caption than I could do mysylf.
Front View
1911 Baker Electric Special Extension Coupe, Model V
In the first decades of the 20th century, electric vehicles seemed poised for primacy. Early internal-combustion engines were rudimentary, dangerous, and difficult to operate, requiring all sorts of pump priming and starter torqueing. Those tasks were uncouth for the wealthy gentlemen who were the automobile’s first customers and downright risky for the era’s women, clothed in voluminous, billowing Edwardian dresses and patriarchal notions of competence. Electric cars, on the other hand, were extremely simple to use. So long as the heavy batteries were maintained and charged, all one had to do was click the on switch, twist the go lever, and roll.
Having founded the American Ball Bearing Company in 1895, Midwestern engineer Walter C. Baker understood the basics of carriage production. This background gave him faith that he could make the leap into car building. Teaming up with his father-in-law and brother-in-law, he started the Baker Motor Vehicle Company in Cleveland in 1899. Seeing the aforementioned advantages inherent in electric vehicles, Baker decided to place his faith in this powertrain.
“Number one, it’s comfortable, and it’s not terribly difficult to drive,” said Stew Somerville, a volunteer mechanic at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome museum in upstate New York, which holds a 1911 Baker in its eclectic collection. “But part of the attraction of the electric automobile was the fact that it did not emit gasoline fumes, you didn’t have to crank-start the engine, there was no big wheel to wrestle with. It was a very smooth-handling automobile. You didn’t even have a loud, offensive horn. There’s a dainty little bell to warn of its coming.” Period ads were frequently, although not exclusively, pitched directly at women.
Baker’s first car to market was a two-seater, the Imperial Runabout. Priced at a competitive $850, it was first shown in New York at the city’s (and nation’s) first auto show. It attracted a number of notable buyers, including Thomas Edison, who purchased one as his very first car. (Edison designed the long-lived nickel-iron batteries used in some Baker vehicles.) By 1906, Baker was, briefly, the world’s top producer of electric vehicles.
But like many of his cohort in the emergent automotive industry, Baker wasn’t just in it for the business. He was in it for the speed. As his company was enjoying success in the consumer market, he was pursuing his dream by developing a series of advanced, record-setting racing cars. His first, the Torpedo, was built in 1902, at great personal expense to Baker. With its 11 batteries, 14-hp mid-mounted motor, outrageously low-slung 48-inch height, streamlined and lightweight white-pine and oilcloth body, and bizarre webbed canvas seat restraints, it seemed poised to set a world land speed record.
Sadly, in that year’s Automobile Club of America speed trials on Staten Island, the car was involved in a disastrous crash. After crossing the 1-kilometer (0.6 mile) mark in just over 30 seconds, Baker and his co-driver lost control and crashed into a group of spectators. One person died at the scene, and another died later from injuries. The drivers were both arrested and charged with manslaughter but were freed when it was determined that the crowd had pushed past protective barriers and onto the course. (Baker’s innovative safety harness likely protected the car’s occupants from serious injury.)
Further attempts with two smaller, single-seater race cars he named Torpedo Kid were also employed in pursuit of the land speed record but were subsequently abandoned following another, nonlethal spectator crash in 1903. Baker has often been noted as the first person to cross the 100-mph barrier, although his records weren’t official due to these wrecks.
Given this peril, Baker decided to forgo his quest for top speed. As gasoline-powered vehicles increased in popularity and gained infrastructural support, he shifted his attention instead to diminishing the electric car’s liabilities, particularly their limited range. He worked diligently on new battery designs, shaft drives, and other componentry. In 1910, Baker’s new chief engineer, Emil Gruenfeldt, set a record for distance driven on a single charge, taking a Baker Victoria for a 201-mile trip at an average speed of 12 mph. Not exactly Ludicrous speed, but an impressive feat nonetheless.
Baker’s successes gave the company prominence among the elite, and the company capitalized on this publicly. In advertisements around 1909, the brand boldly boasted about the King of Siam owning a Baker. The company made a similar splash in American politics when President William H. Taft’s administration purchased a 1909 model as one of the White House’s first automobiles. (A steam-powered White and two gasoline-powered Pierce-Arrows were also included, Taft hedging his bets on how the battle of the powertrains was going to play out.) Taft later added a 1912 Baker Victoria that went on to be driven by five First Ladies. The Baker brand maintains some celebrity allure today, with car-collecting comedian Jay Leno holding a 1909 model in his expansive collection.
