View allAll Photos Tagged Interconnected
Sandaoling, steam's last great holdout. Since its inception in 1804, the steam locomotive has been one of the world's most important inventions, shrinking geographical barriers and moving the world's goods as the global economy bloomed into an interconnected and highly-advanced technological marvel. Scenes like this, of a towering vaporized cloud drawing down to a determined JS 2-8-2 leading its bounty out of the mine pit, have become a staple of what makes steam locomotion, and Sandaoling, such a wonder. But the sunset overhead represents the all-too-near reality that faces Sandaoling, perhaps symbolic not only of the end of the day, but also the end of a lifetime, the end of an era. For by the close of 2020, it will all be over. Fireboxes will go cold and the steel rails threading atop the rocky soil will rust, hundreds will have to seek a new line of work, and the Gobi Desert will reclaim what is left of it all as China sheds its bituminous-fueled past for a greener, modern tomorrow. And steam locomotion, as a lifeblood, as a tradition, as a relevant means of transportation--barely clinging to life along the pit walls of Sandaoling--will come to a close 216 years after it all began. It was quite a run.
A late afternoon CN stacker highballs CPKC Pickerel on the directional running, crossing onto Fourteen Mile Island between the Pickerel River and French River, part of the vast system of interconnected inlets and rivers that traverse the remote swaths of Canadian Shield between Georgian Bay and Lake Nipissing - MP 81.3 CPKC Parry Sound Subdivision.
Excerpt from www.insauga.com/new-mural-adds-colour-and-positivity-to-b...:
A bright, colourful new mural has been added to Burlington’s Central Arena.
The piece is titled Spring and was created by Poonam Sharma as a part of the City of Burlington’s public art program Celebrating Diversity.
“This mural brings positivity and engages people from various backgrounds, professions and histories,” said a spokesperson for the City.
“The folk-art elements reinforce the idea that we are all interconnected and that the strong spirit of people is integral to the health, happiness and success of our communities.”
Central Arena is located at 519 Drury Lane.
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprising a large number of interconnected baffled cells. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.
This paraglider started near the old castle of Kallmünz (background), a picturesque village located at the confluence of Naab and Vils in the Upper Palatinate.
© Rainer Merkl
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia.
Plitvice Lakes National Park is Croatia’s best-known national park, listed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage sites. It is a popular visiting destination all year round, and must-see for every visitor to Croatia.
Well known for its system of cascading lakes - whereby sixteen lovely lakes are interconnected by cascades and waterfalls. The park is simply beautiful. The main focus of park's beauty are sixteen lakes, divided into two parts - Gornja jezera (Upper lakes) and Donja Jezera (Lower Lakes), as well as numerous waterfalls and cascades.
For video, please visit youtu.be/6p-MI7efeCw
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia.
Plitvice Lakes National Park is Croatia’s best-known national park, listed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage sites. It is a popular visiting destination all year round, and must-see for every visitor to Croatia.
Well known for its system of cascading lakes - whereby sixteen lovely lakes are interconnected by cascades and waterfalls. The park is simply beautiful. The main focus of park's beauty are sixteen lakes, divided into two parts - Gornja jezera (Upper lakes) and Donja Jezera (Lower Lakes), as well as numerous waterfalls and cascades.
For video, please visit youtu.be/6p-MI7efeCw
WNYP 637 leads stone loads north from Driftwood at South Emporium, PA. This was a bit of an experimental shot, primarily just to get the hell away from the crowds of people and I probably could've made do with some more reach for this photo too. But after I got the picture onto the computer, I was quite happy with how this turned out.
On my adventure down to track level from the road here, I inadvertently managed to spook a couple bears that were hiding in the thick brush here. Completely unbeknownst to me until they took off running. If they were cubs, it's a good thing momma bear wasn't near by!
It was a neat experience getting to see the WNYP BIGs in service in their last summer. But the absolute swarms of people as things got closer and closer to the end really took away a lot of the fun. It's one thing to deal with all the people, and it's another when a third of these crowd's follow you like your interconnected at the hip because they were too ignorant and lazy to do any research prior to making their trip.
It's now 2020 and most of these big alco’s have been put into serviceable storage at Olean, NY. The mass crowds have died off again, and some of the 6 axles still see intermittent service on the BP transfer trains to Salamanca, NY from time to time.
The GE era has taken over at the WNYP, and while their no ALCO's, they did arrive on property in company paint which was a big help to ease the pain. Hopefully before the 2020 stone season comes to a close I can make it up to get the GE's in action over Keating Summit, through the heart of the endless mountains.
The top of 70 Mile Butte - same day as the rock-flower-lichen shot posted yesterday. It isn't magic hour. Just a bright day in spring, fresh with new green growth, and before the tourist influx that comes at the end of the school year. I was on this trail for about three hours and met a pair of hikers while returning. That was all. The rest of the time: sweet solitude.
