Solar panels situated at the project site in Pira Kalwal and Wadgal Village, Joharabad, Khushab District, Pakistan on Wednesday, 30 May 2018. The hybrid solar-wind project is the only source of electricity in the area and provides residents better living standards and convenience.

The Solar Photovoltaic–Small-Wind Hybrid Power System Subproject is part of the Effective Deployment of Distributed Small Wind Power Systems Project that supports multiple development purposes in remote windy rural areas.

Photo: Nasr ur Rahman

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Pakistan

Energy

Effective Deployment of Distributed Small Wind Power Systems

Shot by "The Daredevil" at the 2007 SEMA show

Operator Gul Zaman Khan taking readings from inverter panels at the project site in Pira Kalwal and Wadgal Village, Joharabad, Khushab District, Pakistan on Wednesday, 30 May 2018. The hybrid solar-wind project is the only source of electricity in the area and provides residents better living standards and convenience.

The Solar Photovoltaic–Small-Wind Hybrid Power System Subproject is part of the Effective Deployment of Distributed Small Wind Power Systems Project that supports multiple development purposes in remote windy rural areas.

Photo: Nasr ur Rahman

Read more on:

Pakistan

Energy

Effective Deployment of Distributed Small Wind Power Systems

Title: April 2011 marked the 60th Anniversary of the Gideons International in St. Thomas, as well as the 100th Anniversary of the Gideons International establishment in Canada. In this September 1973 photograph, Harold Phillips, left, representing the St. Thomas camp of the Gideons International and Dr. Harry Rodney stand beside a display of bibles to be distributed free to Elgin schools west of Aylmer. The 900 Youth Testaments were to be given to Grade 5 pupils, and the 320 Gideon Bibles were to be used in schools as class sets.

Creator(s): St. Thomas Times-Journal

Bygone Days Publication Date: May 3, 2011

Original Publication Date: September 17, 1973

Reference No.: C8 Sh5 B3 F10 3

Credit: Elgin County Archives, St. Thomas Times-Journal fonds

Can not forgive their attitude.

I sent them a letter.

Dear Members of the Open Newspaper Committee,

I have learned that Mainichi Newspaper has been distributing unreliable gossip articles mostly including sexual non-true "Japanese customs" through the world wide web for more than 7 years.

I have seen some of the articles and it is way beyond awful, which makes the people around the world misunderstand Japan and the Japanese and it is insulting.

I do feel a lot of anger towards these acts and I do not think the current measures taken by Mainichi is enough to only suspend the reporter for 3 months , and some tiny salary cut (0.83% of annual salary) for the General Manager and Managing Director.

The term "Manage" is to manage the whole web site and it was obvious that it was very wrongly managed.

I have learned that Mainichi has put some "meta keywords" or "tags" for the readers to let find the waiwai site easily, to my shock, the keywords included words like "hentai", "geisha", "sex", and more, which Mainichi have deleted already, and to my knowledge have not disclosed to the public the fact that these keywords were written in Mainichi web site and Mainichi have deleted this secretly.

Mainichi even tagged the word "hentai" to the articles related to the Emperors family, when the Constitutions say the Emperor is the symbol for Japan, I assume Mainichi is insulting the whole country, Japan.

I have read that the rape crime against Japanese women has been increasing since 2001 when waiwai started their vulgar articles.

The following is another article based on Mainichi's report.

This might cause war between Japan and Ecuador, Belarus or Kenya, it certainly would not please the people in these countries and it is a threat to the peace of this globe.

”

mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/archive/news/2003/07/200307...

Outbound travel has been hit hard this year by such factors as the war on Iraq and the SARS outbreak, but plenty of Japanese have headed overseas on underground tours involving sex, slavery and savagery, according to Tokusatsu Shinsengumi.

For Japanese men sick of plying professionals, there are always the rape brokers of Vietnam - touts who'll apparently drag a woman off the streets so a Japanese man can violate her.

In Ecuador, Japanese can, according to the men's weekly, hunt for children in a different manner as they are armed with a rifle and permitted to track down a youth let loose in the jungle. About 10 Japanese have so far taken part in the tours, with only three getting a shot off at their target and no fatalities reported.

Japanese are tapping into the underground in European countries, too. Belarus attracts a monthly gathering of people from all over the world for its sickening slave auctions.

"Customers are looking for something different these days, right? Eastern Europeans or South Americans just aren't good enough any more. So, I decided to get myself some black women. A coordinator I know told me about the slave auctions in Africa and asked if I was interested in taking part. The coordinator's job is to bring foreign women to Japan. He said he was going to the auction again. I thought it looked interesting, so decided to tag along with him," the operator of an Osaka bordello tells Tokusatsu Shinsengumi. "It was held in Kenya. They brought out over a dozen young men and women and lined 'em all up in front of us like they were products. I asked who they were and was told they were all people badly in debt. Just looking at what was going on, I couldn't possibly buy anybody. I came home empty handed, but I've heard of sex businesses in Japan that use slaves. If they ever got picked up, there'd be an almighty uproar.""

I strongly suggest that Mainichi will have statement to "review and correct" these articles and not just deleting them but display and distribute such correction for more than the period that these crazy articles have been in place, more than 7 years.

I will blog this around the world until Mainichi would respond in a serious and sincere way to the public in English and Japanese language, not to me.

The fact that Mainichi has mislead the world, instead of spreading the truth which is a special role for journalists, is a huge mistake and Mainichi will have to "reborn" and take these back from the world in every possible way that they can.

I do have another concern that the Members of the committee is consisted of pro-Mainichi people, but my hope is that the Members would seek for the truth and act like a real journalist, for the only way that Mainichi would survive.

Not hide what was wrong but disclose, review and correct.

Lastly let me add that the Japanese Mainichi site includes far the most sexual articles among the Japanese newspapers, Asahi, Yomiuri, Nikkei and Mainichi, and this Japanese site including these sexual articles are easily "linked" from the "Mainichi Elementary School Newspaper"site.

Again please do not "delete and hide" but "review, apologize and correct" the situation there as well.

Thank you for paying attention to my sincere e-mail letter.

Best regards,

Reader of Mainichi Newspaper

Westchester County Executive George Latimer helps to distribute food to people in need of food assistance during the coronavirus pandemic as apart the Nourish New York event at the Feeding Westchester distribution center in Elmsford, NY, May 28, 2020. The event is part of Governor Andrew Cuomo's Nourish New York initiative, which provides $25 million for food banks across the state to procure products produced in New York. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Pietrantoni)

The People’s Garden Initiative and volunteer Executive Master Gardeners distributed ‘Abraham Lincoln” Tomato seedlings that the People’s Garden Initiative is distributing to USDA employees in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 in Washington, D.C., on this day, 150 years ago, President Abraham signed the Department into existence during the Civil War. Cow manure-fiber based seed starter pots are safe to touch and have had all weeds, pathogens and odor removed, and will be planted with the seedling. The roots will grow through the sides as it degrades and releases nitrogen into the soil, helping the plant. When this seedling grows to more than a foot tall, it is important to bury the entire pot so that the edges do not wick moisture away from the roots and into the air. In 1923 the H.W. Buckbee seed company of Rockford, Illinois introduced an heirloom variety named in honor of Illinois’ Greatest Son – Abraham Lincoln. The plant produces large beefsteak tomatoes in about 90 days. Volunteer Executive Master Gardeners planted and cultivated more that 3,000 seedlings ranging in size from one inch to more than a foot tall, so people could choose the best ones to transport home and to stagger the harvest by selecting a small and large seedling. One of the hopes of this event is to share the joys of gardening and harvesting, as well as the opportunity to share your harvest in your community. Seed packets are being distributed to People’s Gardens worldwide. For more information see: blogs.usda.gov/2012/05/15/lincoln%E2%80%99s-legacy-ripe-f... USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

A single locomotive running in distributed power mode is in the middle of Canadian Pacific Railway freight train 281 as it rolls west along the Wisconsin River approaching Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, on the evening of June 21, 2020.

#OnceUponATime

In spring 2013 I organized #SpaceBembel, a #SpaceSocial where a group of #SpaceTweeps got together again to share some space fun in Frankfurt.

As one of my mottos is "no #SpaceTweetup without a proper badge" I designed one and distributed it to all participants.

What I had started back then became kind of a tradition in the meantime:

Inspired by several #Space- and #ScienceTweetups I painted logos for every event I attended,

got them printed on badges for all, as well as thank-you posters, t-shirts, etc. as memento of our shared adventures.

And 2013 has been quite a ride :-)

#SpaceBembel *

#ASE26 *

#BuraMooN 1 & 2 * #SpaceKoelschX * #CERNTweetup * #ItIsStonehengeReunionOClock * #ScienceTweetup

And 2014 is also amazing already:

I already created designs for #SpaceFestVI and #AlexTweetup taking place in May

and @SpaceUpUK in July 2014.

I am very much looking forward to sharing these events with so many friends from all over the world.

More to come ;-)

www.flickr.com/photos/spaceholix/collections/721576354819...

So #AlexTweetup is about our trip to Baikonur shared by 16 dedicated #SpaceTweeps and two #SpaceMascots named #PinkLittleDragon and @CamillaSpace.

All of us will share this unique adventure of witnessing the Soyuz launch of our German astronaut Alexander Gerst ( #FF @Astro_Alex ) to #ISS on 28. May 2014 via Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels.

Here is the collection of my brainstorming and the design process as well as many pictures of the past 5 years, from the day at #TdLR09, where we "met" Alexander Gerst and the other #shenanigans for the very first (but not the last) time, shortly after their assignments for a trip to #ISS.

Oh yes, there was a time before twitter and other social media ;-)

www.flickr.com/photos/spaceholix/sets/72157644182872632/

My latest design features the #NebraSkydisk - one of the most beautiful and most fascinating archeological and astronomical artefacts ever found - until today.

This is the oldest-known illustration of our cosmos so far, with an estimated age of 3600 years (!!!), the earliest known diagram of the heavens, which makes it one or may be THE most important archaeological discovery of the twenty-first century.

It was discovered by treasure hunters on July 4th 1999 near the city of Nebra in Germany and since then fascinates not only the experts as its history is really exciting from then till now.

www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a45jq_the-nebra-sky-disc-anci...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disk

www.bibliotecapleyades.net/arqueologia/nebra_disk.htm

I fell in love with this beauty as soon as I saw it the very first time several years ago.

