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Hilton Times Square owner: “Take my hotel, please”
Struggling owner opted to walk away from 478-room hotel
New York /
January 06, 2021 06:00 PM
By Akiko Matsuda | Research By Orion Jones
The owner of the Hilton Hotel in Times Square has given the keys to the hotel back to its mortgage holder.
The hotel’s owner, California-based REIT Sunstone Hotel Investors, surrendered the 44-story property to Torchlight Investors, the special servicer. The lender and the borrower signed a lease in lieu of foreclosure, which allows the hotel owner to hand the keys back to its lender, according to property records filed in December.
Torchlight and Sunstone did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 478-room hotel, located at 234 West 42nd Street, was one of the biggest casualties of the pandemic-driven downturn in the hospitality sector. In September, Sunstone notified the state of its plan to lay off 200 employees because of the facility closing, and in October, it permanently closed its doors.
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Hilton Times Square to close permanently
El propietario del hotel, REIT Sunstone Hotel Investors, con sede en California, entregó la propiedad de 44 pisos a Torchlight Investors, el administrador especial. El prestamista y el prestatario firmaron un contrato de arrendamiento en lugar de una ejecución hipotecaria, que permite al propietario del hotel devolver las llaves a su prestamista, según los registros de propiedad presentados en diciembre.
Torchlight y Sunstone no respondieron de inmediato a las solicitudes de comentarios.
El hotel de 478 habitaciones, ubicado en 234 West 42nd Street, fue una de las mayores víctimas de la recesión provocada por la pandemia en el sector de la hospitalidad. En septiembre, Sunstone notificó al estado de su plan de despedir a 200 empleados debido al cierre de las instalaciones y, en octubre, cerró sus puertas de forma permanente.
Lee mas
Hilton Times Square cerrará permanentemente
therealdeal.com/2020/03/18/some-nyc-hotels-were-strugglin...
Dos proyectos hoteleros de Brooklyn se declaran en quiebra en una semana
Pero el hotel estaba en problemas antes de que llegara la pandemia. Su índice de cobertura del servicio de la deuda, una métrica que indica la capacidad de una propiedad para cubrir sus gastos hipotecarios e intereses, había caído a niveles peligrosamente bajos a fines de 2019.
Como The Real Deal informó anteriormente, el préstamo del hotel se había suscrito asumiendo que los ingresos operativos netos serían 2,16 veces su servicio de la deuda. Para septiembre de 2019, se había reducido a 1,03 veces.
~Jim Davis
Food Week Continues! When I was little, I thought carrot cake sounded like the worst possible food combination: something I loved dearly (cake) wretchedly combined with something I hated (carrots). But then I grew up, finally tried some, and it has been a heart-thumping love affair that has lasted for years.
So now I ask myself almost daily: can cake be bad for you as a breakfast item if it has fruit & veggies in it? I think not.
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© Steven Brisson. Do not use without permission.
Press L or click on the photo to view it on black background ...
Without a shadow of a doubt such an environment acts deffinitely as a brain stimulus ... It helps you to focus your thoughts and to concentrate on your goals ... And when given the opportunity, It helps you to lay off, take a big breath and relax !!!
If I was given a second opportunity, this would have been the place I would have chosen to study !!!!
EXIF: NIKON D90 with Nikon Nikkor 18-55 mm lens, Manual mode, f 9, ISO 250, focal length 18 mm, manual exposure selection and white balance, shutter speed 1/50 s, HDR made by only one original shot, the scene's lighting conditions are accurately conveyed to the viewer, flash did not fire, no tripod ....
© Copyright - All rights reserved
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malam_Jabba#
Malam Jabba (also Maalam Jabba, Urdu: مالم جبہ) is a Hill Station in the Karakoram mountain range nearly 40 km from Saidu Sharif in Swat Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is 314 km from Islamabad and 51 km from Saidu Sharif Airport.
Malam Jabba is home to the only ski resort in Pakistan.[1] The area also contains two Buddhist stupas and six monasteries that are scattered around the resort. The presence of the monuments at such a height indicates that the area has been inhabited for over 2000 years.
Two trekking trails are located near the Malam Jabba resort. The first passes through the Ghorband Valley and Shangla Top and starts about 18 km from the resort. The other trail passes through the Sabonev Valley and is about 17 km from the resort.
Malam Jabba ski resort
The Malam Jabba Ski Resort, owned by the Pakistani Tourism Development Corporation, had a ski slope of about 800 m with the highest point of the slope 2804 m (9200 ft) above sea level. Malam Jabba Ski Resort was the joint effort of the Pakistan government with its Austrian counterpart. The resort was equipped with modern facilities including roller/ice-skating rinks, chair lifts, skiing platforms, telephones and snow clearing equipment.[citation needed]
In late June 2008, the Malam Jabba Ski Resort was set on fire and destroyed after being closed for more than a year. Residents said a large portion of the resort had been reduced to ashes and the militants also damaged chairlifts and a tower belonging to the meteorological department. The Pakistani government had long since lost control over the administration and security of the valley and had abandoned the resort, laying off its employees there. This was due to the war in the Swat valley between government security forces and Taliban militias (who were likely relocating from nearby FATA and Afghanistan).[2] The Pakistani government accepted a Taliban truce in the Swat valley.[3] The Taliban started infiltrating armed members into the adjoining state of Buner and openly invited Osama bin Laden. In May 2009 however the army started an offensive against the Taliban and retook the town.[4] The ski hill at the resort has now been rebuilt and is fully operational.[5] The ski track has undergone reconstruction and rehabilitation.The hotel is still awaiting reconstruction.
Tough times up at the manor....The word on the street is that the lord is laying off some of his staff...apparently he's down to one butler.....they say he might even have to clean his own shoes.
i'm something of an insomniac tonight... one with very bizarre cravings, e.g. for a block of parmesan cheese & red onions, tropical skittles, tequila, & turkey chili... not sure what this is about, but in the words of chris farley, "LAY OFF ME I'M STARRRRRRVING"
6906 - X23BUS was acquired by McGill's from ARRIVA London via Ensign, Purfleet and put into service on service X23 with 11 other similar vehicles. This one had the misfortune of striking the railway bridge at Barrhead causing upper deck damage.