As a means of offsetting some of the powertrain’s inherent shortcomings, Baker made investments in battery-charging infrastructure. The brand announced plans to open stations at every major intersection in Cleveland and to grow the network from there, although this effort became cost prohibitive and never came to fruition. Expansion into the production of electric trucks, police patrol wagons, and even trucks and bomb handlers for the U.S. Army during World War I was not enough to fend off the rising dominance of the internal-combustion engine, especially after the proliferation of the electric starter, first available on the 1912 Cadillac, significantly increased safety and convenience. By 1915, the Baker company was defunct.
By Brett Berk, Car and Driver
The now derelict and overgrown Highbury Cricket Club, Meanwood, Leeds where the last competitive match was played in April 2004
A lazy, competitive afternoon playing hopscotch in the beautiful Seogyeoshire sim and being applauded by Mr Squirrel.
Hubo un tiempo en el que la conexión Irún-Madrid Pta. de Atocha se realizaba únicamente vía Pamplona, con este Altaria con material Talgo VII, que circulaba por la línea de Alta Velocidad Madrid-Barcelona. La duración del viaje Pamplona-Madrid era muy competitiva, aunque desde Irún y San Sebastián no lo fuera tanto... Todavía no estaba abierta la Línea de Alta Velocidad Madrid-Burgos y ésto era una solución temporal... La imagen fue tomada momentos antes de atravesar la estación de Andoain (Guipúzcoa).
There was a time when the Irún-Madrid Pta. de Atocha connection was made only via Pamplona, with this Altaria with Talgo VII material, which circulated along the Madrid-Barcelona High Speed line. The duration of the Pamplona-Madrid trip was very competitive, although from Irún and San Sebastián it was not so competitive... The Madrid-Burgos High Speed Line was not yet open and this was a temporary solution... The image was taken moments before crossing the station of Andoain (Guipúzcoa).
A shot of 82nd St and 5th Avenue that was taken on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.The food at the museum cafeteria can be a little pricey,getting a bite to eat from one the food carts is more economical.
If viewed larger you can see names on the food carts.The vendors appear to be honoring men who served in the military.Perhaps the vendors themselves are veterans.
The corner building on the right side is called the Dukes House.The Beaux Arts mansion was built 1899-1901 with no in mind.Shortly after its completion the mansion was bought by Benjamin Duke,a millionaire in textile,tobacco,and energy industrialism.The Dukes House most recent owner was Mexican telecom magnate and billionaire Carlos Slim,who bought the building for $44 million in 2010.Slim sold it for $80 million,almost twice the amount he paid!You're a billionaire Carlos,for crying out loud!There are many poor millionaires out there who can't afford to pay that much:-)
1951 Cunningham C2R (race), one of three that Briggs built to compete in that year's LeMans.
Very few privateers have been as successful in sportscar racing than Briggs Swift Cunnigham. Born as a rich banker's son in 1907, Cunningham got actively involved in motor racing rather late at the age of 41. He had previously backed others, but he did not drive himself until after his mother died, who very opposed to him racing. His first race was at Watkins Glen and the car was a Buick / Mercedes-Benz hybrid, known as the 'Bumerc', the construction of which Cunningham had backed in 1939. This race really spiked his interest in road racing, in which he actively participated for two decades.
More than anything, Cunnigham was interested in long distance racing and he set his sights on the most legendary of all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He did not just want to win the event, but he wanted to be the first to do so with an all-American team. After the Duesenbergs and Millers of the 1920s, very few American successes were scored in Europe. Prepared by Phil Walters and Frick and with the help of 1949 winner Luigi Chinetti, two Cadillacs were entered in the 1950 Le Mans race. One of these was fitted with a stock body, but the second was fitted with a custom built, supremely ugly body, which for obvious reasons was nick-named 'Le Monstre' by the French.
Although the cars were not on the pace, the 10th and 11th place finishes ensured that Cunningham's entries for the 1951 race would be accepted by the picky Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which organized the legendary race. To take on the strong competition Cunnigham bought Walters' and Frick's shop to form B.S. Cunningham Co, which was based out of West Palm Beach, Florida. Over the winter of 1950/51 a prototype racer was constructed, the C-1, powered by a Cadillac engine. Cunningham quickly abandoned the Cadillac engine, because of a complete lack of support from the company. He turned to Chrysler, who were willing to support the development and offer their HEMI engines at a 40% discount.