In the middle distance is Eagle Butte and glimpses of the trail that circles it. To its left and farther back, Butte Road, giving access to this trail system. Directly above and far behind Eagle Butte, mostly in the shadow of clouds, is a long ridge that blocks the village of Val Marie from view. To the right and out of the frame, the buttes extend their long interconnected ridges deep into the Frenchman River Valley.
I have to say that I liked the buttes area better when there were only game trails. In those years, I would take different routes to the top, and back. I understand Parks Canada's mandate, but I am nevertheless dismayed to see the wildness slipping away, compromised by new infrastructure. What used to be a wild place is becoming more a showcase.
Tomorrow: one more shot from the top of 70 Mile... from the olden days of deer trails and no information panels or bridges over wet spots.
Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2024 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
For my video; youtu.be/ele5cbsQS5s,
Paeonia lactiflora (Chinese peony, Chinese herbaceous peony, or common garden peony) is a species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Paeoniaceae, native to central and eastern Asia from eastern Tibet across northern China to eastern Siberia.
The Park & Tilford Gardens is a 1.5-acre (6,100 m2) (originally 3-acre (12,000 m2)) botanic garden situated in the City of North Vancouver, British Columbia. The complex, established in 1969 as a community project of Canadian Park & Tilford Distilleries Ltd., consists of eight separate but interconnected areas. The original gardens were designed by Harry J. Webb of Justice & Webb Landscape Architects.
Park & Tilford Gardens, Lynnmour, District of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Calidris melanotos. Water in the two interconnected polishing ponds of the Delores Fenwick Nature Center in Pearland, Texas, is lower than usual due to the recent, record-breaking heat wave. That has encouraged the arrival of shore birds not usually seen at Fenwick, such as these Sandpipers.
The village of Masouleh is located in Gilan Province, in Iran, perched high on a densely forested mountainside about 60 kilometers inland from the Caspian Sea. The village was established more than a thousand years ago. Forever covered in fog, which barely leaves the village, Masouleh is an incredible spectacle: a series of cottages built on a slope, such that each house's courtyard is another house's rooftop. Because of this the houses are constructed in stepped terraces and are interconnected. The terrace of each house functions as the courtyard of the house above. Yellow clay coats the exterior of most buildings in Masouleh. This allows for better visibility in the fog.
28-december-2017: first incessant rain and then heavy snowfall (which last, indeed, partially block, by freezing them, the highest resurgences...) and the part of marls and sandstone (flysch) ground of the Postojna and Pivka basins (polje), that are (with Cerknisko and Planinsko polje-Loška Dolina and down to Logatec and Vrhnika Valley) the valley floor of the "Inner" Karst, began to flood in the areas subject to these events periodically, both because of the underground springs both due to the overflow of the Pivka creek which is what created the vast underworld of the famous Postojna Caves and many other cavities, not all known but surely all interconnected to each other.
These waters flow into the far Black Sea and not to the nearby Adriatic Sea, for this reason we talk about the INTERNAL part of the Karst Region, then beyond the watershed Adriatic/Black Sea.
The Coastal Karst Region, on the contrary, is defined as such where surface and underground waters flow into the Adriatic Sea.
In particular, these are the coastal Karst creek-streams called (slovenian/Italian names): Vipava/Vipacco, Reka/Timavo (30km underground, from "Park Škočijanske Jame" to "San Giovanni al Timavo"), Rižana/Risana and Dragonija/Dragogna.
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing comprising a large number of interconnected baffled cells. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.
Despite not using an engine, paragliders flight can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometers, though flights of one to two hours and covering some tens of kilometers are more the norm. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand meters.
This paraglider started near the old castle of Kallmünz (background), a picturesque village located at the confluence of Naab and Vils in the Upper Palatinate.
Text adapted from Wikipedia.
Spreads from Kintsugi, a series of interconnected zines I’m working on. It is meant to be read in any order. Like the art of mending pottery, its fractured narrative forms a whole through fragments—logs, memos, and entries from the Habitat and its inhabitants. Overseen by The Vault, the inhabitants tend to the terrain and the Shells, blurring the line between human and machine, present and future, memory and repair.
I’m diving deeper and deeper into the surreal, sci fi world. Some of the images and text is done a long time ago. I’m now editing and putting it all together. It is all finally coming together!
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia.
Plitvice Lakes National Park is Croatia’s best-known national park, listed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage sites. It is a popular visiting destination all year round, and must-see for every visitor to Croatia.
Well known for its system of cascading lakes - whereby sixteen lovely lakes are interconnected by cascades and waterfalls. The park is simply beautiful. The main focus of park's beauty are sixteen lakes, divided into two parts - Gornja jezera (Upper lakes) and Donja Jezera (Lower Lakes), as well as numerous waterfalls and cascades.