And I always wanted to paint it one day!

So what better match could there be than combining this masterpiece -created by stargazers thousands of years ago, who loved observing (and already started understanding) our night sky- with two fantastic #SpaceEvents in May 2014.

#SpaceFestVI in Pasadena ( www.spacefest.info/VI/brochure.html ), THE #SpaceEvent of the year, where many astronauts of the dawning of space exploration did reunite and inspire all of us

and then -end of May- our #AlexTweetup - where we celebrate the launch of @esa astronaut Alexander Gerst, whose mission name is #TheBlueDot (!!!).

Both events bring people together (again), who travel all around the world to share their love of space and our beautiful blue marble …

And I am really honored that sharing my badges and designs with so many #SpaceTweeps AND astronauts of the very first era of space exploration until today made so many people smile again. And these smiles seem to be contagious ;-D

I cannot really explain it, there simply is this very special close link between us.

NOTE:

#NebraSkyDisk is under the copyright of the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt

- Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte -

www.lda-lsa.de/en/nebra_sky_disc/

As my design project is an artistic realization for two private travel groups, I was kindly given official permission to integrate the #NebraSkydisk in my artworks here.

Hence I have to emphasize that my artwork may ONLY be shared as per following license:

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/de/

I herewith explicitly send my thanks to the

STATE OFFICE FOR HERITAGE MANAGEMENT AND ARCHAEOLOGY

- THE STATE MUSEUM OF PREHISTORY IN HALLE / GERMANY -

and - as asked for - I will gladly send pictures of my design as well as badges and photos of #SpaceFestVI in Pasadena and #AlexTweetup in Baikonur to the Museum for its collection / exhibition.

It is my pleasure to share the #NebraSkydisk far beyond the borders of Germany - especially during events, which only can take place, because some people started documenting their night-sky-observations thousands of years ago.

#SpaceholixThenAndNow ;-)

Covered below is an overview of all the details embodied in my #AlexTweetup mission logo

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#AlexTweetup

- Facebook group for all #SpaceTweeps interested in the trip to the launch of Alexander Gerst on 28. May 2014

www.facebook.com/groups/AlexanderTweetup/

Baikonur * May 26th - 30th 2014

- Travel period for #AlexTweetup in Baikonur

www.dlr.de/dlr/presse/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10308/471...

BLUE DOT

- Mission name of Alexander Gerst

blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/

XL

- Mission no. 40 - in roman numerals

THEN + NOW

- Connection between space exploration THEN #NebraSkydisk (dated about 3.600 years ago in Germany) and NOW (#BlueDot mission of German astronaut Alexander Gerst)

WISEMAN * GERST * SURAJEW

- names of the international crew of mission no. 40

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_40

SHAPING THE FUTURE ...

Mission theme of Alexander Gerst's mission #BlueDot

www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Astronauts/A...

... IN LEO

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit

- Abbreviation LEO #LowEarthOrbit - the home of #ISS

CONSTELLATIONS:

LEO

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_(constellation)

- reflecting LowEarthOrbit - the orbit of #ISS

DRACO

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(constellation)

- representing #DRAGON - the partially reusable spacecraft developed by @SpaceX, which has docked to #ISS already several times and will deliver cargo regularly.

We enjoyed seeing the capsule used during the maiden flight in Florida at SpaceX Launch Control Center during an event before the #NASATweetup for #STS135

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(rocket_engine)

- also representing #PinkLittleDragon - the travel buddy of #The2AndAHalfSpaceTweeps @LightspeedLeo @4tuneQkie and @travelholic ( avoving @Spaceholix ) and our #SpaceMascot.

This #VIP #VeryInspiringPinkLittleDragon is traveling all around the world with us and he already has attended several great #SpaceTweetup and #ScienceTweetup events organized by @NASA @DLR_de @ESA @CERN @Helmholtz_de as well as #ASE26 #SpaceFestV and #SpaceFestVI

and he has already met many of the most inspiring #SpaceExplorers and #Astronauts from the #Mercury and #Apollo era - till today, as well as #scientists @MeteoriteMen #CometHunters ...

SWAN

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus

- representing the footprint / autograph of our dear friend and great #SpaceMascot and #VIP #VeryIntelligentPoultry:

@CamillaSpace is encouraging not only children of all ages to ask questions about the Sun and space and she was planned to be part of this mission accompanying NASA astronaut @astro_reid on his trip to #ISS.

Her footprint is heading from the Swiss flag (home country of Camilla's "executive secretary" Romeo Durscher ( about.me/romeoch ) to the US flag via #ISS

about.me/camillacorona

www.wired.com/2012/11/camilla-nasa-rubber-chicken/

XXVIII

V

MMXIV

- 28. 05. 2014 = launch date of mission 40 in roman numerals stylised in shape of ISS

* “ @ “ AND “ # “

- reflecting the tools of the peer-to-peer connection of astronauts @Astro_Alex and @astro_reid and many others with #SpaceTweeps and future space enthusiasts, who will further spread news about the adventures all around the world via social media channels, e.g. @twitter, Facebook, Google+ and others.

16 FLAGS

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/par...

- representing all current international partners and participants cooperating on #ISS – the most ambitious international collaboration ever

which -in my eyes- really would be worthy of the nobel peace prize www.spacesafetymagazine.com/iss-nobel-peace-prize/

Between the flags I left additional room for more countries to join that global project in the near future.

Especially in difficult political times like today this cooperation hopefully will enable our world to grow together more closely step by step.

Now we are looking forward to this trip and are curious how everything will work out.

This definitely is a very adventurous trip and if someone had told me 5 years ago, when we met that guy in blue for the very first time that we would be going to KAZAKHSTAN half a decade later to see HIS launch, I would NEVER EVER have believed it.

It seems our lives as #Spaceholix have many surprises in store for us ;-)

If YOU want to know more about all this, just follow the hashtag of our group:

#AlexTweetup

;-)

Asha worker Shamwati Lodha (R) distributes mid-day meal at the Anganwadi centre in village Hilgna, district Guna in Madhya Pradesh. Despite being rich in natural resources like diamonds, Madhya Pradesh is more infamous for its poverty. It is home to around 50 million people who defecate in the open air without latrines (around 70% of its 72 million people). These people consequently do not have adequate hygiene, without soap and enough water to wash their hands after defecating. About 5% of the global total of open defecators can be found in this one Indian state alone. Madhya Pradesh is also home to some of the most undernourished children in India with 50% of under threeÕs suffering from stunting (chronic malnutrition), an indicator of long-term persistent nutrition deprivation that lead to poor physical growth and brain development in children with tragic implications for child survival, growth and development. As much as 50% of malnutrition is caused not by a lack of food or poor diets, but due to poor water, poor sanitation facilities and unhygienic practices - like not washing hands properly with soap. 2.5 billion cases of diarrhoea in children under-five are recorded worldwide every year , and in India diarrhoea caused 2,12,000 child deaths in 2010 alone. Moreover, many people do not recognise diarrhoea as a problem; because it is so recurrent it is thought to be normal, and they do not seek help. These numbers are therefore likely to be under reported. UNICEF India/ 2013/ Romana...

.

UK aid funded shelter kits are distributed on Guintacan Island in the Philippines. These shelter kits were transported by HMS Daring, which continues to provide assistance and the delivery of aid to remote islands. So far the crew have distributed two hundred shelter kits, two hundred high energy biscuits and repaired a school roof.

For the latest updates on how the UK is responding to Typhoon Haiyan, please visit www.gov.uk/government/news/typhoon-haiyan-latest-updates-...

Picture: Simon Davis/DFID

In the folklore and legends of the Netherlands and Belgium, Zwarte Piet ( pronunciation (help·info)) (meaning Black Pete) is a companion of Saint Nicholas (Dutch: Sinterklaas) whose yearly feast in the Netherlands is usually celebrated on the evening of 5 December (Sinterklaas-avond, that is, St. Nicholas Eve) and 6 December in Belgium, when they distribute sweets and presents to all good children.

The characters of Zwarte Pieten appear only in the weeks before Saint Nicholas's feast, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (generally by boat, having traveled from Madrid, Spain). The tasks of the Zwarte Pieten are mostly to amuse children, and to scatter pepernoten, Kruidnoten and "strooigoed" (special sinterklaas-candies) for those who come to meet the saint as he visits stores, schools, and other places.

The original Zwarte Piet is sometimes associated with Knecht Ruprecht, but in the Low Countries the tradition has not merged with Christmas.

History

1845: Jan Schenkman writes Saint Nicholas and his Servant; Piet is described in this book as a page, and is depicted as a dark man wearing clothes associated with a moor. Steamboat travel becomes part of the mythos from this point. In the 1850 version of Schenkman's book, they are depicted looking much as they do today. In later editions Piet was shown in the page costume, the book stayed (with some changes) in print until 1950 and can be seen as the foundation of the current celebration, even though it did use a lot of older ideas and customs.[1]

1891: in the book Het Feest van Sinterklaas the servant is named Pieter, until 1920 there were several books giving him other names, and in live appearances the name and looks still varied considerably.

In the early 20th century the Civilized Standard Celebration for children, with Zwarte Piet as the standard personal servant of the saint, spread throughout the country. In the 1930s urban adults become more involved too and the arrival of Saint Nicholas and his Zwarte Pieten are staged, which more or less explains the shift from the 6th to the 5th of December, as the adults would celebrate on the eve of the saint's day.

During the 20th century, the number of Sinterklaas' servants multiplied. This paradigm shift opened possibilities to create (for TV and such) lots of different characters being a "Zwarte Piet" at the same time. For example, there's a "Hoofd Piet" (Head Piet) who carries the book of Sinterklaas, "Rijm Piet" (Rhyme Piet), et cetera. Especially during the televised yearly event, when Sinterklaas arrives by boat he is often assisted by dozens of Piets.

The Dutch now celebrate Sinterklaas (5 December) with an exchange of gifts. These presents are given anonymously, but are often accompanied by poems (Sinterklaasgedicht), signed by "Zwarte Piet" or "Sint", which are read aloud during Sinterklaas evening for the enjoyment of the ones assembled. The poems often are teasing in nature.