Dubbed the C-2R, the HEMI powered Cunningham was a sophisticated and well constructed affair. A simple, but effective steel tubular frame chassis formed the basis of the C-2. It was suspended at the front by unequal A-arms and at the rear by an exotic DeDion rear axle. The only gearbox available strong enough to cope with the Chrysler Firepower's enormous torque was a Cadillac three speed 'box. The package was clothed in a simple aluminium barchetta style body. Being very well built and very large, the Cunningham was rather overweight, which made the car very hard on the brakes. This was made even worse by the lack of engine braking by going down the gears compared to other cars fitted with four or five speed 'boxes.
Chrysler modified the Firepower engine to produce around 250 bhp, from the 180 bhp available in stock form. Despite the enormous weight of the car, the C-2Rs proved surprisingly competitive. Three cars were entered livered in white with two blue stripes, the first use of racing stripes ever. Two crashed out, including this car, but the third car held 2nd position when a bearing and valve failure threw it back considerably. It eventually finished in 18th position. Back in North America, Cunningham started to rack up victories with his racers. At the West Palm Beach factory work was started on a new racer for 1952 and a road car, of which the ACO required 25 to be produced to make Cunningham eligible to run as a separate manufacturer.
(thanks to help from Ultimatecarpage)
AS ALWAYS....COMMENTS & INVITATIONS with AWARD BANNERS will be respectfully DELETED!
I was lucky enough to see this on my first day in Venice! Vogalonga is an annual, non-competitive rowing event - “an act of love for Venice and the waters that surround it, for its lagoon and its islands, for rowing and its boats”. Approximately 2,000 rowing boats take part, with no restriction on weight, size, or number of rowers. The 30 km route from the lagoon, between the smaller islands, and with a triumphant finish down the Grand Canal, “celebrates the beauty and tradition of Venice and promotes the use of sustainable boats to protect Venice from wave motion”.
Canon PowerShot SX70 HS
20.3-megapixel CMOS sensor delivers photos with fine detail
Bridgecamera segment!
Competitive price.
Curved grip lets your fingers comfortably and naturally reach the shutter, minimizing potential for shake at long zoom lengths
Keep your image steady
The camera's hand grip has been specially designed to help you operate buttons easily, so you're less likely to introduce hand tremor into the image when you're at high zoom.
The SX70 HS also features intelligent image stabilization that knows how to compensate for specific types of motion.
For example, when shooting stills, the camera's Macro image stabilization mode makes adjustments that keep a close-up sharp and steady, while Panning mode reduces the jumping and jittering that can accompany a wide swing of motion.
#
morning sun
Measured EV - 6.12
MF
Focus Mode - infinity (257)
Manual Exposure
Easy Mode - Manual
Continuous Drive - Single
C1
Canon Exposure Mode - Program AE
F4.5
ISO 100
44 mm
0.25s
Image Stabilization - On (2)
Two trumpeter swans are very excited about taking off! While this appears to be part of a ballet, often it appears as intense competition. It is not uncommon to see the one in the rear squawking loudly at the one in front.
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It is well known that different warblers can inhabit the same ecological niche, and sometimes the same tree. Spend some time in the forest this time of year and even if you never leave one locale, you are likely to encounter more than one species of warbler. This, however, would seem to be an exception to what is known as the “ecological rule of exclusion.” In essence, any two species which inhabit the same ecological niche should not be able to coexist because one will always, eventually, out-compete the other. Close comparative study, however, has demonstrated that although these birds inhabit the same locale, and sometimes even the same tree, they will feed at different portions of the tree. Some birds will feed higher, others will hunt on the interior vs the outer portions of the tree (like this Black-throated Blue feeding at the buds of the tips of branches) and still, others will more commonly hawk insects on the wing. So, by hunting in different areas of the same tree these birds expose themselves to different kinds of food. In essence, the rules of ecology do apply, and perhaps one single tree can represent more than one single biome. #BlackThroatedBlueWarblers
It is late September, spring in NZ and the Pied Stilts are competing strongly, doing leaps in the air often exceeding 5 metres - it seems a competitive action triggered by sex hormones.
Sometimes collisions occur as here when a descending bird landing on top of a competitor that had not leapt as high.
Nikon Z7 with Nikon PF 300mm lens plus 1.4 x TC
Ever want to know more about the horses boarded at Evergarden Equestrian? Well now you'll be able to learn about these equine residents!