It has returned after a lengthy lay off at BusWorks has this sparkling open-topper for use when Cruise Ships are docked in Greenock.
For the school holidays, it has been used in normal service on service 17 and is seen passing Kelvingrove heading for Glasgow City Centre.
DALLA TERRAZZA DEL FONDACO DEI TEDESCHI
Il Fondaco dei Tedeschi chiuderà entro settembre 2025: l’hub del lusso risente della crisi del lusso e di quella relativa ai flussi di turisti asiatici.
L'hub nel sestiere San Marco e affacciato sul celebre Canal Grande, a pochi passi dal meraviglioso Ponte di Rialto, licenzierà entro due mesi i suoi 226 dipendenti. La notizia arriva in un periodo particolarmente complesso per i brandi di lusso a livello internazionali, con una crisi fortissima che colpisce i distretti tessili così come i fatturati delle Maison.
Note tratte dal sito: www.fanpage.it/stile-e-trend/moda/chiude-il-fondaco-dei-t...
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FROM THE TERRACE OF FONDACO DEI TEDESCHI
Fondaco dei Tedeschi will close by September 2025: the luxury hub is suffering from the luxury crisis and the crisis related to the flow of Asian tourists.
The hub in the San Marco district and overlooking the famous Grand Canal, a few steps from the wonderful Rialto Bridge, will lay off its 226 employees within two months. The news comes at a particularly complex time for luxury brands at an international level, with a very strong crisis that is affecting the textile districts as well as the turnover of the Maisons.
CANON EOS 6D Mark II con ob. CANON EF 24-85 f./3,5-4,5 USM
On doing a bit of beach combing today……We came across this cruise ship laying off the English South coast all abandoned, the CraZyGang decided to call a meeting to decide if the Sheltie land rules apply, …..i.e anything lost dropped or misplaced, that looks like fair bounty, is far game and immediately becomes the property of the Sheltie that is first on the scene……Now the big question is…Does that Sheltie law apply to maritime law and this abandoned ship!!!!….And if the answer is yes (and the overwhelming view is ~yes~ it is) just how are we going board her without getting the paws wet…..And I hope dear reader that it is not lost on you, that you have noticed that when that question was asked, that all eyes were too fall on me…… and to think that silly me thought that they were waiting for me to take a photo… Ummmmm….So let me get this straight… all I have to do now is swim across to the ship….Somehow get myself on deck…..Lower one of the small boats mounted on the deck….Row back….Pick you all up…..Row back…..Use the hoist I lowered the boat down with, to hoist you all on deck…..You have got to be joking…..You will never persuade me to do that …..What’s that….You’re tell me where you have hidden the beer fund money….I do it!!!!!!
And please don’t worry about the lockdowm…as this photo was taken last year, and kindly found by Halo to put on line as we have nothing new at the moment…x
Yon bison has a lean and thirsty look as I relax with a red ale brewed by Marker 48 Brewing of Weeki Wachee FL.
We are having lay offs at work. I took this before a divisional meeting yesterday where we talked about what is going on. it is so sad to see your friends get laid off. It hurts and is painful. Everyone is just trying to hang in there right now. Here's a wish for all of us that this will pass...
St,Croix Tower,Hastings MN.Circa 1973.End of Joint Milw.CB&Q operation. Looking west toward St.Paul. Milw Straight ahead,Q trails off to right to Prescott,WI. For rules fans, 20 miles dual owner ship, double track ABS Rule 251 keep LEFT. The green searchlight is Q, Milw semaphores. Trivia: This is where the tower and my RR career were almost snuffed out on a Thangsgiving night 1975 in a spectacular wreck. Milw 66 rounded the curve up there with a car dragging. Part way down the steps for insp, sparks were seen. The car hit that Q turnout taking out everything you see,stopping where that opr is standing. Track,diamond,poles,wires,and buildings. The 50 ton loaded boxcar snagged this first turnout,pulling it 10ft in the air.This saved my bacon. Not intending to run out towards it,headed back up to radio and wait impending doom. Don't know what I was going to tell him,"stop this now?" As the caboose could now see, the radio crackled "OMG we're into the F------- tower! Then dead silence.5 cars&hack left on track. Lantern's bobbing up track,we all looked at each other in awe.Back to work,radio to St.Paul YdMstr,hold all trns,call Newport,LaCrosse and Cicero dispatchers, we are blocked. Supt took 2 hrs from Lacrosse,took one look,looked at yours truly,and said,"Andy ,you must live clean." After a couple days,trains could get by. But it gets better and you just can't make this stuff up. The very next Thursday night,Milw 76 comes around bend,more sparks,hit Q turnout,exact same scenario. Everthing tore out again,except this time it uncoupled with the last moving car,a hopper dragging it's trailing truck,hits the trailing point "savior" turnout and like a Lionel trainset, re-rails itself! Blocked again. The suggestion from the Chief DS was,this may be a bad omen and I should possibly lay off sick next Thursday. I declined. An opr should go down with his tower. Anyway something to be thankful for. And now you know....the rest of the story...Good Day.
Laying off East Haven by Carnoustie, Amphibious Transport Dock ship for Royal Marine support operations.
It's hard to lay off of this spring target given the visual drama of the two intersecting galaxies. Here I've used a sensitive monochrome astro-cam to squeeze a lot of detail from a small scope in my suburban yard.
Tech Stuff: Questar 3.5"/ ZWO ASI 533MM/ RST-135E mount/ 85 minutes of 4 second exposures, captured with SharpCap Pro and processed with PixInsight. From my Bortle 7 yard 10 miles north of New York City.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malam_Jabba#
Malam Jabba (also Maalam Jabba, Urdu: مالم جبہ) is a Hill Station in the Karakoram mountain range nearly 40 km from Saidu Sharif in Swat Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is 314 km from Islamabad and 51 km from Saidu Sharif Airport.