[edit]Origin and evolution

The first origin of Sinterklaas and his helpers can probably found in the Wild Hunt of Wodan Riding the white horse Sleipnir he flew through the air as the leader of the Wild Hunt. He was always accompanied by two black ravens, Huginn and Muninn. [2] Those helpers would listen, just like Zwarte Piet, at the chimney - which was just a hole in the roof at that time - to tell Wodan about the good and bad behaviours of the mortals.[3] During the Christianization, Pope Gregory I argued that conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the traditions were in honour of the Christian God. Saint Nicolas tradition is one of them, converting Wodan to a Christian counterpart.[4]

According to myths dating to the beginning of the 19th century, Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) operated by himself or in the companionship of a devil. Having triumphed over evil, it was said that on Saint Nicholas Eve, the devil was shackled and made his slave. A devil as a helper of the Saint can also still be found in Austrian Saint Nicholas tradition in the character of Krampus.

Some sources indicate that in Germanic Europe, Zwarte Piet originally was such a mastered devil forced to assist his captor, but the character emerged in the 19th century within the Netherlands as a companion of Saint Nicholas resembling a Moor.[5] Saint Nicholas is said to come from Turkey. The relation of Zwarte Piet with Haji Firuz is notably close, Haji Firuz is a traditional herald of Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebration, exactly black in the face and comes with Amoo Norooz a white bearded old man who brings gifts for the children counterpart of Western Santa.

The introduction of this new Zwarte Piet was paired with a change in the attitude of the Sinterklaas character that was often shown as being quite rough against bad children himself and thought unbefitting of a Bishop by teachers and priests. Soon after the introduction of Zwarte Piet as Sinterklaas' helper, both characters adapted to a softer character.[6]

Still, the lyrics of older traditional Sinterklaas songs warn that while Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Pieten will leave well-behaved children presents, they will punish those who have been very naughty. For example they will take bad children and carry these children off in a burlap sack to their homeland of Spain, where, according to legend, Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Pieten dwell out of season. These songs and stories also warned that a child who has been only slightly naughty will not get a present, but a "roe", which is a bundle of birch twigs, (as a warning they could have gotten a birching instead) or will simply receive a lump of coal instead of gifts.

Until the second half of the 20th century, Saint Nicholas' helper was not too bright, in line with the old colonial traditions. Once immigration started from the former colonised countries Zwarte Piet became a much more respected assistant of Saint Nicholas, who is often a bit inattentive, but playfull.[7]

According to the more modern Saint Nicholas legend, a Zwarte Piet is a servant who accompanies Saint Nicholas on his holiday travels. In some versions, Saint Nicholas is said to have liberated a young slave named Peter, who decided to serve Nicholas. Zwarte Piet is today commonly depicted as a black person in the colorful pantaloons, feathered cap and ruffles of a Renaissance European page, a tradition that started based on a single illustration in a book published in 1850.

Zwarte Pieten are often portrayed as mischievous but rarely mean-spirited characters. The character is believed to have been derived from pagan traditions of evil spirits. Also told for decades is a story that the Zwarte Pieten are black because of chimney soot and/or in mockery of the darker Spanish occupiers of the Low Countries in centuries past.

[edit]Current affairs

Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet.

During recent years the role of Zwarte Pieten has become part of a recurring debate in the Netherlands. Controversial practices include holiday revellers blackening their faces and wearing afro wigs, gold jewelry and bright red lipstick,[8] and walking the streets throwing candy to passers-by.

Foreign tourists, particularly those from the United States and Britain[citation needed], often experience culture shock when encountering the character, as dressing in blackface is considered offensive in these and other countries. Since the 1990s, there have been several attempts to introduce a new kind of Zwarte Piet to the Dutch public, among them replacing traditional black makeup with various other shades of colors.[9] As an experiment in 2006, the NPS (en: Dutch Programme Foundation) replaced the black Pieten with rainbow-colored Pieten but reverted the characters back to the traditional all-black makeup a year later.[10]

The tradition continues to be popular in the Netherlands but some activists have protested against it. Four people wearing t-shirts with the words "Zwarte Piet is Racist" were arrested during the second weekend of November 2011.[11]

The largest Sinterklaas celebration in Western Canada, slated for December 3rd, 2011 in New Westminster, British Columbia, was cancelled for the first time since its inception in 1985 following a debate over the inclusion of Zwarte Piet. Rather than remove the character, the organizers cancelled the festivities entirely because, as spokesperson Tako Slump of the organization said: [12]

"We got a lot of replies back from our customers in the Dutch community. It became pretty clear to us that we love Sinterklaas and we can't have it without Black Peter. Those two go together."

In 2011, legislators in the former Dutch colony of Suriname stated that government-sanctioned celebrations involving Zwarte Piet were considered an insult to the "black part of Suriname's community."[13] Efforts have begun in the Republic to prevent future governmental promotions of the character.

Source: Wikipedia

You have to be patient to capture a train in your camera's viewfinder, but it's pretty much a sure thing to happen at Harpers Ferry. I believe there were maybe 4 or 5 trains that went through here during my couple hours there that day. This train I just barely captured, as I was not close to the rails when I heard it coming. I got back to the station just in time to capture this Distributed Power Unit (DPU) that serves as extra mover power in the middle of a lengthy and/or heavy train.

The Postcard

A postally unused Valentine's Series postcard that was distributed by the United Art Co. of Boston, Massachusetts. The card, which was printed in the United States, has a divided back.

Lexington, Massachusetts

Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census.

The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was first settled by Europeans in 1641 as a farming community.

Lexington is known as the site of the first shots of the American Revolutionary War, where the "Shot heard 'round the world" took place. It is home to the Minute Man National Historical Park.

The Battle of Lexington

On the 19th. April 1775, the first battle of the American Revolutionary War was the Battle at Lexington. On the night of the 18th. April, the British Army sent out 800 grenadiers and light infantry soldiers on foot from Boston, with the intention of destroying Colonial gunpowder and cannons that were being stored in Concord.

The expedition was also intended to capture two leaders of the Sons of Liberty, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were staying in Lexington.

However Hancock and Adams were warned of the danger by two alarm riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes, who alerted the countryside to the British movements.

When the British soldiers arrived on the Lexington Common not long after sunrise, they faced 77 men of the Lexington militia, commanded by Captain John Parker.

Someone—still unknown to this day—fired a shot, provoking an exchange of musket fire between the two sides. Eight Lexington militia men were killed, and dozens more were wounded.

After the rout, the British marched on toward Concord. There, several hundred militia and minutemen from nearby towns assembled near the Old North Bridge to turn back the British and prevent them from capturing and destroying the Colony's stores of gunpowder and military equipment.

A minuteman was a member of a class of militiamen of the American revolutionary period who volunteered to be ready for service at a minute's notice.

One of Parker's company, many years later, recalled Parker's order at Lexington Green to have been:

"Stand your ground. Don't fire unless

fired upon, but if they mean to have

a war, let it begin here."

Paul Revere recalled Parker's command as having been:

"Let the soldiers pass by.

Do not molest them without

they begin first".

During the skirmish John Parker witnessed his cousin Jonas Parker killed by a British bayonet. Later that day he rallied his men to attack the regulars returning to Boston in an ambush known as "Parker's Revenge".

John Parker, who was born on the 13th. July 1729, died of tuberculosis on the 17th. September 1775. He was only 46 years of age when he died.

Today, the town of Lexington annually commemorates the battle on the Battle Green in the Downtown with a re-enactment, as part of its Patriots Day festivities.

The Statue

The statue in the photograph represents Captain John Parker. It was sculpted by Henry Hudson Kitson, and erected in 1900.

This statue in Lexington, Massachusetts is commonly called "The Lexington Minuteman." It is often confused with the Daniel Chester French statue The Minute Man in nearby Concord.

The Lexington Minuteman was originally meant to represent the common Minuteman, but has now become accepted as symbolizing Parker. It stands at the town green of Lexington, Massachusetts.

It was not based on Parker's appearance, as no known likenesses of him survive today, and the figure is of a younger, healthy man which Parker at that point was not.

One description of Parker was:

"A stout, large framed man, of medium

height, somewhat like his illustrious

grandson, Theodore Parker, in personal

appearance, but he had a much longer

face."

1 Service Battalion (1 SVC BN) members distribute essential supplies like food, water, fuel and other necessities during a distribution point during Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 2021 at 3rd Canadian Division Support Base (3 CDSB) Garrison Wainwright, May 2, 2021.

From May 1 to 11, 2021, about 2500 Canadian Armed Forces members are participating in Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21 in Wainwright, AB. As the premier annual Canadian Army field training event, Ex MAPLE RESOLVE tests soldier’s abilities within a realistic, complex and challenging environment.

Du 1er au 11 mai 2021, environ 2 500 membres des forces armées canadiennes participent à l’exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21 à Wainwright, en Alberta. Ent ant que principal événement d’entraînment annuel sur la terrain de l’Armée canadienne, l’exercise MAPLE RESOLVE teste les capacités des soldats dans un environnement de combat réaliste, complexe et stimulant.

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Photo: Corporal Doug Burke, CAF Photo - Visual Communications Support / OPTIC

Miserable conditions greeted 2309D as it leads 2346D 2315D further back into the consist with a distributed power coalie through Lanefield

SM18 - Fintech1 - Distributed Ledger Technology

Distributing prizes and awards to winners at the annual function of ECB.

Invited to deliver talks at Rajasthan’s largest and most prestigious engineering college which is spread across 337 acres: the Engineering College of Bikaner (ECB) www.ecb.ac.in/.

ECB has around 6,000 students enrolled on its campus, out of which around 2,500 alone are in IT and Computer Science courses.

Delivered two talks on Linux and Free & Open Source Software (FOSS): ‘How to Avoid the Axe Effect’; and ‘How to Make a Dent in the Universe’. The talks were delivered at the ‘FOSS GN09 event’ which was cleverly dove-tailed with the college’s yearly techfest mega-event, called ‘Sakshama’. An ancient Sanskrit word, ‘Sakshama’ means ‘skilled; competent; adept’. The 2009 incarnation of the event, held from 28th to 31st October, was called ‘Sakshama GN09’, to highlight ‘Generation Next’. www.sakshama.org.