-Meet Gritty-
When I interviewed Gritty's owner, she had this to say about this one-of-a-kind horse - "Gritty is a three strikes horse originally from Oregon state. He has a super grouchy disposition as a gelding and prefers the company of mares and younger horses. I do a lot of hacks and flatwork with him generally as it tends to be what he enjoys the most. He also loves competitive endurance rides, and has enjoyed dressage work at an advanced level these days."
She continued on to say, "Western pursuits in the past have been enjoyable with him, but he 100% dislikes jumping. It's part of why I rarely compete in any jumping classes with him" she said with a laugh.
"He's also named after the mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers, my fav hockey team, and Philly is where we originally come from."
Gritty has been boarded at Evergarden Equestrian for a long time, and we're so glad to have him at the facility!
Sabi Sabi Game Reserve
South Africa
A hyena is more physically like a cat than a dog. Unknown to many people, the hyena spends 95% of its time hunting and not scavenging.
The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), also known as the laughing hyena, is a species of hyena, currently classed as the sole member of the genus Crocuta, native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN on account of its widespread range and large numbers estimated between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals. The species is, however, experiencing declines outside of protected areas due to habitat loss and poaching.
The spotted hyena is the most social of the Carnivora in that it has the largest group sizes and most complex social behaviors. Its social organization is unlike that of any other carnivore, bearing closer resemblance to that of cercopithecine primates (baboons and macaques) with respect to group-size, hierarchical structure, and frequency of social interaction among both kin and unrelated group mates.
However, the social system of the spotted hyena is openly competitive rather than cooperative, with access to kills, mating opportunities and the time of dispersal for males depending on the ability to dominate other clan-members. Females provide only for their own cubs rather than assist each other, and males display no paternal care. Spotted hyena society is matriarchal; females are larger than males and dominate them. - Wikipedia.
Autumn is here, winter is coming... It's time to put down the smartphone and start lifting weights. Let's start with 2.8 kg.
Pentax K1 II, HD PENTAX-D FA★ 70-200mm F2.8ED DC AW
Competitive Champion Bodybuilder Damiano from Canada in a dramatically lit pose, captured by Adrian of www.luminouslight.com
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The Corsa 505 program is focused on developing drivers into accomplished racers by competing in the deepest and most competitive fields in the nation.
To that end, the Spec Racer Ford is the most successful purpose built road racing car in the United States, with fields of over 30 cars at regional SCCA races and over 60 cars at the National Championship Runoffs. Additionally the Spec Racer Ford (SRF/SRF3) rules, stipulate that no performance enhancing modifications can be made to the car and thus the success of any racer in this class, is solely based on his or her own skill and nothing else. These attributes make the SRF3 Class the ideal platform for our Driver Development Program.
We are proud to have MBI Racing as our technical partner, providing full service 'arrive and drive' track support and driver coaching.
Located at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, MBI Racing is a full service race shop. The MBI team primarily races Spec Racer Fords (SRF/SRF3) but has considerable knowledge and experience in racing Formula Mazda, Formula Continental, and Formula F. To date, MBI has won thirteen Regional Championships and four National Championships.
Over the years, the Brainerd Sub has been treated as the red-headed stepchild of railfanning. The reasons are understandable: Low and unpredictable train counts, generic power, and basic Northwoods scenery that is easily replicated by other, busier mainlines across the state. However, with Minnesota Power stating its intentions to stop burning coal at the Cohasset plant, and with coal shipments by boat to Michigan in imminent danger, it is likely that, in the not too distant future, road traffic on the Brainerd Sub will be a thing of the past. With other railfan attractions across Minnesota going away, my next objective has become shooting the Brainerd Sub while it still sees daily road traffic. Here is a Cohasset coal train, which is likely to be the last road customer for the Brainerd Sub in a year or two.
As I see plenty of former rail lines across the state having been turned into bike trails, it makes me wonder what the western half of the Brainerd Sub will look like in 15-20 years. Hopefully it's not that.