Malam Jabba is home to the only ski resort in Pakistan.[1] The area also contains two Buddhist stupas and six monasteries that are scattered around the resort. The presence of the monuments at such a height indicates that the area has been inhabited for over 2000 years.
Two trekking trails are located near the Malam Jabba resort. The first passes through the Ghorband Valley and Shangla Top and starts about 18 km from the resort. The other trail passes through the Sabonev Valley and is about 17 km from the resort.
Malam Jabba ski resort
The Malam Jabba Ski Resort, owned by the Pakistani Tourism Development Corporation, had a ski slope of about 800 m with the highest point of the slope 2804 m (9200 ft) above sea level. Malam Jabba Ski Resort was the joint effort of the Pakistan government with its Austrian counterpart. The resort was equipped with modern facilities including roller/ice-skating rinks, chair lifts, skiing platforms, telephones and snow clearing equipment.[citation needed]
In late June 2008, the Malam Jabba Ski Resort was set on fire and destroyed after being closed for more than a year. Residents said a large portion of the resort had been reduced to ashes and the militants also damaged chairlifts and a tower belonging to the meteorological department. The Pakistani government had long since lost control over the administration and security of the valley and had abandoned the resort, laying off its employees there. This was due to the war in the Swat valley between government security forces and Taliban militias (who were likely relocating from nearby FATA and Afghanistan).[2] The Pakistani government accepted a Taliban truce in the Swat valley.[3] The Taliban started infiltrating armed members into the adjoining state of Buner and openly invited Osama bin Laden. In May 2009 however the army started an offensive against the Taliban and retook the town.[4] The ski hill at the resort has now been rebuilt and is fully operational.[5] The ski track has undergone reconstruction and rehabilitation.The hotel is still awaiting reconstruction.
Pep Boys
Philadelphia building
In 1921, four Navy buddies spotted an emerging market for auto supplies stores and pooled $800 to open the first one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Since then, Pep Boys has been ahead of its time in the business world, weathering several economic events to remain one of the most widely known aftermarket auto parts and service brands in the country today.
Emanual “Manny” Rosenfeld, two Moes- Maurice “Moe” Strauss and Moe Radavitz- and W. Graham “Jack” Jackson chipped in $200 each to start the business. With car ownership skyrocketing, following the introduction of the assembly line production of the Ford Model T, Strauss saw a need for an auto accessories store and knew with the right partners he could make it happen. The founders rented a store at 7-11 North 63rd Street in West Philadelphia, but it still needed a name.
As the foursome initially set up their store, Moe’s eye fell on a carton of Pep Valve Grinding compound and suggested Pep. Pep Auto Supply Company was the company’s name its first two years. The current, famous “Pep Boys” name emerged in pieces, partly coming from a Philadelphia police officer who encouraged people to visit “the boys at Pep” and a cross-country trip to Los Angeles that inspired the “Manny, Moe & Jack” moniker from a dress shop. Radivitz and Jackson eventually left the business a short time later, and Strauss’ brother eventually took on the role of Jack.
Shrewd planning kept the company safe during the Great Depression. Manny and Moe had incurred no business debts other than reasonable mortgages on store properties. Even during the Depression, Americans still had to spend money on their cars, keeping aftermarket suppliers in business. Pep Boys also sold non-auto accessories including radio supplies and bicycles that made sense for their customer base. The company did not cut back or lay off personnel, run up debt, or sell out to a competitor during the Depression. Instead, it doubled its strength by expanding to California.
Pep Boys opened their first store in Los Angeles in 1933. The California expansion was opened as a separate company, The Pep Boys- Manny, Moe & Jack of California. The company’s first service bays opened their doors in Los Angeles since stores were larger in square footage out west.
Pep Boys went public in 1945 in order to meet increasing consumer demand unleashed at the end of WWII. The infusion of cash went directly into growing the business, and Pep Boys followed the masses out to the suburbs.
The company’s headquarters got a new home as well, moving to its current location at 3111 West Allegheny Avenue in the East Falls section of Philadelphia. Pep Boys moved to the building on May 26, 1947, and paid off the mortgage by 1959. Today, this building is known as the Store Support Center, housing the company’s corporate offices.
In the next 20 years, the number of stores nearly tripled to a total of 124 by 1969. It was during this time service bays and service managers were added to each store. Through the 1970s, Pep Boys converted all stores to self-serviced merchandising and implemented a computerized inventory system.
The 1980s brought the most aggressive expansion program in the company’s history. To raise capital, Pep Boys split its stock 3-for-1 and moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1982. This strategy enabled rapid growth and brought about the birth of the automotive “supercenter.” This concept boosted Pep Boys to more than 700 stores, almost 3,600 service bays and more than $2 billion in annual sales.
Pep Boys The Road Ahead
Pep Boys continued its expansion in the 1990s, including to Puerto Rico. As the automotive aftermarket need has shifted over time from a majority of auto parts customers who identify as “Do it Yourselfers” to an increasing number of customers who prefer service centers to take care of their automotive maintenance and repair, Pep Boys has expanded its service business. Today Pep Boys provides service for more than six million cars and car owners each year. More than 23 million “Rewards” members have signed up for special offers in stores.
Since 2009, Pep Boys has focused on the development of service and tire centers within its existing markets as its primary growth strategy. Today the company operates more than 7,400 service bays in nearly 800 stores nationwide. At the same time, in some of its traditional supercenters, the company has expanded to include “Speed Shops” within its retail stores, which cater to the growing number of car enthusiasts who have fun working on performance cars, like hot rods, “muscle cars” and off-road trucks.
In 2012, Pep Boys created a new service and retail customer experience, which it refers to as “The Road Ahead. ” Similar to the experience found at some high-end car dealerships, new Pep Boys stores feature customer lounges with amenities such as complimentary Wi-Fi and flat screen TVs near its full-service maintenance and repair shops, as well as the most diverse
retail product assortment in the automotive aftermarket.
I had to go to the doctor yesterday for a stress test to see if I was as old as I sometimes feel... ;) Things all seem to be in good working order, so I guess I just need to get more exercise...and, perhaps, lay off the Oreos...