For video, please visit youtu.be/6p-MI7efeCw
Excerpt from whc.unesco.org/en/list/98/:
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia's largest national park covering almost 30,000 hectares, is situated in the lower elevations of the Dinarides in the central part of the country. Within a beautiful karst landscape dominated by a mix of forests and meadows, the magnificent Plitvice lake system stands out, fascinating scientists and visitors alike. Interconnected by many waterfalls and watercourses above and below ground, the lakes are grouped into the upper and lower lakes. The former are formed on dolomites, with mild relief, not so steep shores and enclosed by thick forests, whereas the latter, smaller and shallower, are situated in limestone canyon with partially steep shores. The lake system is the result of millennia of ongoing geological and biochemical processes creating natural dams known as tufa barriers. These are formed by the deposition of calcium carbonate from the waters flowing through the property. In the case of the Plitvice lake system, this geochemical process of tufa formation interacts with living organisms, most importantly mosses, algae and aquatic bacteria. The scale of the overall lake system and the natural barriers are an exceptional expression of the aesthetically stunning phenomenon, acknowledged since the late 19th century. Plitvice Lakes National Park area is mainly covered with very well preserved forests essential for the continuity of geochemical processes in water system (above and below ground), which include an area of 84 ha of old-growth forest of beech and fir. Besides the striking landscape beauty and the processes that continue to shape the lakes, the park is also home to noteworthy biodiversity. The tufa barriers themselves provide habitat for diverse and highly specialized communities of non-vascular plants. Brown Bear, Grey Wolf and Lynx along with many rare species roam the forests, while the meadows are known for their rich flora.
Excerpt from www.europeanwaterfalls.com/waterfalls/plitvice-veliki-slap/:
Veliki Slap is the highest waterfall in the Plitvice National Park and is situated near Plitvica Selo at the end of the lakes, near entrance 1 of the national park, north of the big hotels. Veliki slap means the great waterfall and is the biggest waterfall in Plitvice National Park. The river Plitvice thunders, in a single drop, over 78 meters in the river Korana.
This vantage point gave me an opportunity to see multiple large shopping malls in their entirety, as well as the numerous commercial or office buildings that surround them.
A picture of a large shopping complex, consisting of multiple shopping malls that are interconnected with each other, as well as a few office buildings that surround it.
My wife and I often get up early to take advantage of sunny mornings in the countryside. On our way out of our small town about a mile north is a spot we always check out for wonderful sunrises over the shallow interconnected ponds of water. This particular morning last week the scene was enhanced with a heron making his morning stand and hoping some unsuspecting aquatic creature will make his day.
"Kindness can bring a short moment of relaxation in an otherwise busy day, or a complete change from feeling stressed and chagrined to feeling elated, open, and interconnected with the world." - Wouter
Thanks for visiting, much appreciated. Happy Weekend!
"And if the snow buries my, my neighborhood.
And if my parents are crying
Then I'll dig a tunnel from my window to yours,
Yeah, a tunnel from my window to yours..."
RÉSO, commonly referred to as The Underground City (French: La ville souterraine), is the name applied to a series of interconnected office towers, hotels, shopping centres, residential and commercial complexes, convention halls, universities and performing arts venues that form the heart of Montreal's central business district, colloquially referred to as Downtown Montreal. The name refers to the underground connections between the buildings that compose the network, in addition to the network's complete integration with the city's entirely underground rapid transit system, the Montreal Metro. Moreover, the first iteration of the Underground City was developed out of the open pit at the southern entrance to the Mount Royal Tunnel, where Place Ville Marie and Central Station stand today.
Happy Travel Thursay, everyone!
Of course, the soundtrack had to be from Montréal, Arcade Fire: youtu.be/3Hh45-yBMXY
Pando (Latin for "I spread") the world's largest tree, is a quaking aspen tree located in Sevier County. A male clonal organism, Pando has an estimated 47,000 stems that appear as individual trees, but are connected by a root system that spans 106 acres. Pando is the largest tree by weight and landmass and the largest known aspen clone. Pando was identified as a single living organism as each of its stems possesses identical genetic markers. The massive interconnected root system coordinates energy production, defense and regeneration across its expanse. Pando spans 0.63 miles by 0.43 miles of the southwestern edge of the Fishlake Basin in the Fremont River Ranger District.
Spreads from Kintsugi, a series of interconnected zines I’m working on. It is meant to be read in any order. Like the art of mending pottery, its fractured narrative forms a whole through fragments—logs, memos, and entries from the Habitat and its inhabitants. Overseen by The Vault, they tend to the terrain and the Shells, blurring the line between human and machine, present and future, memory and repair.
I’m diving deeper and deeper into the surreal, sci fi world. Some of the images and text is done a long time ago. I’m now editing and putting it all together. It is all finally coming together!