Aitkin, MN; BNSF Brainerd Sub; 9/27/2025
Beauty and fitness in sports fashion with body builder Sue Le captured by Adrian of www.luminouslight.com
THE RISE OF CYBORG CULTURE OR THE BOMB WAS A CYBORG
Bruce Sterling's science fiction novels portray the cyborg future of humanity. There, centuries from now, humans have divided themselves into competitive factions based on two opposing philosophies: "Mechanism" and "Shaping." The former have designed their own ontogenetic evolution through the cultivation of various technologies, including the prosthetic, mechanical, and especially cybernetic ones. The Shapers rely only on biology, biochemistry, and especially molecular biology (genetics) to "shape" themselves and their own futures, primarily by extending life, sexual potency, and certain biological talents. From back here in their past, we can perceive a certain irony (out of which Sterling makes some nice satiric hay): the two human factions are really twins, seeking a shared posthuman future, though through different means. Both evolve towards artificially constructed beings who rely merely on two different arrangements of cyborg techniques to distinguish themselves from each other. The Shapers may well pride themselves on their eugencially-selected intelligence and despise the artificial computer implants and enhancements of their Mechanist doppelgangers. Yet, as one of the Mechanist spokesmen notes, "[The Shapers] might properly be defined as industrial artifacts."[1] The Mechanists may well use software implants and direct linking to computers to enhance their faculties, and abhor the messy fecundity and (what they view as "corruption") of Shaper life, but there is no denying that their mechanical prostheses change biological facts.
In one particular epoch of Sterling's future history (which he plays out over several works of fiction), this galaxial civilization is in its decadence, verging on the apocalyptic, dangerously close to achieving a critical mass or catastrophic fluctuation that will force it to "leap to a new order of complexity" (in terms Sterling borrows from chaos theory).[2] This new order will be the Post/pp. 5-6/ human. The speeches of many characters refer to this yearned-for future; they chide each other with gibes like, "Oh, show a little Posthuman fluidity." Sterling's hero in "The Cicada Queen" foresees the shape of the posthuman in "The Lobsters," humans who have already gone over to the far side of this utopian vision. The Lobsters have "shucked their humanity like a caul," combining some Shaper bioengineering with Mechanist tech to encase themselves in completely cyberneticized shells, after altering their biology to ensure they can survive.
The Lobsters hooked into fluidic computers or sheltered themselves from solar storms and ring-system electrofluxes.
They never ate. They never drank. Sex involved a clever cyber-stimulation through cranial plugs. Every five years or so they `molted' and had their skins scraped clean of the stinking accumulation of mutated bacteria that scummed them over in the stagnant warmth [of their suits].
They knew no fear… They were self-contained and anarchical. Their greatest pleasure was to sit along a girder [on a space station] and open their amplified senses to the depths of space, watching stars past the limits of ultraviolet and infrared…
There was nothing evil about them, but they were not human. As distant and icy as comets, they were creatures of the vacuum, bored with the outmoded paradigms of blood and bone. I saw within them the first stirrings of the Fifth Prigoginic Leap… as far beyond intel-/pp. 6-7/ ligence as intelligence is from amoebic life or life from inert matter. ("Cicada Queen" 77)
I find this description of one of humanity's possible futures compelling, not so much because it is attractive (which it is in some zoned-out fashion) but simply because it seems plausible. This image of the cyborg and others, also more or less plausible, have now come to dominate our postmodern landscape, expressed in literature, film, and the arts, giving rise to rich expressions too broad and numerous to catalog here.
Today, from a vantage point after the Cold War is purportedly over, it is easier to see the outline of cyborg epistemology as it grows out of seeds engineered in World War II and blossoms in Cold War culture. - From this advantageous perspective in 1993, the contest among nations and ideologies that was World War II masked an even more important war between opposing cognitive faiths, with a definite victory for cybernetic fundamentalism. In short, to understand how and why the cyborg has achieved such predominance in the 1990s, such mythological force, we must re-read World War II and the Cold War. In this paper, I hope to show how the Mechanists, the Shapers, and the Lobsters of Sterling's imagination came to be thinkable -- if not inevitable -- versions of the posthuman because of the technologies and epistemologies that won World War II.
The "Atomic Age" vs. the "Cybernetic Age": The Bomb was a Cyborg
What would happen if you asked most contemporary commentators of the period of the late 1940s and the early 1950s: What is the single most important feature of your cultural and political landscape? or, What is the largest threat to civilization? They would undoubtedly reply to both questions, "The Bomb." It is a cliché to say that what determined the politics, much of the imaginative culture, some of the nihilistic philosophy, and certainly the Byzantine dance between the superpowers USSR and /pp. 7-8/ USA, was the threat of detonating the apocalyptic, doomsday device known first as the Atomic Bomb and later as the Nuclear Bomb. This was so true that it is also a cliché to call the Cold War Era the Atomic Age, sometimes striking an upbeat note, ringing within it the gleaming promise of a utopian future, but more often echoing something bleak and foreboding. Certainly, the popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s reflected darker images in hundreds of novels and movies about atomic bombs, monsters created by nuclear fallout, like Godzilla, and parables about post-Nuclear apocalyptic worlds like "On the Beach" and "FailSafe."