This is a shot I grabbed while waiting for the appointment... :)
6906 - X23BUS was acquired by McGill's from ARRIVA London via Ensign, Purfleet and put into service on service X23 with 11 other similar vehicles. This one had the misfortune of striking the railway bridge at Barrhead causing upper deck damage.
It has returned after a lengthy lay off at BusWorks has this sparkling open-topper for use when Cruise Ships are docked in Greenock.
For the school holidays, it has been used in normal service on service 17 and is seen on Renfrew STreet heading for Paisley.
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. It was referred to as Hoover Dam after President Herbert Hoover in bills passed by Congress during its construction, but was named Boulder Dam by the Roosevelt administration. The Hoover Dam name was restored by Congress in 1947.
Since about 1900, the Black Canyon and nearby Boulder Canyon had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project. The winning bid to build the dam was submitted by a consortium called Six Companies, Inc., which began construction of the dam in early 1931. Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques were unproven. The torrid summer weather and lack of facilities near the site also presented difficulties. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned the dam over to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule.
Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States by volume when full. The dam is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam's generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction; nearly a million people tour the dam each year. The heavily traveled U.S. Route 93 (US 93) ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened.
As the United States developed the Southwest, the Colorado River was seen as a potential source of irrigation water. An initial attempt at diverting the river for irrigation purposes occurred in the late 1890s, when land speculator William Beatty built the Alamo Canal just north of the Mexican border; the canal dipped into Mexico before running to a desolate area Beatty named the Imperial Valley. Though water from the Imperial Canal allowed for the widespread settlement of the valley, the canal proved expensive to operate. After a catastrophic breach that caused the Colorado River to fill the Salton Sea, the Southern Pacific Railroad spent $3 million in 1906–07 to stabilize the waterway, an amount it hoped in vain would be reimbursed by the federal government. Even after the waterway was stabilized, it proved unsatisfactory because of constant disputes with landowners on the Mexican side of the border.
As the technology of electric power transmission improved, the Lower Colorado was considered for its hydroelectric-power potential. In 1902, the Edison Electric Company of Los Angeles surveyed the river in the hope of building a 40-foot rock dam which could generate 10,000 horsepower. However, at the time, the limit of transmission of electric power was 80 miles, and there were few customers (mostly mines) within that limit. Edison allowed land options it held on the river to lapse—including an option for what became the site of Hoover Dam.
In the following years, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), known as the Reclamation Service at the time, also considered the Lower Colorado as the site for a dam. Service chief Arthur Powell Davis proposed using dynamite to collapse the walls of Boulder Canyon, 20 miles north of the eventual dam site, into the river. The river would carry off the smaller pieces of debris, and a dam would be built incorporating the remaining rubble. In 1922, after considering it for several years, the Reclamation Service finally rejected the proposal, citing doubts about the unproven technique and questions as to whether it would, in fact, save money.
Soon after the dam was authorized, increasing numbers of unemployed people converged on southern Nevada. Las Vegas, then a small city of some 5,000, saw between 10,000 and 20,000 unemployed descend on it. A government camp was established for surveyors and other personnel near the dam site; this soon became surrounded by a squatters' camp. Known as McKeeversville, the camp was home to men hoping for work on the project, together with their families. Another camp, on the flats along the Colorado River, was officially called Williamsville, but was known to its inhabitants as "Ragtown". When construction began, Six Companies hired large numbers of workers, with more than 3,000 on the payroll by 1932[35] and with employment peaking at 5,251 in July 1934. "Mongolian" (Chinese) labor was prevented by the construction contract, while the number of black people employed by Six Companies never exceeded thirty, mostly lowest-pay-scale laborers in a segregated crew, who were issued separate water buckets.
As part of the contract, Six Companies, Inc. was to build Boulder City to house the workers. The original timetable called for Boulder City to be built before the dam project began, but President Hoover ordered work on the dam to begin in March 1931 rather than in October. The company built bunkhouses, attached to the canyon wall, to house 480 single men at what became known as River Camp. Workers with families were left to provide their own accommodations until Boulder City could be completed, and many lived in Ragtown. The site of Hoover Dam endures extremely hot weather, and the summer of 1931 was especially torrid, with the daytime high averaging 119.9 °F. Sixteen workers and other riverbank residents died of heat prostration between June 25 and July 26, 1931.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies"), though much-reduced from their heyday as militant labor organizers in the early years of the century, hoped to unionize the Six Companies workers by capitalizing on their discontent. They sent eleven organizers, several of whom were arrested by Las Vegas police. On August 7, 1931, the company cut wages for all tunnel workers. Although the workers sent the organizers away, not wanting to be associated with the "Wobblies", they formed a committee to represent them with the company. The committee drew up a list of demands that evening and presented them to Crowe the following morning. He was noncommittal. The workers hoped that Crowe, the general superintendent of the job, would be sympathetic; instead, he gave a scathing interview to a newspaper, describing the workers as "malcontents".
On the morning of the 9th, Crowe met with the committee and told them that management refused their demands, was stopping all work, and was laying off the entire work force, except for a few office workers and carpenters. The workers were given until 5 p.m. to vacate the premises. Concerned that a violent confrontation was imminent, most workers took their paychecks and left for Las Vegas to await developments. Two days later, the remainder were talked into leaving by law enforcement. On August 13, the company began hiring workers again, and two days later, the strike was called off. While the workers received none of their demands, the company guaranteed there would be no further reductions in wages. Living conditions began to improve as the first residents moved into Boulder City in late 1931.
A second labor action took place in July 1935, as construction on the dam wound down. When a Six Companies manager altered working times to force workers to take lunch on their own time, workers responded with a strike. Emboldened by Crowe's reversal of the lunch decree, workers raised their demands to include a $1-per-day raise. The company agreed to ask the Federal government to supplement the pay, but no money was forthcoming from Washington. The strike ended.