And what a Generation Next! They also sought my help and mentoring in launching their own on-campus Linux Users Group (LUG), www.lugb.in. Am quite impressed with their active mailing-lists and outreach activities. These guys and gals are rocking! Together with its founders, we launched LUG-Bikaner at the ‘Sakshama GN09’ event-night, on an outdoor stage in front of an audience of over 2,500.

ECB has around 1,200 computers on-campus, and with the personal laptops and desktops of students, totals at around 4,000 PCs. Till date, LUG-Bikaner has migrated over 500 computers to Linux, and still counting. Plus, they also reach out to other colleges and institutions within Rajasthan to spread the awareness of this ‘muft and mukt’ vision of computing. After all, who can understand freedom better than the royal state of Rajasthan in India?

1 Service Battalion (1 SVC BN) members distribute essential supplies like food, water, fuel and other necessities during a distribution point during Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 2021 at 3rd Canadian Division Support Base (3 CDSB) Garrison Wainwright, May 2, 2021.

From May 1 to 11, 2021, about 2500 Canadian Armed Forces members are participating in Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21 in Wainwright, AB. As the premier annual Canadian Army field training event, Ex MAPLE RESOLVE tests soldier’s abilities within a realistic, complex and challenging environment.

Du 1er au 11 mai 2021, environ 2 500 membres des forces armées canadiennes participent à l’exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21 à Wainwright, en Alberta. Ent ant que principal événement d’entraînment annuel sur la terrain de l’Armée canadienne, l’exercise MAPLE RESOLVE teste les capacités des soldats dans un environnement de combat réaliste, complexe et stimulant.

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Photo: Corporal Doug Burke, CAF Photo - Visual Communications Support / OPTIC

Feel free to distribute and share for personal use!

Save the Children distribute packs which include plastic sheeting and utensils.

DFID's humanitarian expert Henry Donati who took the photo says: "The packs are only being distributed to people whose houses were partially or fully destroyed, but in Tanza this is almost 90%. People's livelihoods have been literally shattered as fishing boats were wrecked by the typhoon, coconut trees felled, crops decimated or ruined by salination from the storm surge."

The UK government is directly supporting Save the Children’s response in the Philippines through the Rapid Response Facility.

Read more from Henry's experience in the Philippines in his blog: blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2013/11/typhoon-haiyan-12-days-on-in-th...

Picture: Henry Donati/DFID.

Get the latest updates on how the UK is helping respond to Typhoon Haiyan:

www.gov.uk/government/news/typhoon-haiyan-latest-updates-...

1 Service Battalion (1 SVC BN) members distribute essential supplies like food, water, fuel and other necessities during a distribution point during Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 2021 at 3rd Canadian Division Support Base (3 CDSB) Garrison Wainwright, May 2, 2021.

From May 1 to 11, 2021, about 2500 Canadian Armed Forces members are participating in Exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21 in Wainwright, AB. As the premier annual Canadian Army field training event, Ex MAPLE RESOLVE tests soldier’s abilities within a realistic, complex and challenging environment.

Du 1er au 11 mai 2021, environ 2 500 membres des forces armées canadiennes participent à l’exercise MAPLE RESOLVE 21 à Wainwright, en Alberta. Ent ant que principal événement d’entraînment annuel sur la terrain de l’Armée canadienne, l’exercise MAPLE RESOLVE teste les capacités des soldats dans un environnement de combat réaliste, complexe et stimulant.

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Photo: Corporal Doug Burke, CAF Photo - Visual Communications Support / OPTIC

distributed in food stores nationally

tea-distributer, resting on the edge of the road with the lower dhankar town in the backdrop. during this celebration of buddha jayanti, food and tea were freely distributed among the people, as they had come from every corner of spiti and beyond.

there are few home stays available down there, but carrying camera or luggage down the sandy sedimentary slope of this mountain was very scary, hence we had to drop the idea of staying there. there are few more high up in the upper town by the nono's palace but again we avoided that too, to avoid any excess physical strain that might ignite acute mountain sickness ams.

see my other tea or drinks related images @ fiveprime.org/flickr_hvmnd.cgi?search_type=Tags&photo...

This undated picture has on the back the words: "Distributing mussels at the foot of Arbroath High Street," The mussels would have been for baiting the hooks.

UNICEF and Partners took to the streets of Conakry today to combat the Ebola outbreak with information on how to keep families safe and to prevent the spread we distributed soap and chlorine.

AB1531 distributes ballast at Yerecoin on 3 June 1983.

This species is widely distributed throughout Britain, except the north of Scotland, and can be locally common. It occupies damp areas and woodland, and has two generations, with adults on the wing in May and June and then in July and August. The larvae are yellowish green, and attractively marked with brown, and feed on the flowers and seeds of wild angelica (Angelica sylvestris) and hogweed (Heracleum). The spring generation also feeds on the flowers of elder (Sambucus nigra). Photo by Nick Dobbs, Bournemouth, Dorset 26-07-18

Werewolf Universal Monster Animated Halloween Figure by Telco, distributed in USA by SunHill, re-design Circa 1991-1992 by MiMo, Mike Mozart.

MiMo Mike Mozart created thousands of commercial products, books toys and infomercial items, with many signed Michael Wolfe! An adaptation of his real name Wolfgang Mikyáll Mozart often shortened to Wolf or Wolfie

A long and successful career, with his first children’s book sold at age 15 which continues to this day at age 60!

In the early 1980’s, MiMo, Mike Mozart, Co-hosted with TX Critter ( that developed into ALF), the classic KidsTime Express on UHF Channel 20, WTXX Waterbury CT TV Show. Paul Fusco, the original puppeteer and creator of the show went on to create the character and TV Show ALF!

Illustrated over 100 Childrens books, many licensed Walt Disney, Muppets, Looney Toons, Ninja Turtles, Uncle Scrooge McDuck and More!

Created thousands of Holiday and Seasonal

Products, many featuring the pantheon of Walt Disneys top licensed characters! Known for the exceptional designs of season Nutcrackers and sweeping product lines for major Retailers for Horizon’s East. And Christmas, Easter-and Halloween licensed character products for SunHill Industries. Massive product lines featuring the Mickey Mouse line of Basic Characters, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto Donald Duck and Daisy Duck.

Disney’s Ducktales

Disney’s the Little Mermaid

Disney’s Aladdin

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

Disney’s, Bambi

Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame

Disney’s 100 Dalmatians

Disney’s Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers

Also:

The Flintstones

Teletubbies

Looney Tunes

Crayola

Scooby Doo

The M&Ms Character Family

Universal Monsters

Assisted and wrote gags for top Newspaper comic strip cartoonists throughout the 1980’s, including Bob Weber of Moose and Molly fame, Guy Gilchrist artist of the Muppets Comic Strips, Jerry Marcus of the strip Trudy, Dik Brown of Hagar the Horrible and Hi and Lois, Orlando Busino of Gus, and many more!

A continuing Voice over talent for imported Japanese cartoons, TV Commercials and seasonal animated an sound products for Halloween and Christmas!

Appeared live on QVC and HSN for over a decade live presenting products of his invention and design. Created top selling infomercial items in the 1980’s and 1990’s!

Notable lawn and garden products, tools and household products.

Was a Top Twenty All Time Most viewed and Subscribed for the first 7 years of YouTube garnering more than a Half Billion Views! Many on TheToyChannel and Jeepersmedia on YouTube!

More Recently, A known fine artist having been the Ghost Artist Designer and Mentor to Alec Monopoly.

* My Twitch:

twitch.tv/MikeMozartJeepersmedia

* My TikTok:

* www.tiktok.com/@mimomikemozart

* My Discord:

Real Mike Mozart#4030

* My YouTube

youtube.com/Jeepersmedia

youtube.com/TheToyChannel

youtube.com/MikeMozart

* My Instagram

instagram.com/MikeMozart

* My Twitter

twitter.com/jeepersmedia

* My Creative Commons Flickr

Flickr.com/Jeepersmedia

Now that Santa was finished distributing all our presents, it was time for him to head back to the North Pole... Thanks Santa! This was at my family's annual Christmas gathering at my cousin Melinda's place in Stockton, CA. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas & a safe new year! (Friday evening, ‎December ‎24, ‎2021)

*"Alas! How dreary would be the world if there was no Santa Claus! There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence." - Francis P. Church.

The Mediterranean Fruitflies Pupae are distributed at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Sarasota Sterile Insect Rearing Facility, April 17, 2019, in Sarasota, Fla., where they process 100,000,000 flies a week.

Plant Protection and Quarantine releases sterile adult Medflies over the highest-risk urban areas of the state (approximately 633 square miles) in Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward Counties. The target release rate is 125,000 flies/square mile/week. One-hundred million irradiated pupae are received weekly from Guatemala, eclosed at the Sterile Insect Release Facility (SIRF), and released by airplane from an altitude of 1600-2000 feet. These pupae are temperature-sensitive lethal (tsl) strain, rendering the flies released 99.8% male.

New Sterile Insect Release Facility in Sarasota, FL: This facility supports the Medfly Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) Preventive Release Program (PRP), and is the work unit for 24 personnel. The Sarasota PRP was initiated in 2002 in an old ice cream factory, but due to the need to replace the existing aging SIRF, solicitations for a new facility (~30,000 square feet) began in spring 2015 and a lease was awarded in fall 2015 for a new facility located north of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Ground-breaking for this facility took place in November 2016 and USDA accepted the building on July 23, 2018. This is the first time a facility like this has been built in the continental U.S. The objective is to facilitate and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the program for years to come.

USDA Photo by Preston Keres

Old Market, Omaha.

Volunteers distribute wristbands and safety equipment during the opening ceremonies of the 2013 Grand Teton Relays in Ashton Idaho. The Relay is a 24 to 32 hour, 180 mile race from Ashton Idaho to Grand Teton Village, Wyoming across the areas mountains and valleys including the Tetons and Jackson Hole. Teams are made up of 12 members with each member running 3 legs.

FAO distributed fresh foods to 2 000 households in New Stadium camp in Maiduguri.

Read more about FAO and the Lake Chad Basin crisis.

Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/Patrina Pink. Editorial use only. Copyright FAO

The geothermal areas of Yellowstone include several geyser basins in Yellowstone National Park as well as other geothermal features such as hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. The number of thermal features in Yellowstone is estimated at 10,000. A study that was completed in 2011 found that a total of 1,283 geysers have erupted in Yellowstone, 465 of which are active during an average year. These are distributed among nine geyser basins, with a few geysers found in smaller thermal areas throughout the Park. The number of geysers in each geyser basin are as follows: Upper Geyser Basin (410), Midway Geyser Basin (59), Lower Geyser Basin (283), Norris Geyser Basin (193), West Thumb Geyser Basin (84), Gibbon Geyser Basin (24), Lone Star Geyser Basin (21), Shoshone Geyser Basin (107), Heart Lake Geyser Basin (69), other areas (33). Although famous large geysers like Old Faithful are part of the total, most of Yellowstone's geysers are small, erupting to only a foot or two. The hydrothermal system that supplies the geysers with hot water sits within an ancient active caldera. Many of the thermal features in Yellowstone build up sinter, geyserite, or travertine deposits around and within them.

The various geyser basins are located where rainwater and snowmelt can percolate into the ground, get indirectly superheated by the underlying Yellowstone hotspot, and then erupt at the surface as geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles. Thus flat-bottomed valleys between ancient lava flows and glacial moraines are where most of the large geothermal areas are located. Smaller geothermal areas can be found where fault lines reach the surface, in places along the circular fracture zone around the caldera, and at the base of slopes that collect excess groundwater. Due to the Yellowstone Plateau's high elevation the average boiling temperature at Yellowstone's geyser basins is 199 °F (93 °C). When properly confined and close to the surface it can periodically release some of the built-up pressure in eruptions of hot water and steam that can reach up to 390 feet (120 m) into the air (see Steamboat Geyser, the world's tallest geyser). Water erupting from Yellowstone's geysers is superheated above that boiling point to an average of 204 °F (95.5 °C) as it leaves the vent. The water cools significantly while airborne and is no longer scalding hot by the time it strikes the ground, nearby boardwalks, or even spectators. Because of the high temperatures of the water in the features it is important that spectators remain on the boardwalks and designated trails. Several deaths have occurred in the park as a result of falls into hot springs.

Prehistoric Native American artifacts have been found at Mammoth Hot Springs and other geothermal areas in Yellowstone. Some accounts state that the early people used hot water from the geothermal features for bathing and cooking. In the 19th century Father Pierre-Jean De Smet reported that natives he interviewed thought that geyser eruptions were "the result of combat between the infernal spirits". The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled north of the Yellowstone area in 1806. Local natives that they came upon seldom dared to enter what we now know is the caldera because of frequent loud noises that sounded like thunder and the belief that the spirits that possessed the area did not like human intrusion into their realm. The first white man known to travel into the caldera and see the geothermal features was John Colter, who had left the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He described what he saw as "hot spring brimstone". Beaver trapper Joseph Meek recounted in 1830 that the steam rising from the various geyser basins reminded him of smoke coming from industrial smokestacks on a cold winter morning in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the 1850s famed trapper Jim Bridger called it "the place where Hell bubbled up".

The heat that drives geothermal activity in the Yellowstone area comes from brine (salty water) that is 1.5–3 miles (7,900–15,800 ft; 2,400–4,800 m) below the surface. This is actually below the solid volcanic rock and sediment that extends to a depth of 3,000 to 6,000 feet (900 to 1,800 m) and is inside the hot but mostly solid part of the pluton that contains Yellowstone's magma chamber. At that depth the brine is superheated to temperatures that exceed 400 °F (204 °C) but is able to remain a liquid because it is under great pressure (like a huge pressure cooker).

Convection of the churning brine and conduction from surrounding rock transfers heat to an overlaying layer of fresh groundwater. Movement of the two liquids is facilitated by the highly fractured and porous nature of the rocks under the Yellowstone Plateau. Some silica is dissolved from the fractured rhyolite into the hot water as it travels through the fractured rock. Part of this hard mineral is later redeposited on the walls of the cracks and fissures to make a nearly pressure-tight system. Silica precipitates at the surface to form either geyserite or sinter, creating the massive geyser cones, the scalloped edges of hot springs, and the seemingly barren landscape of geyser basins.

There are at least five types of geothermal features found at Yellowstone:

Fumaroles: Fumaroles, or steam vents, are the hottest hydrothermal features in the park. They have so little water that it all flashes into steam before reaching the surface. At places like Roaring Mountain, the result is loud hissing of steam and gases.

Geysers: Geysers such as Old Faithful are a type of geothermal feature that periodically erupt scalding hot water. Increased pressure exerted by the enormous weight of the overlying rock and water prevents deeper water from boiling. As the hot water rises it is under less pressure and steam bubbles form. They, in turn, expand on their ascent until the bubbles are too big and numerous to pass freely through constrictions. At a critical point the confined bubbles actually lift the water above, causing the geyser to splash or overflow. This decreases the pressure of the system and violent boiling results. Large quantities of water flash into tremendous amounts of steam that force a jet of water out of the vent: an eruption begins. Water (and heat) is expelled faster than the geyser's recharge rate, gradually decreasing the system's pressure and eventually ending the eruption.

Hot springs: Hot springs such as Grand Prismatic Spring are the most common hydrothermal features in the park. Their plumbing has no constrictions. Superheated water cools as it reaches the surface, sinks, and is replaced by hotter water from below. This circulation, called convection, prevents water from reaching the temperature needed to set off an eruption. Many hot springs give rise to streams of heated water.

Mudpots: Mudpots such as Fountain Paint Pots are acidic hot springs with a limited water supply. Some microorganisms use hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg smell), which rises from deep within the earth, as an energy source. They convert the gas into sulfuric acid, which breaks down rock into clay.

Travertine terraces: Travertine terraces, found at Mammoth Hot Springs, are formed from limestone (a rock type made of calcium carbonate). Thermal waters rise through the limestone, carrying high amounts of dissolved carbonate. Carbon dioxide is released at the surface and calcium carbonate deposited as travertine, the chalky white rock of the terraces. These features constantly and quickly change due to the rapid rate of deposition.

Geyser basins

The Norris Geyser Basin 44°43′43″N 110°42′16″W is the hottest geyser basin in the park and is located near the northwest edge of Yellowstone Caldera near Norris Junction and on the intersection of three major faults. The Norris-Mammoth Corridor is a fault that runs from Norris north through Mammoth to the Gardiner, Montana, area. The Hebgen Lake fault runs from northwest of West Yellowstone, Montana, to Norris. This fault experienced an earthquake in 1959 that measured 7.4 on the Richter scale (sources vary on exact magnitude between 7.1 and 7.8; see 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake). Norris Geyser Basin is so hot and dynamic because these two faults intersect with the ring fracture zone that resulted from the creation of the Yellowstone Caldera of 640,000 years ago.

The Basin consists of three main areas: Porcelain Basin, Back Basin, and One Hundred Springs Plain. Unlike most of other geyser basins in the park, the waters from Norris are acidic rather than alkaline (for example, Echinus Geyser has a pH of ~3.5). The difference in pH allows for a different class of bacterial thermophiles to live at Norris, creating different color patterns in and around the Norris Basin waters.

The Ragged Hills that lie between Back Basin and One Hundred Springs Plain are thermally altered glacial kames. As glaciers receded the underlying thermal features began to express themselves once again, melting remnants of the ice and causing masses of debris to be dumped. These debris piles were then altered by steam and hot water flowing through them. Madison lies within the eroded stream channels cut through lava flows formed after the caldera eruption. The Gibbon Falls lies on the caldera boundary as does Virginia Cascades.

Algae on left bacteria on right at the intersection of flows from the Constant & Whirlgig Geysers at Norris Geyser Basin

The tallest active geyser in the world, Steamboat Geyser,[11] is located in Norris Basin. Unlike the slightly smaller but much more famous Old Faithful Geyser located in Upper Geyser Basin, Steamboat has an erratic and lengthy timetable between major eruptions. During major eruptions, which may be separated by intervals of more than a year (the longest recorded span between major eruptions was 50 years), Steamboat erupts over 300 feet (90 m) into the air. Steamboat does not lie dormant between eruptions, instead displaying minor eruptions of approximately 40 feet (12 m).

Norris Geyser Basin periodically undergoes a large-scale, basin-wide thermal disturbance lasting a few weeks. Water levels fluctuate, and temperatures, pH, colors, and eruptive patterns change throughout the basin. During a disturbance in 1985, Porkchop Geyser continually jetted steam and water; in 1989, the same geyser apparently clogged with silica and blew up, throwing rocks more than 200 feet (61 m). In 2003 a park ranger observed it bubbling heavily, the first such activity seen since 1991. Activity increased dramatically in mid-2003. Because of high ground temperatures and new features beside the trail much of Back Basin was closed until October. In 2004 the boardwalk was routed around the dangerous area and now leads behind Porkchop Geyser.

North of Norris, Roaring Mountain is a large, acidic hydrothermal area (solfatara) with many fumaroles. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the number, size, and power of the fumaroles were much greater than today. The fumaroles are most easily seen in the cooler, low-light conditions of morning and evening.

The Gibbon Geyser Basin 44°41′58″N 110°44′34″W includes several thermal areas in the vicinity of the Gibbon River between Gibbon Falls and Norris. The most accessible feature in the basin is Beryl Spring, with a small boardwalk right along the Grand Loop Road. Artists' Paintpots is a small hydrothermal area south of Norris Junction that includes colorful hot springs and two large mudpots.

The Monument Geyser Basin 44°41′03″N 110°45′14″W has no active geysers, but its 'monuments' are siliceous sinter deposits similar to the siliceous spires discovered on the floor of Yellowstone Lake. Scientists hypothesize that this basin's structures formed from a hot water system in a glacially dammed lake during the waning stages of the Pinedale Glaciation. The basin is on a ridge reached by a very steep one-mile (1.6 km) trail south of Artists' Paint Pots. Other areas of thermal activity in Gibbon Geyser Basin lie off-trail.