I'm sure our Flickr friends in France will recognize this car, but here in the USA it's a rare sighting.
The 2CV
Citroën unveiled the Citroën 2CV or Deux Chevaux signifying two tax horsepower and initially only 9 hp (6.7 kW), at the Paris Salon in 1948. The car became a bestseller, achieving the designer's aim of providing rural French people with a motorized alternative to the horse. It was unusually inexpensive to purchase and, with its small two cylinder engine, inexpensive to run as well. The 2CV pioneered a very soft, interconnected suspension, but did not have the more complex self-levelling feature. This car remained in production, with only minor changes, until 1990 and was a common sight on French roads until recently; 9 million 2CV variants were produced in the period 1948–1990. Thank you Wikipedia!
Dicyrtomina ornata is a springtail species from the Dicyrtomidae family. The scientific name of the species was first validly published in 1842 by Nicolet
Dorsal patches not interconnected is typical in forma couloni.
My latest review looks at Hotel Aislin where elegant design meets adult themes in the gritty Urban Decay. sim
Think chateau vibes with underground catacombs and themed rooms
Definitely adults-only territory, but the creative architecture and interconnected spaces make it worth exploring
#SecondLife #VirtualExploration
Sometimes I experience summer weekends in much the same way as a passenger on a train gazing out the window at the passing landscape. Like the train passenger, the metaphorical weekend journey is marked by many waypoints. They are often very diverse, yet interconnected as part of the same passage. I often develop a strange nostalgia for my weekend waypoints even before they have passed me by. I'll sometimes pause and think about the moment in time I'm currently occupying. I consider every nuance about that instance. How it feels, what I'm doing, the light and shadow. It's like taking a mental photo of that moment in my life. The nostalgia creeps in when I think about how all of that is about to change. And how I'll feel hours later when the moment has long passed and only the memory remains. I'll desperately want to return to that moment, but it's forever lost. This does not (as you might suspect) cause me day-long sadness. However it does engender an abiding respect for living in and appreciating the moment. Found myself standing in front of this scene yesterday on the very day of the summer solstice. Instantly I recognized this as one of those moments. The grabber for me were the empty table and chairs. My first thought was whether they were decorative, or if people actually sat here. Perhaps they enjoyed a summer picnic, or simply chatted with cool beverages. Either way the furniture added immensely to the sense of place. The scene had the look of a film set, everything carefully crafted to create a mood. The side yard, trees, filtered sunlight, the shadows cast by the furniture. The entire scene felt energized as if by an internal glow. The effect heightened by the utter absence of people and only the sounds of songbirds to fill the warm air. The Victorian house made for an idyllic setting. I imagined garden parties and gatherings that occurred here over the years, and the 140-odd summer solstices that had passed over this place. But this one was all mine. I lingered in the moment, but before long was compelled to re-board the train that would carry me along my summer weekend journey. I watched from the window as the empty table and chairs quickly receded into the distance.
Speicherstadt is a historic warehouse district located in Hamburg, Germany, renowned for its unique architectural style and rich maritime heritage. Built between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it boasts red-brick warehouses interconnected by a network of canals. The district served as a prominent hub for the storage and trade of goods, with a particular focus on coffee, tea, spices, and carpets. Today, Speicherstadt proudly holds the title of the world's largest warehouse district and enjoys UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Early this morning, with my hair still askew, I couldn't resist the urge to visit this iconic site and capture a photograph, despite its already extensive photographic history. Although my picture may not be particularly unique or creative, the allure of Speicherstadt compelled me to document its timeless charm once more - Speicherstadt, Hamburg, Germany
“The lake waters
come for us
at first
with slow unassuming
ripples,
then in earnest.”
~Tim Stouffer
You may or may not have heard about these gems of wilderness areas in northern Minnesota west of Lake Superior, which on our maps, go by ‘Voyageurs National Park’ and the nearby 'Boundary Waters Wilderness'. National Geographic keeps naming them as one of the top few wilderness places to experience for reasons such as viewing Northern Lights, paddling one or more of 1200 plus island-dotted lakes (many interconnected), abundant fishing, houseboating, or just finding peace a few layers of silence away from the cacophony of city life. Let me tell ya… it is a wild place! It is an utterly mesmerizing place!
In recent times, you may or may not have heard about the historic flood in this area. Due to late snow melt and excessive spring rain, the water level in Voyageurs lakes have swelled past all previous marks, wreaking havoc and devastation in nearby communities. Many properties (including cabins and boat-docks) are under water. The state deployed national guards in late May, who are still working around the clock with local volunteers to sandbag properties in a near futile attempt to keep the water out. This flood is one of those national tragedies that has been deemed unsuitable for national news.