I would argue, however, that the politics of the atomic bomb and nuclear weaponry is really a small subset of a much more profound and important movement, one that is now beginning to express itself in its full-blooded manifestation. Furthermore, this movement was at its core an epistemological revolution. Why does the atomic bomb fade as an icon in the 1980s and 1990s, even while nuclear weapons stockpiles increase and proliferate, to be replaced by the computer, the AI, the robot, the cyborg as the most important icon of our generation? The answer, again, is epistemological: the Atomic Bomb was a very explosive technological device, but as such was merely a symptom or manifestation of the very same epistemology that is more fundamentally represented by the cyborg.
David Porush
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
from : pum.umontreal.ca
Competitive fitness champ Sue Le at the Toronto beach area from summer of 2019.
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Please take your time... and enjoy it large on black
The Netherlands is a small country of 16 million people, but it boasts a quarter of a million competitive speedskaters, and millions more who skate for fun. What's the story? Natural ice in the Netherlands is a rare occurrence. In fact, some winters there's no natural ice at all. Maybe that explains why the Dutch love to skate outdoors. They hardly ever get the chance! But when a cold wave hits, and the interconnected maze of canals, rivers and lakes freeze over, it's a spontaneous celebration, a national holiday. Today same as last year we could ice skating on the Gouwsea. Ice skating can be done from Monnickendam to Marken and from Marken to Volendam. Infinite sea of ice is perfect for ice skating journeys. Besides ice skating Dutch also love Ice yachting. This is the sport of sailing and racing iceboats and is very popular in the Netherlands. Ice boats are racing at a speed of 100 km an hour over the ice of the Gouwsea.
Photo taken of Ice yachting on the Gouwsea at Marken. A get together of ice sailors at Marken. A historical moment since crossing the Gouwsea by skates is such a rare occurrence. Crossing this Gouwzee was last possible in 2009 and 1996. Today 13 February 2010, I skate from Monnickendam - Marken - Volendam and back to Monnickendam a round-trip of 16km, such a beautiful sea of ice to enjoy. For the ice-yacht sailors it's always a race who will cross the Gouwsea first to Marken. When the first Ice-boats tested and crossed the Gouwsea the skaters will follow soon.
Op 13 februari 2010 een schaatstocht gemaakt rond de Gouwzee van Monnickendam - Volendam - Marken - Monnickendam. Een prachtige ronde van zo'n 16km met top ijs. Tot mijn verbazing was de Gouwzee helemaal dichtbevroren, dit is laatst in 2009 en 1996 gebeurd. Dus alweer een historische ijstocht gemaakt. Een groot ijsoppervlakte tussen Monnickendam en Marken met prima ijs. Een oneindig mooi gezicht op deze ijszee anno 2010. Het was genieten. Jong en oud staan op het ijs, zelfs koek en zopie is present in de haven van Monnickendam, Marken en Volendam. Ook zijn er weer ijszeilers te zien. Met spectaculaire snelheden van wel 80 tot 100 kilometer per uur razen ze over bevroren meren en plassen: ijszeilers hebben deze dagen de tijd van hun leven. In elke ijszeiler schuilt een pionier die nieuw terrein wil ontginnen. Wie steekt er als eerste over naar Marken? Wakduikers heten de onfortuinlijken die in een overmoedige bui te ver gingen en met behulp van collega's uit het wak gehaald moesten worden. Het mag de pret niet drukken. IJszeilen is een gezamenlijke gekte, een collectieve spanning die vanwege de natuurlijke elementen zo bijzonder is. Op pure windkracht zeilen over de eindeloze ijsvlakte, geruisloos en snoeihard. De ijszeilers steken altijd het eerst de Gouwzee over. Is het veilig dan kunnen de schaatsers makkelijk volgen.
In January 2001, London route 185 was won under competitive tendering by Durham Travel Services T/A 'London Easylink'. This operator was, to put it politely, a cowboy. It all fell apart (including arrests I believe!) in August 2002. Blue Triangle hastily stepped in and arranged an emergency service, using anyone who had spare buses. This was what it looked like shortly afterwards at the end of August.
This Metrobus Olympian had just arrived at Victoria. The driver had already changed the destination ready for the return trip. At least it said Lewisham, even if the intermediate points were wrong!