South of Norris along the rim of the caldera is the Upper Geyser Basin 44°27′52″N 110°49′45″W, which has the highest concentration of geothermal features in the park. This complement of features includes the most famous geyser in the park, Old Faithful Geyser, as well as four other predictable large geysers. One of these large geysers in the area is Castle Geyser which is about 1,400 feet (430 m) northwest of Old Faithful. Castle Geyser has an interval of approximately 13 hours between major eruptions, but is unpredictable after minor eruptions. The other three predictable geysers are Grand Geyser, Daisy Geyser, and Riverside Geyser. Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin are also within the boundaries of Upper Geyser Basin.

The hills surrounding Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin are reminders of Quaternary rhyolitic lava flows. These flows, occurring long after the catastrophic eruption of 640,000 years ago, flowed across the landscape like stiff mounds of bread dough due to their high silica content.

Evidence of glacial activity is common, and it is one of the keys that allows geysers to exist. Glacier till deposits underlie the geyser basins providing storage areas for the water used in eruptions. Many landforms, such as Porcupine Hills north of Fountain Flats, are made up of glacial gravel and are reminders that 70,000 to 14,000 years ago, this area was buried under ice.

Signs of the forces of erosion can be seen everywhere, from runoff channels carved across the sinter in the geyser basins to the drainage created by the Firehole River. Mountain building is evident on the drive south of Old Faithful, toward Craig Pass. Here the Rocky Mountains reach a height of 8,262 feet (2,518 m), dividing the country into two distinct watersheds.

Midway Geyser Basin 44°31′04″N 110°49′56″W is much smaller than the other basins found alongside the Firehole River. Despite its small size, it contains two large features, the 200-by-300-foot-wide (60 by 90 m) Excelsior Geyser which pours over 4,000 U.S. gallons (15,000 L; 3,300 imp gal) per minute into the Firehole River. The largest hot spring in Yellowstone, the 370-foot-wide (110 m) and 121-foot-deep (37 m) Grand Prismatic Spring is found here. Also in the basin is Turquoise Pool and Opal Pool.

Lower Geyser Basin

Blue spring with steam rising from it; irregular blotches of red and orange residue are on the banks, along with dead tree trunks.

Silex Spring at Fountain Paint Pot

Farther north is the Lower Geyser Basin 44°32′58″N 110°50′09″W, which is the largest geyser basin in area, covering approximately 11 square miles. Due to its large size, it has a much less concentrated set of geothermal features, including Fountain Paint Pots. Fountain Paint Pots are mud pots, that is, a hot spring that contains boiling mud instead of water. The mud is produced by a higher acidity in the water which enables the spring to dissolve surrounding minerals to create an opaque, usually grey, mud. Also there is Firehole Spring, Celestine Pool, Leather Pool, Red Spouter, Jelly spring, and a number of fumaroles.

Geysers in Lower Geyser Basin include Great Fountain Geyser, whose eruptions reach 100 to 200 feet (30–61 m) in the air, while waves of water cascade down its sinter terraces., the Fountain group of Geysers (Clepsydra Geyser which erupts nearly continuously to heights of 45 feet (14 m), Fountain Geyser, Jelly Geyser, Jet Geyser, Morning Geyser, and Spasm Geyser), the Pink Cone group of geysers (Dilemma Geyser, Labial Geyser, Narcissus Geyser, Pink Geyser, and Pink Cone Geyser), the White Dome group of geysers (Crack Geyser, Gemini Geyser, Pebble Geyser, Rejuvenated Geyser, and White Dome Geyser), as well as Sizzler Geyser.

Clepsydra Geyser erupting. July 2019

Fountain Paint Pots

White Dome Geyser

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Several pools of blue water in ashen rock basin.

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Blackened basin with orange streaks; steam is rising from it with fir trees in the background.

Overflow areas of Silex springs

The West Thumb Geyser Basin 44°25′07″N 110°34′23″W, including Potts Basin to the north, is the largest geyser basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. The heat source of the thermal features in this location is thought to be relatively close to the surface, only 10,000 feet (3,000 m) down. West Thumb is about the same size as another famous volcanic caldera, Crater Lake in Oregon, but much smaller than the great Yellowstone Caldera which last erupted about 640,000 years ago. West Thumb is a caldera within a caldera.

West Thumb was created approximately 162,000 years ago when a magma chamber bulged up under the surface of the earth and subsequently cracked it along ring fracture zones. This in turn released the enclosed magma as lava and caused the surface above the emptied magma chamber to collapse. Water later filled the collapsed area of the caldera, forming an extension of Yellowstone Lake. This created the source of heat and water that feed the West Thumb Geyser Basin today.

The thermal features at West Thumb are not only found on the lake shore, but extend under the surface of the lake as well. Several underwater hydrothermal features were discovered in the early 1990s and can be seen as slick spots or slight bulges in the summer. During the winter, the underwater thermal features are visible as melt holes in the icy surface of the lake. The surrounding ice can reach three feet (one yard) in thickness.

Perhaps the most famous hydrothermal feature at West Thumb is a geyser on the lake shore known as Fishing Cone. Walter Trumbull of the 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition described a unique event while a man was fishing adjacent to the cone: "...in swinging a trout ashore, it accidentally got off the hook and fell into the spring. For a moment it darted about with wonderful rapidity, as if seeking an outlet. Then it came to the top, dead, and literally boiled." Fishing Cone erupted frequently to the height of 40 feet (12 m) in 1919 and to lesser heights in 1939. One fisherman was badly burned in Fishing Cone in 1921. Fishing at the geyser is now prohibited.

Early visitors would arrive at West Thumb via stagecoach from the Old Faithful area. They had a choice of continuing on the stagecoach or boarding the steamship Zillah to continue the journey by water to Lake Hotel. The boat dock was located near the south end of the geyser basin near Lakeside Spring.

Backcountry Geyser Basins

The Heart Lake 44°18′00″N 110°30′56″W, Lone Star 44°24′50″N 110°49′04″W, and Shoshone Geyser Basins 44°21′16″N 110°47′57″W are located away from the road and require at least several miles of hiking to reach. These areas lack the boardwalks and other safety features of the developed areas. As falling into geothermal features can be fatal, it is usually advisable to visit these areas with an experienced guide or at the very least, travelers need to ensure they remain on well-marked trails.

The Heart Lake Geyser Basin contains several groups of geysers and deep blue hot springs near Heart Lake in the south-central portion of Yellowstone, southeast of most of the main geyser basins. Lying in the Snake River watershed east of Lewis Lake and south of Yellowstone Lake, Heart Lake was named sometime before 1871 for Hart Hunney, a hunter. Other explorers in the region incorrectly assumed that the lake's name was spelled 'heart' because of its shape. The Heart Lake Geyser Basin begins a couple miles from the lake and descends along Witch Creek to the lakeshore. Five groups of hydrothermal features comprise the basin, and all of them contain geysers, although some are dormant.

Between Shoshone Lake and Old Faithful is the Lone Star Geyser Basin, of which the primary feature is Lone Star Geyser, named for its isolation from the nearby geysers of the Upper Geyser Basin. The basin is reachable on foot or bicycle via a 3 mile road that is closed to vehicles.

The Shoshone Geyser Basin, reached by hiking or by boat, contains one of the highest concentrations of geysers in the world – more than 80 in an area 1,600 by 800 feet (490 by 240 m). Hot springs and mudpots dot the landscape between the geyser basin and Shoshone Lake.

Hot Spring Basin is located 15 miles (24 km) north-northeast of Fishing Bridge and has one of Yellowstone's largest collections of hot springs and fumaroles. The geothermal features there release large amounts of sulfur. This makes water from the springs so acidic that it has dissolved holes in the pants of people who sit on wet ground and causes mounds of sulfur three feet (1 m) high to develop around fumaroles. The very hot acidic water and steam have also created voids in the ground that are only covered by a thin crust.

Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution). Because of the huge amount of geothermal vents, travertine flourishes. Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.

The thermal features at Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron are primarily mud pots and fumaroles because the area is situated on a perched water system with little water available. Fumaroles or "steam vents" occur when the ground water boils away faster than it can be recharged. Also, the vapors are rich in sulfuric acid that leaches the rock, breaking it down into clay. Because no water washes away the acid or leached rock, it remains as sticky clay to form a mud pot. Hydrogen sulfide gas is present deep in the earth at Mud Volcano and is oxidized to sulfuric acid by microbial activity, which dissolves the surface soils to create pools and cones of clay and mud. Along with hydrogen sulfide, steam, carbon dioxide, and other gases explode through the layers of mud.

A series of shallow earthquakes associated with the volcanic activity in Yellowstone struck this area in 1978. Soil temperatures increased to nearly 200 °F (93 °C). The slope between Sizzling Basin and Mud Geyser, once covered with green grass and trees, became a barren landscape of fallen trees known as "the cooking hillside".

Yellowstone National Park is a national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially the Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular. While it represents many types of biomes, the subalpine forest is the most abundant. It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

While Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years, aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s. Management and control of the park originally fell under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the first Secretary of the Interior to supervise the park being Columbus Delano. However, the U.S. Army was eventually commissioned to oversee the management of Yellowstone for 30 years between 1886 and 1916. In 1917, the administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year. Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and researchers have examined more than a thousand archaeological sites.

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 sq mi (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano on the continent. The caldera is considered a dormant volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Well over half of the world's geysers and hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone. In 1978, Yellowstone was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened. The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants. Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the contiguous United States. Grizzly bears, cougars, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in this park. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States. Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one-third of the park was burnt. Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing, and sightseeing. Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls. During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.

Teton County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 23,331. Its county seat is Jackson. Its west boundary line is also the Wyoming state boundary shared with Idaho and the southern tip of Montana. Teton County is part of the Jackson, WY-ID Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Teton County contains the Jackson Hole ski area, all of Grand Teton National Park, and 40.4% of Yellowstone National Park's total area, including over 96.6% of its water area (largely in Yellowstone Lake).

Wyoming is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the south. With a population of 576,851 in 2020, Wyoming is the least populous state despite being the 10th largest by area, with the second-lowest population density after Alaska. The state capital and most populous city is Cheyenne, which had an estimated population of 63,957 in 2018.