Not to divagate, you may or may not have heard that Rishabh and I were recently at Voyageurs. The resort at Kabetogama lake, where we booked our cabin nine months ago, went under water in mid-May forcing us to find last minute lodging in a subpar nearby hotel. The Rainy Lake visitor center closed a couple of days after our visit; the raised corridors in the boat launch area behind the visitor center, that we walked on a few days ago, are now deluged and closed to visitors. While there for two days, we saw the water rising slowly but surely. It was surreal. At a glance, everything was calm on the surface; after a moment of reconciliation however, everything looked displaced. Under the raising water, streets were a sliver of themselves as debris marked their borders. Houses and properties were sandbagged as if they were war trenches. Wild animals, who had lost their grounds in the interiors to the incoming water, were often seen ambling (or, sometimes joyfully playing) in roadside water puddles. While shooting the above photo from the barely-dry middle of a flooded road just outside the national park boundary, a few deer came within a few feet and behaved as shy children in the wake of a stranger –– repeatedly coming close and running away in haste, splashing water all along. I wish they were included in the above scene, but I was technically ill-equipped to shoot fast moving subjects in dying light. Nonetheless, watching them play in the tapestry of the wild waters was a frisson of excitement and a reward in itself.
If you are interested in reading more about my recent trip to Croatia and the alps, there is a new article up on The Resonant Landscape today at
theresonantlandscape.com/autumn-in-the-alps-2017
One of the main motivations for me to drop everything and run off to Europe in the middle of a busy Fall semester at the college was the opportunity to shoot Plitvice Lakes National Park in October. The vast majority of photos that have been taken from this remarkable park in Croatia have been taken during the Spring and Summer months when water levels are high and the turquoise lakes are surrounded by green on all sides. But in Autumn, the leaves around these incredible lakes turn bright red, orange and yellow making an incredible background for the dozens of waterfalls throughout the park that seemingly flow right out of the trees on their way through this incredible valley.
Even though my itinerary had me shooting in Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Italy, I purposely kept my schedule open hoping to shoot Plitvice on a cloudy, misty morning with little or no wind. Well... it turns out that the week I made my trip was probably one of the driest stretches of October on record. Even though rain had been forecast for Friday earlier in the week, by the time Friday actually rolled around, it was clear, cloudless, hazy, and windy. The irony here was that I had waited all week for conditions to improve and they were actually worse by the time I finally headed down.
Plitvice, by the way, is one of the oldest national parks in Southeast Europe and the largest national park in Croatia. The park is world-famous for its lakes arranged in cascades. Currently, 16 lakes can be seen from the surface. These lakes are a result of the confluence of several small rivers and subterranean karst rivers. The lakes are all interconnected and follow the water flow. They are separated by natural dams of travertine, which is deposited by the action of moss, algae, and bacteria. (wiki)
Helpful hint if you are planning a trip in the future: Croatia hasn't quite made it all the way into the European Union yet, so their currency is still the Kuna rather than the Euro. This probably wouldn't have been an issue if their computers were up and running, but they were not and I lost 30-40 minutes scrambling around trying to exchange my Euros for Kunas as suddenly everything was "cash only." The park didn't exchange Euros so I had to hike back to one of the local hotels.
Even though I had less than ideal conditions at times during my 9 days in Europe, I had an incredible time shooting mostly in the alps through 5 countries while I was there. Plitvice is definitely a spot that you need to save more than one day for, and I'm hoping to make a return visit in the not too distant future. What an amazing park!
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Excerpt from www.mississauga.ca/arts-and-culture/arts/public-art/tempo...:
Interconnection by Moonlight Murals Collective is one of over 35 public artworks on display across the City of Mississauga.
Moonlight Murals Collective, 2022
Exterior acrylic on asphalt
Living Arts Drive, between Burnhamthorpe Road West and Square One Drive
Interconnection is a new temporary public artwork by Moonlight Murals Collective, integrated with the protected, on-road bike lanes on Living Arts Drive. These ground murals are located in the buffer zones that run alongside the cycling and parking/road lanes, helping to build a safe, connected, convenient and comfortable cycling network in Mississauga.
“Our aim in these ground paintings was not only to create a visually pleasing piece of art, but also to tell the story of people in a growing town such as Mississauga and how interconnected we are, not only to each other but also to nature and the land we reside on. Each thematic panel seamlessly connects to the next and at times, appear as opposing forces that make a complete whole reminiscent of the concept of Yin and Yang. Our designs focus on the relationship between humans and the natural environment and inspire the viewers to discover their imagination, emotion, interaction and relationship with their surroundings.” – Moonlight Murals Collective
One of several interconnected islands of the Long Sault Parkway. Here, being approached by water on SUP board.
Excerpt from www.mississauga.ca/arts-and-culture/arts/public-art/tempo...:
Interconnection by Moonlight Murals Collective is one of over 35 public artworks on display across the City of Mississauga.