Before the dam could be built, the Colorado River needed to be diverted away from the construction site. To accomplish this, four diversion tunnels were driven through the canyon walls, two on the Nevada side and two on the Arizona side. These tunnels were 56 ft in diameter. Their combined length was nearly 16,000 ft, or more than 3 miles . The contract required these tunnels to be completed by October 1, 1933, with a $3,000-per-day fine to be assessed for any delay. To meet the deadline, Six Companies had to complete work by early 1933, since only in late fall and winter was the water level in the river low enough to safely divert.
Tunneling began at the lower portals of the Nevada tunnels in May 1931. Shortly afterward, work began on two similar tunnels in the Arizona canyon wall. In March 1932, work began on lining the tunnels with concrete. First the base, or invert, was poured. Gantry cranes, running on rails through the entire length of each tunnel were used to place the concrete. The sidewalls were poured next. Movable sections of steel forms were used for the sidewalls. Finally, using pneumatic guns, the overheads were filled in. The concrete lining is 3 feet thick, reducing the finished tunnel diameter to 50 ft. The river was diverted into the two Arizona tunnels on November 13, 1932; the Nevada tunnels were kept in reserve for high water. This was done by exploding a temporary cofferdam protecting the Arizona tunnels while at the same time dumping rubble into the river until its natural course was blocked.
Following the completion of the dam, the entrances to the two outer diversion tunnels were sealed at the opening and halfway through the tunnels with large concrete plugs. The downstream halves of the tunnels following the inner plugs are now the main bodies of the spillway tunnels. The inner diversion tunnels were plugged at approximately one-third of their length, beyond which they now carry steel pipes connecting the intake towers to the power plant and outlet works. The inner tunnels' outlets are equipped with gates that can be closed to drain the tunnels for maintenance.
To protect the construction site from the Colorado River and to facilitate the river's diversion, two cofferdams were constructed. Work on the upper cofferdam began in September 1932, even though the river had not yet been diverted. The cofferdams were designed to protect against the possibility of the river's flooding a site at which two thousand men might be at work, and their specifications were covered in the bid documents in nearly as much detail as the dam itself. The upper cofferdam was 96 ft high, and 750 feet thick at its base, thicker than the dam itself. It contained 650,000 cubic yards of material.
When the cofferdams were in place and the construction site was drained of water, excavation for the dam foundation began. For the dam to rest on solid rock, it was necessary to remove accumulated erosion soils and other loose materials in the riverbed until sound bedrock was reached. Work on the foundation excavations was completed in June 1933. During this excavation, approximately 1,500,000 cu yd of material was removed. Since the dam was an arch-gravity type, the side-walls of the canyon would bear the force of the impounded lake. Therefore, the side-walls were excavated too, to reach virgin rock, as weathered rock might provide pathways for water seepage. Shovels for the excavation came from the Marion Power Shovel Company.
The men who removed this rock were called "high scalers". While suspended from the top of the canyon with ropes, the high-scalers climbed down the canyon walls and removed the loose rock with jackhammers and dynamite. Falling objects were the most common cause of death on the dam site; the high scalers' work thus helped ensure worker safety. One high scaler was able to save a life in a more direct manner: when a government inspector lost his grip on a safety line and began tumbling down a slope towards almost certain death, a high scaler was able to intercept him and pull him into the air. The construction site had, even then, become a magnet for tourists; the high scalers were prime attractions and showed off for the watchers. The high scalers received considerable media attention, with one worker dubbed the "Human Pendulum" for swinging co-workers (and, at other times, cases of dynamite) across the canyon. To protect themselves against falling objects, some high scalers took cloth hats and dipped them in tar, allowing them to harden. When workers wearing such headgear were struck hard enough to inflict broken jaws, they sustained no skull damage. Six Companies ordered thousands of what initially were called "hard boiled hats" (later "hard hats") and strongly encouraged their use.
The cleared, underlying rock foundation of the dam site was reinforced with grout, forming a grout curtain. Holes were driven into the walls and base of the canyon, as deep as 150 feet into the rock, and any cavities encountered were to be filled with grout. This was done to stabilize the rock, to prevent water from seeping past the dam through the canyon rock, and to limit "uplift"—upward pressure from water seeping under the dam. The workers were under severe time constraints due to the beginning of the concrete pour, and when they encountered hot springs or cavities too large to readily fill, they moved on without resolving the problem. A total of 58 of the 393 holes were incompletely filled. After the dam was completed and the lake began to fill, large numbers of significant leaks into the dam caused the Bureau of Reclamation to look into the situation. It found that the work had been incompletely done, and was based on less than a full understanding of the canyon's geology. New holes were drilled from inspection galleries inside the dam into the surrounding bedrock. It took nine years (1938–47) under relative secrecy to complete the supplemental grout curtain.
The first concrete was poured into the dam on June 6, 1933, 18 months ahead of schedule. Since concrete heats and contracts as it cures, the potential for uneven cooling and contraction of the concrete posed a serious problem. Bureau of Reclamation engineers calculated that if the dam were to be built in a single continuous pour, the concrete would take 125 years to cool, and the resulting stresses would cause the dam to crack and crumble. Instead, the ground where the dam would rise was marked with rectangles, and concrete blocks in columns were poured, some as large as 50 ft square and 5 feet high. Each five-foot form contained a set of 1-inch steel pipes; cool river water would be poured through the pipes, followed by ice-cold water from a refrigeration plant. When an individual block had cured and had stopped contracting, the pipes were filled with grout. Grout was also used to fill the hairline spaces between columns, which were grooved to increase the strength of the joints.
The concrete was delivered in huge steel buckets 7 feet high and almost 7 feet in diameter; Crowe was awarded two patents for their design. These buckets, which weighed 20 short tons when full, were filled at two massive concrete plants on the Nevada side, and were delivered to the site in special railcars. The buckets were then suspended from aerial cableways which were used to deliver the bucket to a specific column. As the required grade of aggregate in the concrete differed depending on placement in the dam, it was vital that the bucket be maneuvered to the proper column. When the bottom of the bucket opened up, disgorging 8 cu yd of concrete, a team of men worked it throughout the form. Although there are myths that men were caught in the pour and are entombed in the dam to this day, each bucket deepened the concrete in a form by only 1 inch, and Six Companies engineers would not have permitted a flaw caused by the presence of a human body.