Wyoming's western half consists mostly of the ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains; its eastern half consists of high-elevation prairie, and is referred to as the High Plains. Wyoming's climate is semi-arid in some parts and continental in others, making it drier and windier overall than other states, with greater temperature extremes. The federal government owns just under half of Wyoming's land, generally protecting it for public uses. The state ranks sixth in the amount of land—-and fifth in the proportion of its land—-that is owned by the federal government. Its federal lands include two national parks (Grand Teton and Yellowstone), two national recreation areas, two national monuments, and several national forests, as well as historic sites, fish hatcheries, and wildlife refuges.

Indigenous peoples inhabited the region for thousands of years. Historic and currently federally recognized tribes include the Arapaho, Crow, Lakota, and Shoshone. Part of the land that is now Wyoming came under American sovereignty via the Louisiana Purchase, part via the Oregon Treaty, and, lastly, via the Mexican Cession. With the opening of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the California Trail, vast numbers of pioneers travelled through parts of the state that had once been traversed mainly by fur trappers, and this spurred the establishment of forts, such as Fort Laramie, that today serve as population centers. The Transcontinental Railroad supplanted the wagon trails in 1867 with a route through southern Wyoming, bringing new settlers and the establishment of founding towns, including the state capital of Cheyenne. On March 27, 1890, Wyoming became the union's 44th state.

Farming and ranching, and the attendant range wars, feature prominently in the state's history. Today, Wyoming's economy is largely based on tourism and the extraction of minerals such as coal, natural gas, oil, and trona. Its agricultural commodities include barley, hay, livestock, sugar beets, wheat, and wool.

Wyoming was the first state to allow women the right to vote (not counting New Jersey, which had allowed it until 1807), and the right to assume elected office, as well as the first state to elect a female governor. In honor of this part of its history, its most common nickname is "The Equality State" and its official state motto is "Equal Rights". It is among the least religious states in the country, and is known for having a political culture that leans towards libertarian conservatism. The Republican presidential nominee has carried the state in every election since 1968.

Copper was discovered at Kuridala in 1884 and the Hampden Mine commenced during the 1890s. A Melbourne syndicate took over operations in 1897 and with increasing development of the mine in 1905 - 1906 the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company was formed. The township was surveyed as Hampden in 1910 (later called Friezland, and finally Kuridala in 1916). The Hampden Smelter operated from 1911 to 1920 with World War I being a particularly prosperous time for the company. After the war, the operations and the township declined and the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company ceased to exist in 1928. Tribute mining and further exploration and testing of the ore body has continued from 1932 through to the present day.

The Kuridala Township and Hampden Smelter are located approximately 65km south of Cloncurry and 345m above sea level, on an open plain against a background of rugged but picturesque hills.

The Cloncurry copper fields were discovered by Ernest Henry in 1867 but lack of capital and transport combined with low base metal prices precluded any major development. However, rising prices, new discoveries in the region and the promise of a railway combined with an inflow of British capital stimulated development. Additionally, Melbourne based promoters eager to develop another base metal bonanza like Broken Hill led to a resurgence of interest, especially in the Hampden mines.

The copper deposits at Kuridala (initially named Hampden) were discovered by William McPhail and Robert Johnson on their pastoral lease, Eureka, in January 1884. The Hampden mine was held by Fred Gibson in the 1890s and acquired in 1897 by a Melbourne syndicate comprising the 'Broken Hillionaires' - William Orr, William Knox, and Herman Schlapp. They floated the Hampden Copper Mines N. L. with a capital of £100,000 in £100 shares of which 200 were fully paid up. With this capital, they commenced a prospecting and stockpiling program sending specimens to Dapto and Wallaroo for testing. Government Geologist, W.E. Cameron's report on the district in 1900 discouraged investors as he reported that few of the lodes, other than the Hampden Company's main lode at Kuridala, were worth working.

A world price rise in copper in 1905, combined with a government decision in 1906 to extend the Townsville railway from Richmond to Cloncurry, stimulated further development. The Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited was registered in Victoria in March 1906 to acquire the old company's mines. However, the company only had a working capital of £35,000 after distributing vendor's shares and buying the Duchess mines. During this period there were over 20 companies investing similarly on the Cloncurry field.

The township was surveyed by the Mines Department around 1910 and was first known as Hampden after the mines discovered in the 1880s. By 1912 it was called Friezland, however was officially renamed Kuridala in October 1916 to minimise confusion with another settlement in Queensland. The reason for this change was considered to be linked to German names being unpopular at the outbreak of World War I.

Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited and its competitor, Mount Elliott, formed a special company in 1908 to finance and construct the railway extension from Cloncurry through Malbon, to Kuridala, and Mount Elliott. The company reconstructed in July 1909 by increasing its capitalisation, and concluding arrangements for a debenture issue to be secured against its proposed smelters. Its smelters were not fired until March 1911 and over the next three years 85,266 tons of ore were treated with an initial dividend of £140,000 being declared in 1913. In one month in 1915 the Hampden Smelter produced 813 tons of copper, an Australian record at that time.

Concern over the dwindling reserves of high grade ore led to William Corbould, the general manager of Mount Elliott mines, negotiating an amalgamation with Hampden Cloncurry to halt the fierce rivalry. But the latter was uninterested having consolidated its prospects in 1911 by acquiring many promising mines in the region, and enlarging its smelters and erecting new converters. In 1913, following a fire in the Hampden Consol's mine, Corbould convinced his London directors to reopen negotiations for a joint venture in the northern section of the field which still awaited a railway. Although Corbould and Huntley, the Hampden Cloncurry general manager, inspected many properties, the proposal lapsed.

The railway reached the township by 1910. A sanitary system was installed in 1911, after a four month typhoid epidemic, and a hospital erected by 1913, run by Dr. Old. It was described as the best and most modern hospital in the northwest. At its height, the town supported six hotels, five stores, four billiard saloons, three dance halls, and a cinema, two ice works, and one aerated waters factory, and Chinese gardens along the creek. There were also drapers, fruiterer, butcher, baker, timber merchant, garage, four churches, police station, court house, post office, banks, and a school with up to 280 pupils. A cyclone in December 1918 damaged the town and wrecked part of the powerhouse and smelter.

A comprehensive description of the plant and operations of the Kuridala Hampden mines and smelters was given by the Cloncurry mining warden in the Queensland Government Mining Journal of the 14th of September 1912. Ore from other company-owned mines (Duchess, Happy Salmon, MacGregor, and Trekelano) was railed in via a 1.2km branch line to the reduction plant bins, while the heavy pyrites ore from the Hampden mines was separated at the main shaft into coarse and fine products and conveyed to separate 1,500 ton capacity bins over a standard gauge railway to the plant.

A central power plant was installed with three separate Dowson pressure gas plants powered by three tandem type Kynoch gas engines of 320hp and two duplex type Hornsby gas engines of 200hp. Two Swedish General Electric Company generators of 1,250kw and 56kw running at 460 volts, supplied electricity to the machines in the works, fitting shops and mine pumps. Electric light for the mine and works was supplied by a British Thompson-Houston generator of 42kw, running at 420 volts. The fuel used in the gas producers was bituminous coal, coke or charcoal, made locally in the retorts.

The reduction plant consisted of two water-jacket furnaces, 2.1m by 1m and 4.2m by 1m, with dust chambers and a 52m high steel stack. There were two electrically driven converter vessels, each 3.2m by 2.3m. The molten product ran into a 3.7m diameter forehearth, while the slag was drawn off into double ton slag pots, run to the dump over 3 foot gauge, 42lb steel rail tracks. The copper was delivered from the forehearth to the converters. A 1.06m gauge track ran under the converters and carried the copper mould cars to the cleaning and shipping shed, at the end of which was the siding for railing out the cakes of blister copper.

The war conferred four years of prosperity on the Cloncurry district despite marketing, transport, and labour difficulties. The Hampden Cloncurry Company declared liberal dividends during 1915 - 1918: £40,000, £140,000, £52,500 and £35,000 making a total disbursement since commencing operations of £437,500. Its smelters treated over a quarter of a million tons of ore in this period, averaging over 70,000 tons annually. The company built light railways to its mines (e.g. Wee MacGregor and Trekelano) to ensure regular ore supplies and to reduce transport costs. In order to improve its ore treatment, Hampden Cloncurry installed a concentration plant in 1917. In 1918 an Edwards furnace was erected to pre-roast fine sulphide concentrates from the mill before smelting.

The dropping of the copper price control by the British government in 1918 forced the company into difficulties. Smelting was postponed until September 1919 and the company lost heavily during the next season and had to rely on ores from the Trekelano mine. Its smelter treated 69,598 tons of ore in 1920, but the company was forced to halt all operations after the Commonwealth Bank withdrew funds on copper awaiting export.

Companies and mines turned to the Theodore Labor Government for assistance but they were unsympathetic to the companies, even though they alone had the capacity to revive the Cloncurry field. More negotiations for amalgamation occurred in 1925 but failed, and in 1926 Hampden Cloncurry offered its assets for sale by tender and Mount Elliott acquired them all except for the Trekelano mine. The company was de-listed in 1928.

The rise and decline of the township reflected the company's fortunes. In 1913 there were 1,500 people increasing to 2,000 by 1920, but by 1924 this had declined to 800. With the rise of Mount Isa, Kaiser's bakehouse, the hospital, courthouse, one ice works, and a picture theatre, moved there in 1923 followed by Boyds' Hampden Hotel (renamed the Argent) in 1924. Other buildings including the police residence and Clerk of Petty Sessions house were moved to Cloncurry.

In its nine years of smelting Hampden Cloncurry had been one of Australia's largest mining companies producing 50,800 tons of copper (compared with Mount Elliott's 27,000), 21,000 ounces of gold and 381,000 ounces of silver. A more permanent achievement was its part in creating the metal fabricating company, Metal Manufacturers Limited, of which it was one of the four founders in 1916. Much of the money which built their Port Kembla works into one of the country's largest manufacturers came from the now derelict smelters in north-west Queensland.

In 1942 Mount Isa Mines bought the Kuridala Smelters for £800 and used parts to construct a copper furnace which commenced operating in April 1943 in response to wartime demands. The Tunny family continued to live at Kuridala as tributers on the Hampden and Consol mines from 1932 until 1969 and worked the mines down to 15.25m. A post office operated until 1975 and the last inhabitant, Lizzy Belch, moved into Cloncurry about 1982.