Moonlight Murals Collective, 2022
Exterior acrylic on asphalt
Living Arts Drive, between Burnhamthorpe Road West and Square One Drive
Interconnection is a new temporary public artwork by Moonlight Murals Collective, integrated with the protected, on-road bike lanes on Living Arts Drive. These ground murals are located in the buffer zones that run alongside the cycling and parking/road lanes, helping to build a safe, connected, convenient and comfortable cycling network in Mississauga.
“Our aim in these ground paintings was not only to create a visually pleasing piece of art, but also to tell the story of people in a growing town such as Mississauga and how interconnected we are, not only to each other but also to nature and the land we reside on. Each thematic panel seamlessly connects to the next and at times, appear as opposing forces that make a complete whole reminiscent of the concept of Yin and Yang. Our designs focus on the relationship between humans and the natural environment and inspire the viewers to discover their imagination, emotion, interaction and relationship with their surroundings.” – Moonlight Murals Collective
In the coming weeks and months, the United States Congress faces decisions on the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement and the future of support for the fifth largest recipient of U.S. assistance in the world. Recent developments in Colombia, one of the longest-standing allies of the United States in the Americas, including the on-going investigation into ties between paramilitary organizations and sectors of Colombia's governing class have raised questions regarding the future direction of U.S. policy toward Colombia. In a spirit of open communication, The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress is pleased to host a conversation with His Excellency Alvaro Uribe, President of Colombia, about these and other issues that shape the relationship between two of the most closely interconnected countries in the Americas.
For more on this event, please see:
Architects: OMA
1997-2013
"De Rotterdam is conceived as a vertical city: three interconnected mixed-use towers accommodating offices, apartments, a hotel, conference facilities, shops, restaurants, and cafes. The project began in 1997. Construction started at the end of 2009, with completion in 2013. The towers are part of the ongoing redevelopment of the old harbour district of Wilhelminapier, next to the Erasmus Bridge, and aim to reinstate the vibrant urban activity - trade, transport, leisure - once familiar to the neighbourhood. De Rotterdam is named after one of the ships on the Holland America Line, which departed from the Wilhelminapier in decades past, carrying thousands of Europeans emigrating to the US.
The three towers reach 150m high, with a gross floor area of approximately 162,000m2, making De Rotterdam the largest building in the Netherlands. OMA's architectural concept produces more than sheer size: urban density and diversity - both in the program and the form - are the guiding principles of the project. De Rotterdam's stacked towers are arranged in a subtly irregular cluster that refuses to resolve into a singular form and produces intriguing new views from different perspectives. Similarly, the definition of the building changes according to its multiple uses internally.
The various programs of this urban complex are organized into distinct blocks, providing both clarity and synergy: residents and office workers alike can use the fitness facilities, restaurants, and conference rooms of the hotel. And these private users of the building have contact with the general public on the ground floor, with its waterfront cafes. The lobbies for the offices, hotel, and apartments are located in the plinth - a long elevated hall that serves as a general traffic hub for De Rotterdam's wide variety of users.
"
Shingle Street, Suffolk, England, UK
On a remote stretch of the Suffolk coastline, by the River Ore, lies the tiny settlement of Shingle Street. It is an eerie, barren place which is almost entirely covered by small, round stones. At low tide, the percolation lagoons create endless photographic opportunities - and curves and contrasts abound as the light fades. Shingle Street often lends itself to moody, minimalist photographs but a colourful sunset and a mirror pool are ample compensation for fair weather. In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yīnyáng (lit. dark light) is used to describe how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world. Shingle Street is yinyang; dark shingle and light water, complimentary and interdependent.
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia.
Plitvice Lakes National Park is Croatia’s best-known national park, listed on the UNESCO List of World Heritage sites. It is a popular visiting destination all year round, and must-see for every visitor to Croatia.
Well known for its system of cascading lakes - whereby sixteen lovely lakes are interconnected by cascades and waterfalls. The park is simply beautiful. The main focus of park's beauty are sixteen lakes, divided into two parts - Gornja jezera (Upper lakes) and Donja Jezera (Lower Lakes), as well as numerous waterfalls and cascades.