A total of 3,250,000 cubic yards of concrete was used in the dam before concrete pouring ceased on May 29, 1935. In addition, 1,110,000 cu yd were used in the power plant and other works. More than 582 miles of cooling pipes were placed within the concrete. Overall, there is enough concrete in the dam to pave a two-lane highway from San Francisco to New York. Concrete cores were removed from the dam for testing in 1995; they showed that "Hoover Dam's concrete has continued to slowly gain strength" and the dam is composed of a "durable concrete having a compressive strength exceeding the range typically found in normal mass concrete". Hoover Dam concrete is not subject to alkali–silica reaction (ASR), as the Hoover Dam builders happened to use nonreactive aggregate, unlike that at downstream Parker Dam, where ASR has caused measurable deterioration.
With most work finished on the dam itself (the powerhouse remained uncompleted), a formal dedication ceremony was arranged for September 30, 1935, to coincide with a western tour being made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The morning of the dedication, it was moved forward three hours from 2 p.m. Pacific time to 11 a.m.; this was done because Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes had reserved a radio slot for the President for 2 p.m. but officials did not realize until the day of the ceremony that the slot was for 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Despite the change in the ceremony time, and temperatures of 102 °F, 10,000 people were present for the President's speech, in which he avoided mentioning the name of former President Hoover, who was not invited to the ceremony. To mark the occasion, a three-cent stamp was issued by the United States Post Office Department—bearing the name "Boulder Dam", the official name of the dam between 1933 and 1947. After the ceremony, Roosevelt made the first visit by any American president to Las Vegas.
Most work had been completed by the dedication, and Six Companies negotiated with the government through late 1935 and early 1936 to settle all claims and arrange for the formal transfer of the dam to the Federal Government. The parties came to an agreement and on March 1, 1936, Secretary Ickes formally accepted the dam on behalf of the government. Six Companies was not required to complete work on one item, a concrete plug for one of the bypass tunnels, as the tunnel had to be used to take in irrigation water until the powerhouse went into operation.
Plaubel Makina 67. Handheld. External Lightmeter.
From Tamagawa, Tokyo, Japan.
Fujifilm Superia XTRA 400.
After laying off the scanner for almost 3 months, finally hooked up everything last night and did my first scan in Shanghai. Feeling rusty and disoriented. Have heaps of old developed film from Japan that i need to dig through before getting to more current ones that i shot during these 3 months of transition to my new home. Looking for a good local film developer, any recommendations?
Thank you everyone for your kind words and continue to check my photostream despite the limited uploads....will find time to keep shooting but next 6 months will be an extremely busy despite Christmas and CNY, so things will be slow. I am very behind in browsing all my favourite photostreams (you know who you are), will hopefully get back to a better work/life balance soon and have more time to get inspire by all your amazing works...
More and more I hear how people are getting laid off lately. I just heard over 60,000 employees got laid off of home depot and related stores. SIXTY THOUSAND!! Everyone I know has told me either their spouse or their neighbor or themselves have gotten laid off. Business is slow. No one is spending. I feel lucky to even have a job. Luckily this shit hasn’t really affected me. I’m real lucky, so far.
So I guess it’s easy for me to say the following: It’s a good thing. This is the economy’s way of correcting itself. What did the government expect hiking up gas prices to unprecedented prices and giving out ridiculous loans with completely insane payback terms. Did they think it would really work? Did they really expect Joe Blow family to just pay interest on a loan for a house they couldn’t afford to buy and pay $4.50 / gal to drive in their SUV to work? Something had to give. And it did, in a big way.
Lay offs, foreclosures, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac government takeover, auto bailout, all this shit happened REALLY quickly. The stock market took its biggest hit since the depression. The whole thing is a yo-yo.
And what really scares me is how it is WORLD WIDE. It isn’t like this is affecting one big country or a group of countries, it’s affecting the entire world. Does that mean globalization is complete? Does that mean that we are 1 or 2 generations away from the New World Order? One world government? Are we there yet? IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT READER? It’s fucking scary. The fact that Washington having a financial crisis directly affects the Asian banks and the European banks and the Indian banks alike is what is most scary to me. It means they are all working on the same economy. We are in the WORLDWIDE RECESSION. Whets next? We strip the world of different languages and everyone just speaks English. We all look the same with one world race. There are no differences in countries. We use one World Bank. We use one world money. Total control. Robots. Don’t think for yourself, lose the art, they know where you are, your just a number. That’s the direction we’re headed.
I want no part of it. Thank god I’ll be dead.
Taken January 27th, 2009
Posted January 28th, 2009
Went back for day shots of yesterday's effort and decided it sucked... so I went over it. This one I like more. Interesting day, random people coming through the spot on foot and horseback. I even had a visit from a small eastern brown snake - one of the deadliest snakes in the world. The snake decided to bask in the sun about 10 feet away, but I decided to finish the piece anyway. Fuck it. Never liked biters ha ha.
Big ups to all the people inspiring me at the moment - King Fuzz, Disk, Tors, Skare, Jive, all my RFK peeps, Simply Rockers, Fat Kap Freaks and Tiger from Syd. Thanks for the inspiration!
On another note... I'll be laying off this style for a while... I'm looking to go more 70s with the letters.
Sunday 1st November 2015 sees 31452 pass Cook's Lane, Kilby with 5Q57 12.07 Acton Lane to Derby EMU move. The EMU - 375616 is being moved to Derby for refurbishment.
Well worth the effort after a months enforced lay-off due to ill health.