Further exploration and testing of the Kuridala ore body has occurred from 1948 up until the present with activities being undertaking by Mount Isa Mines, Broken Hill South, Enterprise Exploration, Marshall and James Boyd, Australian Selection, Kennecott Exploration, Carpentaria Exploration, Metana Minerals, A.M. Metcalfe, Dampier Mining Co Ltd, Newmont Pty Ltd, Australian Anglo American, Era South Pacific Pty Ltd, CRA Exploration Pty Ltd, BHP Minerals Ltd, Metana Minerals and Matrix Metals Ltd.

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

Personnel distribute USAID hygiene kits at a Cholera Treatment Center on Thursday, Oct. 28, in Verrettes in the Artibonite department of Haiti. The center, run by USAID partner International Medical Corps, opened earlier this week. Photo copyright Kendra Helmer/USAID

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In the emergence room, tours of newly distributed Mediterranean Fruitflies are labeled by day, as it takes 5-7 days for them emerge as adults from the pupae casing, inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Sarasota Sterile Insect Rearing Facility, April 17, 2019, in Sarasota, Fla., where they process 100,000,000 flies a week.

Plant Protection and Quarantine releases sterile adult Medflies over the highest-risk urban areas of the state (approximately 633 square miles) in Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward Counties. The target release rate is 125,000 flies/square mile/week. One-hundred million irradiated pupae are received weekly from Guatemala, eclosed at the Sterile Insect Release Facility (SIRF), and released by airplane from an altitude of 1600-2000 feet. These pupae are temperature-sensitive lethal (tsl) strain, rendering the flies released 99.8% male.

New Sterile Insect Release Facility in Sarasota, FL: This facility supports the Medfly Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) Preventive Release Program (PRP), and is the work unit for 24 personnel. The Sarasota PRP was initiated in 2002 in an old ice cream factory, but due to the need to replace the existing aging SIRF, solicitations for a new facility (~30,000 square feet) began in spring 2015 and a lease was awarded in fall 2015 for a new facility located north of the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Ground-breaking for this facility took place in November 2016 and USDA accepted the building on July 23, 2018. This is the first time a facility like this has been built in the continental U.S. The objective is to facilitate and improve efficiency and effectiveness of the program for years to come.

USDA Photo by Preston Keres

Piaggio & C. SpA (Piaggio) via its subsidiaries designs, engineers, manufactures and distributes two wheeled motor vehicles and compact commercial vehicles under seven brands. Piaggio & C. SpA corporate headquarters are located in Pontedera, Italy. Piaggio's various subsidiaries employ a total of 8,129 employees who produced at total of 615,500 vehicles in 2012. Piaggio operates six research and development centers and operates in over 50 countries.

Founded by Rinaldo Piaggio in 1884, Piaggio initially produced locomotives and railway carriages. During World War I the company focused on producing aircraft.

During World War II the company produced bomber aircraft, but Piaggio emerged from the conflict with its Pontedera plant completely demolished by Allied bombing. Italy's crippled economy and the disastrous state of the roads did not assist in the redevelopment of the automobile markets. Enrico Piaggio, the son of Piaggio's founder Rinaldo Piaggio, decided to leave the aeronautical field in order to address Italy's urgent need for a modern and affordable mode of transportation. The idea was to design an inexpensive vehicle for the masses.

Aeronautical engineer Corradino D'Ascanio, responsible for the design and construction of the first modern helicopter by Agusta, was asked by Enrico Piaggio to create a simple, robust and affordable vehicle. The vehicle had to be easy to drive for both men and women, be able to carry a passenger, and not get its driver's clothes dirty. In 1946 Piaggio launched the Vespa scooter (Italian for "wasp") and within ten years over a million units had been produced. The Italian language gained a new word, "vespare", meaning to go somewhere on a Vespa.

With strong cash flow from the success of the Vespa, Piaggio developed other products, including the 1957 Vespa 400, a tiny passenger car.

In 1959, Piaggio came under the control of the Agnelli family, the owners of car maker Fiat SpA. In 1964 the two divisions, aeronautical and motorcycle, split to become two independent companies as a result of the wide ownership by Fiat in Italian industry.[clarification needed] The aeronautical division was named IAM Rinaldo Piaggio. The aircraft company Piaggio Aero is controlled by the family of Piero Ferrari, who still hold 10% of Ferrari.

In 1969 the motorcycle company purchased Gilera.

Vespa thrived, until 1992, when Giovanni Alberto Agnelli became CEO, but Agnelli was already suffering from cancer and died in 1997. In 1999 Morgan Grenfell Private Equity acquired Piaggio, but hopes for a quick sale were dashed by a failed joint venture in China. In Italy, Piaggio invested 15 million euros ($19.4 million) in a new motorcycle but dropped it after building a prototype. By the end of 2002, the company had run up 577 million Euros in debt on revenues of 945 million Euros, and booked a loss of 129 million Euros.

Then came Roberto Colaninno, who said, "A lot of people told me I was crazy. Piaggio wasn't dying. It just needed to be treated better." Piaggio's financial position was in a bad shape, but its brand was still well known and its products were featured in many Hollywood films thanks to the Vespa ET4. In 1995, Colaninno had pulled off Europe's then largest-ever hostile takeover when he took control of Telecom Italia SpA. In October 2003, Colaninno made an initial investment of 100 million euros through his holding company Immsi SpA in exchange for just under a third of Piaggio and the mandate to run it. Chief executive Rocco Sabelli redesigned the factory on Japanese principles, and changed it so that every Piaggio scooter could be made on any assembly line.

Unlike the turnaround recipe applied at U.S. auto makers, Mr. Colaninno did not fire a single worker – a move which helped seduce the company's sceptical unions. "Everyone in a company is part of the value chain," said Colaninno. All bonuses for blue-collar workers and management were based on the same criteria: profit margins and customer satisfaction. Air conditioning was installed in the factory for the first time, increasing productivity. He also gave the company's engineers, who had been idled by the company's financial crisis, deadlines for projects. They rolled out two world firsts in 2004: a gas-electric hybrid scooter and a sophisticated tilting scooter with two wheels in front and one in back to grip the road better.

One of Piaggio's problems Mr. Colaninno couldn't fix from the inside was its scale. Even though Piaggio was the European market leader, it was dwarfed by rivals Honda and Yamaha. A year after restoring Piaggio's health, Colaninno directed Piaggio's takeover of the Italian scooter and motorcycle manufacturer Aprilia, and with it the Aprilia-owned Moto Guzzi, storied Italian manufacturer of motorcycles.

In 2006, Piaggio floated on the Milan Stock Exchange, becoming a public company (Wikipedia)

Shot by "The Daredevil" at the 2007 SEMA show

Distribution and habitat

The Palm Cockatoo is distributed in rainforests and woodlands of New Guinea island in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and far northern Queensland, Australia. It can still be found wild and free on the branches of the trees along the road in Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia.

Flocking

This species normally does not appear in large numbers. They are not known to flock feed like many of the cockatoo species. Usually only one to six individuals will be observed feeding together at one time. As with other large birds both parents care for young so seeing a breeding pair is not unusual. If these birds do congregate it will usually happen in open woodland just after sunrise or along the rainforest edge before returning to individual roost for the night.

Calls

The Palm Cockatoo has a large and complex vocal repertoire, including many whistles and even a "hello" call that sounds surprisingly human-like.

There are distinct dialects throughout the species' range. It has a unique territorial display where the bird (typically the male) drums with a large (i.e. up to 1" diameter, 15 cm long) stick or seed-pod against a dead bough or tree, creating a loud noise that can be heard up to 100 m away. After drumming, the male occasionally strips the drum-tool into small pieces to line the nest.[citation needed]. Although this drumming behaviour was discovered over two decades ago (in 1984 by G.A. Wood), the reason why palm cockatoos drum is still a mystery. One reason could be that females can assess the durability of the nesting hollow by the resonance of the drumming. Another possibility could be that males drum to mark their territory against other males.[citation needed] The Palm Cockatoo is an unusual bird, being an ancient species and one of the few bird species known to use tools.

Breeding

Palm Cockatoos only lay one egg every second year and have one of the lowest breeding success rates reported for any species of parrot. Off-setting this is their very long life-span. A male commenced breeding at 29 in Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and a female at the London Zoo was 40 when she laid her first egg in 1966. There is anecdotal evidence of a Palm Cockatoo reaching 80 or 90 years of age in an Australian zoo, although the oldest confirmed individual was aged 56 in London Zoo in 2000. Although longevity of captive birds is known, it is still unknown how long palm cockatoos live in the wild. Breeding takes place inside tree hollows that look like standing pipes. Fires play an important role in the destruction and creation of nest hollows. Fires allow the colonisation of microorganisms and termites, which enter the tree and start hollowing out the inside. Cyclones are important in the final stage of nest hollow development.

Diet

The Palm Cockatoo is often observed feeding during the early hours of the day on a diet that consists mostly of wild growing Pandanus palm fruit and nuts from the Kanari tree, Canarium australasicum. They have also been seen eating fruit from Darwin Stringybark Eucalyptus tetradonta and Nonda tree as well as seeds from the Cocky apple tree, Beach almond and Black Bean tree.[5] In early captive situations pet owners would either feed dog kibble or generic bird seed mixture while zoos would give them "monkey biscuits." As their nutritional needs became more apparent over the years owners have shifted to specially formulated "manufactured diet" pellets along with a wide variety of treats like peanuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, oranges, apples, grapes, pomegranate, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, broccoli and kale. Many zoos will still give them monkey biscuits to broaden their diet.

Status

The Palm Cockatoo is still relatively common in Cape York, but is threatened there by habitat destruction, particularly due to bauxite mining around Weipa and altered fire regimes elsewhere. Palm Cockatoos are hunted in New Guinea. This species is in high demand for the pet trade due to its unusual appearance. The Palm Cockatoo is currently evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.

Distributing POM devices at Menlo School. Photo by Pete Zivkov.

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The largest school district in Iowa is not going to finish the year in the classroom but through distance learning. A big first step is making sure students have access to technology at home. I dropped by North and Roosevelt high schools as laptops were being distributed to high school seniors in need.