For video, please visit youtu.be/6p-MI7efeCw
The two firmly anchored and interconnected ships in the background are home to Vienna's Bertha-von-Suttner-Gymnasium, a grammar school founded in 1994. It is located on the Danube Island between the bridges Floridsdorfer Brücke and Nordbahnbrücke. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha-von-Suttner-Gymnasium_(Wien)
The school is named after Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914), "an Austrian-Bohemian pacifist and novelist. In 1905, she became the second female Nobel laureate (after Marie Curie in 1903), the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first Austrian laureate." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertha_von_Suttner
The remains of one of the piers of the old Floridsdorf bridge are a hangout very popular with cormorants. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floridsdorfer_Br%C3%BCcke
Taken at Tuggerah Lakes, a wetland system of three interconnected coastal lagoons, are located on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia
“The Kerala backwaters are a network of brackish lagoons and canals lying parallel to the Arabian Sea of the Malabar coast of Kerala state in south-western India. It also includes interconnected lakes, rivers, and inlets, a labyrinthine system formed by more than 900 km of waterways, and sometimes compared to bayous. The network includes five large lakes linked by canals, both man made and natural, fed by 38 rivers, and extending virtually half the length of Kerala state. The backwaters were formed by the action of waves and shore currents creating low barrier islands across the mouths of the many rivers flowing down from the Western Ghats range. In the midst of this landscape there are a number of towns and cities, which serve as the starting and end points of backwater cruises. There are 34 backwaters in Kerala. Out of it, 27 are located either closer to Arabian Sea or parallel to the sea. The remaining 7 are inland navigation routes.
The backwaters have a unique ecosystem: freshwater from the rivers meets the seawater from the Arabian Sea. A barrage has been built near Thanneermukkom, so salt water from the sea is prevented from entering the deep inside, keeping the fresh water intact. Such fresh water is extensively used for irrigation purposes. Many unique species of aquatic life including crabs, frogs and mudskippers, water birds such as terns, kingfishers, darters and cormorants, and animals such as otters and turtles live in and alongside the backwaters. Palm trees, pandanus shrubs, various leafy plants, and bushes grow alongside the backwaters, providing a green hue to the surrounding landscape.”
The Temple of the Warriors complex consists of a large stepped pyramid fronted and flanked by rows of carved columns depicting warriors. This complex is analogous to Temple B at the Toltec capital of Tula, and indicates some form of cultural contact between the two regions. The one at Chichen Itza, however, was constructed on a larger scale. At the top of the stairway on the pyramid's summit (and leading toward the entrance of the pyramid's temple) is a Chac Mool.
This temple encases or entombs a former structure called The Temple of the Chac Mool. The archeological expedition and restoration of this building was done by the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1925 to 1928. A key member of this restoration was Earl H. Morris, who published the work from this expedition in two volumes entitled Temple of the Warriors. Watercolors were made of murals in the Temple of the Warriors that were deteriorating rapidly following exposure to the elements after enduring for centuries in the protected enclosures being discovered. Many depict battle scenes and some even have tantalizing images that lend themselves to speculation and debate by prominent Maya scholars, such as Michael D. Coe and Mary Miller, regarding possible contact with Viking sailors.
Along the south wall of the Temple of Warriors are a series of what are today exposed columns, although when the city was inhabited these would have supported an extensive roof system. The columns are in three distinct sections: A west group, that extends the lines of the front of the Temple of Warriors. A north group runs along the south wall of the Temple of Warriors and contains pillars with carvings of soldiers in bas-relief;
A northeast group, which apparently formed a small temple at the southeast corner of the Temple of Warriors, contains a rectangular decorated with carvings of people or gods, as well as animals and serpents. The northeast column temple also covers a small marvel of engineering, a channel that funnels all the rainwater from the complex some 40 meters away to a rejollada, a former cenote.
To the south of the Group of a Thousand Columns is a group of three, smaller, interconnected buildings. The Temple of the Carved Columns is a small elegant building that consists of a front gallery with an inner corridor that leads to an altar with a Chac Mool. There are also numerous columns with rich, bas-relief carvings of some 40 personages.
A section of the upper façade with a motif of x's and o's is displayed in front of the structure. The Temple of the Small Tables which is an unrestored mound. And the Thompson's Temple (referred to in some sources as Palace of Ahau Balam Kauil ), a small building with two levels that has friezes depicting Jaguars (balam in Maya) as well as glyphs of the Maya god Kahuil.
Tutto è armonioso e interconnesso, tutto spera, rinasce, ritorna. Mi affido al vento, lo plasmo con le mie ali, così da sfuggire al pericolo e poter dimorare di nuovo presso vecchi amici sotto i tetti. Sono una piccola guerriera indomabile. Canto la speranza.
Everything is harmonious and interconnected, everything hopes, is reborn, returns. I rely on the wind, I shape it with my wings, so as to escape danger and be able to live again with old friends under the roofs. I am an indomitable little warrior. I sing hope.
Testo tratto da "Oracolo degli animali sacri. Ispirazioni e messaggi dalla natura sacra e selvaggia." Vivida ed.
Francesca Matteoni (Autore) Rocco Lombardi (Illustratore)
Text taken from "Oracle of the sacred animals. Inspirations and messages from sacred and wild nature" Vivida ed.