Carl "Skid" Rowe was the prototype C&NW man. He could hold pool turns and regular jobs, but stayed on the extra board because you could work more and make more money. In the days of hours of service only requiring eight hours off between calls, If you weren't making nine days a week, then what were you even doing? Lay off? Never. They don't pay you when you do that. You want a four hour day so that you can tie up, get rested, and get called again, or failing that, make as much overtime as humanly possible. Just remember to show yourself off in 11 hours 59 minutes so that you only need eight hours rest and can get right back out again. At Christmastime when everyone was jockeying to get the holiday off and saying, "have a Merry Christmas" or, "have a happy holiday" to their coworkers, they would look at Skid and say, "I hope you get called".
At this time I was the regular brakeman on a North Line scoot job based out of Waukegan, IL. If my memory serves, we worked about a 14 hour day Monday through Friday (with a four hour break in the middle of the day, you could work up to 16 hours) with a "short" 10-ish hour day on Saturdays. Sunday was a rest day, and then the whole thing would start over again early Monday morning. What was great about the Saturday shift was that it was only one round trip into Chicago with a long six hour layover in the city. My wife Sandy would frequently come to work with me on Saturdays and we'd run around downtown Chicago during my layover.
On this day, she brought her friend Amy with her and we did our best Ferris Bueller style seeing the sights during my layover. On the way back to Waukegan, I walked them though the engine room of our F40 and brought them up front for a high speed cab ride with Skid. You can tell from their expressions that they were having a great time. And you knew Skid was having a great time because he was at work.
This experience was not the first time Sandy had met Skid, however. One frigid night when I was tying up in Waukegan, I found Skid in the employee lot taking a lit fusee to the frozen doorframe and drivers side door handle on his 15 year old hooptie Oldsmobuick. He wasn't having much success getting it to open, so after a few minutes of trying to help him, I offered that he could come crash at my apartment for the night and I'd bring him back in the morning after the sun had time to work its magic. He accepted and I drove him back to our little apartment in Grayslake where he sacked out on the sofa. In the morning, Sandy woke up to the sight of Skid camped out in our living room, and although somewhat startled, she knew me well enough to know what was probably going on.
We drove Skid back over to Waukegan and he was able to get back into his car. He thanked us and drove off towards home, definitely already thinking about the possibility of getting a start that day.
127/365,
For my video; youtu.be/_wNxnPHYc3c,
Ogobpuquib, San Blas, Panama
Mola ;
The Mola or Molas is a hand-made textile that forms part of the traditional women's clothing of the indigenous Guna people from Panamá, Central America, and Colombia, South America.
The San Blas Islands of Panama is an archipelago comprising approximately 378 islands and cays, of which only 49 are inhabited. They lay off the north coast of the Isthmus, east of the Panama Canal. Home to the Kuna Indians, they are a part of the comarca Kuna Yala along the Caribbean coast of Panama.
Fewer than 50 of the islands are inhabited, and on ones close to the mainland, residents live in thatched bamboo houses and get around by dugout canoes.
I purchased the bag in 2003
The Chinese New Year at Liverpool's Chinatown.
Lovely day and great to see so many people there to see the celebrations.
Nice to be shooting again after a temporary lay off - thanks to Olympus for the loan camera.
When you first see the Rock of Gibraltar, whether it is from the air, from the sea or from the Costa del Sol, it is its impressive stature, towering isolated above the surrounding countryside, that causes the greatest impact. It has had this effect on people for many thousands of years. Gibraltar is a beacon, which signals the position of the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow neck that separates Europe from Africa and provides the only link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Seven hundred years after the birth of Christ, the Arab leader Tarik-Ibn-Zeyad conquered the Rock and named it Jebel-Tarik (Tarik’s mountain). An important military and naval base, it changed hands many times during the following eight centuries of Arab occupation in Spain. In the early part of the fourteenth century Spanish forces occupied Gibraltar for twenty-four years; but in 1333 it reverted to Moorish control after a bloody eighteen week siege. The Rock did not finally become Spanish until 1462 when the Duke of Medina Sidonia recaptured it. The eighteenth century saw another change of ownership. In July 1704, as he lay off Tetuan with a large combined fleet of British and Dutch warships, Admiral Sir George Rooke saw an opportunity to capture the Rock. The city fathers initially refused Rooke’s call to surrender but 15,000 rounds of shot and shell and landings by British marines and sailors persuaded them otherwise.
Since that day, the Rock has played a part in some of the most famous episodes of British history. During the American War of Independence, the combined forces of France and Spain besieged Gibraltar for four and a half years. The body of Nelson, preserved in a barrel of rum, was brought to Gibraltar after his magnificent victory at Trafalgar and in the Second World War the Rock was a key factor in British victories in the Mediterranean.
ever got a present - unwrapped it and then tried to fit it back in the package - it never fits...
OKAY laying off the kangaroos for a while - I think they're sick of me
They think the front patio is a wrestling ring or a dance floor when we sit out here. .......Audrey may be 10 lbs lighter, but she doesn't let that deter her!
Hey guys! First off i want to say sorry for being away for so long, i've missed seeing all your beautiful photos. I've had a rough past few weeks dealing with being sick and headaches, so i've been trying to lay off the computer. I hope you've all been having a wonderful December so far, and are all ready for Christmas:)
Though he enjoyed their weekly night out, Prime dearly wished Megs would lay off the Celine Dion songs.
Prime 52, week 9.
(update)
Made the flickr blog for Karaoke. How awesome is that? Thanks flickr!
66162 passes Port Talbot (Margam) steel works with its two blast furnaces in view, carrying loaded steel from the nearby Trostre steel works (located just outside Llanelli) on the 6LH2 to Tilbury. Owned by Indian multi-national, Tata Steel, Port Talbot steel works is the largest steel making facility in UK producing up to 5 million tonnes of steel slab per annum and employing 4,000 workers. Unfortunately, due to cheap steel exports from China, the steel works is running at a loss and its long term future appears be in jeopardy - China is now exporting twice as much steel to the UK as it did in 2013. As a consequence the Company plans to lay off 750 workers. Other factors such as the extortionate cost of energy and business rates in the UK, which impact on operational costs, further reducing its economic viability. It will be interesting to see if government (and Welsh Assembly) will be able to assist the industry with respect to reduced business rates and cheaper energy to help its survival.