Francesca Matteoni (Author) Rocco Lombardi (Illustrator)
roccolombardi.bigcartel.com/product/oracolo-degli-animali...
This is the second short rock tunnel along this popular trail where hikers walk in the footsteps of the canyon's Indigenous people (particularly the Havasupai tribe), miners, and early tourists, as they descend into the canyon's depths. The trail was originally formed from interconnected animal paths and then refined and utilized by Native Americans for centuries. Evidence of their use remains today as pictographs are still visible along the trail walls. However, I have not been able to find pictographs regardless of hiking this trail twice now... but I tend to watch the spectacular, jaw dropping views instead!
The chance to see a beautiful baby sea turtle make its journey from its nest to the ocean is a rare and special moment....It was heartwarming beyond words to witness, the turtles journey is basically a miracle. This turtle was also the only one around and seagulls were trying to get it, luckily we scared the seagulls enough and watched the turtle make its way safely to the ocean where I hope it was able to survive it's next challenge and still alive flourishing today ❤️
Earth Day is every day... respect Every living thing around us, all living things have a purpose, and we all are interconnected. ...
This experience reinforced to me the gift of being alive on this incredible planet Earth we are so lucky for and need to protect... not just for us but for All life that depends on it. 💙🌎🌏🌍💚
medium.com/proofofimpact/the-journey-of-a-baby-sea-turtle...(a,to%20return%20to%20the%20seas.
I've been posting an Earth Day greeting for many Flickr years, and I like to try to find an interesting subject the day before to base them on...yesterday, I spied this unusually marked and colored Lady Beetle to represent how this huge world harbors countless tiny creatures...and it's all interconnected!
As an inhabitant of this blue marble in the vastness of the universe, my thoughts for our dependence on the well being of the natural world will be strongly with me on this Earth Day... God's creation was pure, perfect and in complete balance, a balance we have managed to disrupt to the point that disturbing tipping points are showing up on so many fronts...and I pray to God that He grant us the wisdom to adjust our course to assure a livable world for coming generations...
It occurred to me today how photography is such a key element in linking people everywhere to a better awareness of the natural world, both it's magnificence and it's current plight...both aspects so overwhelming and compelling! I can only hope that as we chronicle the natural world around us through the lens, it might inspire someone, young or old, to get more involved in the future well being of the planet we all share, in any way they see fit...every positive effort offers a positive result!
Recycle, replenish, conserve...and keep sharing your views of the astonishing, fragile natural world around us!
Have a wonderful Earth Day, everyone...God bless you, and God bless our home!
Tonlé Sap (literally large river (tonle); fresh, not salty (sap), commonly translated to "Great Lake") refers to a seasonally inundated freshwater lake, the Tonlé Sap Lake and an attached river, the 120 km (75 mi) long Tonlé Sap River, that connects the lake to the Mekong.
They form the central part of a complex hydrological system, situated in the 12,876 km2 (4,971 sq mi) Cambodian floodplain covered with a mosaic of natural and agricultural habitats that the Mekong replenishes with water and sediments annually. The central plain formation is the result of millions of years of Mekong alluvial deposition and discharge. From a geological perspective, the Tonlé Sap Lake and Tonlé Sap River are a current freeze-frame representation of the slowly, but ever shifting Lower Mekong Basin. Annual fluctuation of the Mekong's water volume, supplemented by the Asian Monsoon regime causes the unique flow reversal of the Tonle Sap River.
The Tonlé Sap Lake occupies a geological depression (the lowest lying area) of the vast alluvial and lacustrine floodplain in the Lower Mekong Basin, which had been induced by the collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate. The lake's size, length and water volume varies considerably over the course of a year from an area of around 2,500 km2 (965 sq mi), a volume of 1 km3 (0 cu mi) and a length of 160 km (99 mi) at the end of the dry season in late April to an area of up to 16,000 km2 (6,178 sq mi), a volume of 80 km3 (19 cu mi) and a length of 250 km (160 mi) as the Mekong maximum and the peak of the South-West monsoon's precipitation culminate in September and early October.
As one of the world’s most varied and productive ecosystems the region has always been of central importance for Cambodia's food provision. It proved capable to maintain the Angkorean civilization, the largest pre-industrial settlement complex in world history. Either directly or indirectly it affects the livelihood of large numbers of a predominantly rural population to this day. With regards to a growing and migrating population, ineffective administration and widespread indifference towards environmental issues the lake and its surrounding ecosystem is coming under increasing pressure from over-exploitation and habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss. All Mekong riparian states have either announced or already implemented plans to increasingly exploit the river's hydroelectric potential. A succession of international facilities that dam the river's mainstream is likely to be the gravest danger yet for the entire Tonle Sap eco-region.
The largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, that contains an exceptional large variety of interconnected eco-regions with a high degree of biodiversity is a biodiversity hotspot and was designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1997.