This is the follow up issue to the Death of Kaine.
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"Look. Just do it Fury."
Harry Osborn was still waiting for the machine to be activated.
"Harry... someone has to die."
"I'm willing to."
"Why don't we just go ahead and figure this whole thing out before we do something stupid."
Fury turned off the machine with the click of the mouse, assuring Harry, it was not going to be done.
THE NEXT DAY
".... Spider-Man was declared dead yesterday. Our scientist figured out the identity of the web-slinger to be..."
Harry turned off the T.V. Sure they could figure out who Kaine was, but they would never expect a billionaire gone mad man's son to be the follow up. Harry didn't even understand the day Kaine died. It all happened so fast.
"Harry."
Harry turned around to see Fury.
"I... I think there is a way."
Harry frowned at this.
"I'm almost positive it ends up not working.... like the last 47 times."
"We can try."
Harry looked at the Director. He looked tired, as if he were up all night.
"Yeah. Yeah we can try."
Harry walked into the lab, and immediately saw what Fury had planned.
"A robot?"
".. what? No. That's for the Other."
"Who?"
"I'll explain later. Right now, I have to get you prepared."
Fury told him to walk to the device, as he did, like the other 47 times.
"Now, I'll explain. Kaine's heart is not beating, no doubt, but he isn't brain dead. You could become his avatar..."
"And I would die in the process."
"No. Listen. Kaine would become the wielder of the body, but I could pull out the Other, and put him into the robot, allowing you to be the voice in his head."
Harry thought about this. He didn't care what became of him (as long as he still had a conscience of course). Kaine was what the city needed, not Harry Osborn.
"Harry?"
"Plug me in."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harry woke up. No, wait he didn't. He regained knowledge he was inside of his mind, but not his body. Kaine was in there. But was he here?
Kaine?
......
Kaine.
He was in a deep sleep, as Fury said he would be. Eventually he would wake up.
Something was off though. Harry could see out of his eyes. He guessed he wouldn't be able too. It was a weird felling, looking out of your eyes but not controlling them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wha... What... What the HELL!"
Kaine instantly woke up. It was a jolt, something inside of him that made him wake up. He looked around. This wasn't his basement. He looked down at his hands. They were definitely not his. They were neat, pristine even, unlike his own. This was not Kaine's body.
He got off the bed, and walked to the bathroom. There he could see a steamy mirror. He wiped the steam off only to reveal Harry Osborn's face. He stepped back in horror.
Hey you're back.
"What the hell!"
Kaine heard the voice in his head. It was not the Other.
"Wait..."
Harry?
...yes. Before you scream, shot, or let it all out, let me just clarify. You are in my body, controlling it. I am the conscience of... well you!
"Holy shit..."
"Language."
Kaine turned around. There stood a robot that looked exactly like him, but in gold and red.
"SUPRISE MUTHERFUCKER!" said the robot.
"Oh, my god... Other?"
Kaine smiled. His friend had been released from his imprisonment. It was a happy moment.
"Alright Kaine. Here are the rules:
1. Don't say your name is Kaine in public. It's Harry.
2. We got you a modified suit. You welcome bitch.
3. Harry's inside of you. Keep him safe."
"Well. I've done numbers 1,2 and technically 3 before. How hard can it be?"
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Kaine was getting used to the body. He was walking around, talking, and even reunited with Gwen for quite some time (even though she didn't like Harry being inside of him).
An hour later, Scott came to see Fury about... revenge.
"Hey Dick Fury."
Fury turned around.
"Scott?"
"Yeah. Where's the son of a bitch who KILLED KAINE!"
"Scott, Kaine is..."
He thought for a moment.
"... at peace. We'll find the killer in time."
"I KNOW you know where he is."
This wasn't the Scott Fury knew.
Scott walked right past Fury and walked right towards Harry.
"You..."
The Other stopped Scott.
"Hey. No touchy."
"Hey, lay off uh.. Iron Spider."
The Other looked confused, but went along with it.
"You know who killed Kaine? Tell me. I NEED revenge."
Kaine thought for a moment. That wouldn't be a bad idea.
"Sorry man, don't know where he is. Guess you'll have to find him."
Scott looked furious, but stormed off.
"Hey Kaine. What the hell is an Iron Spider?"
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"And here's the suit."
Kaine looked at it. He decided it was good enough.
Time to head out?
Yeah.
The small company that I work for makes products that are used to make cell phones and computers of which nobody is currently buying so we had to lay-off 10% of our workers today.............. bad day, a few are great friends so Margrete, the vivacious one have fun time with your new husband and Harold you must pursue your dreams, Hector you are a fantastic human being and a terrific mechanic, be happy and safe my friend!!
Sorry for the joy kill but I needed to vent...............
Take it BIG if you like it, I do it for fun, and i ain't much fun today, but if it brings you joy it will make my soul smile tomorrow.
I will leave FLICKR for couple of days .. because of my LASTexamination which I have Saturday. And yes ..... I have been entirely addicted :-)
My first image with my new Nikon D5500 camera and Nikon 50mm/f1.8 lens. I'm excited about the creative possibilities of this equipment and I love the bokeh.
After doing some research, I bought this particular camera because it's the second-lightest and second-smallest DSLR that Nikon has ever made, as light as the leading mirrorless cameras. And yet, it still has that awesome 24-megapixel sensor that Nikon crop-sensor cameras are famous for and which I loved in my D7100 and D7200. Plus, it has a swivel touch screen which I've always wanted; great for low-angle shots for an old fellow like me with a bad back and knees. The lens is a real feather-weight too, so my back and hips are happy already! As well, I kept my excellent, versatile and light-weight Nikon 16-85mm lens.
I have now completed selling off my heavy (for me) wildlife photography gear and will be turning my attention to doing landscapes and some creative close-up photography of flowers and other interesting subjects. I will be spending much less time outdoors because of my allergies, which trigger my rheumatoid arthritis, especially from Spring through Fall, which is why I had to give up wildlife photography in the first place. Instead I will be spending more time in my studio in front of my computer in Photoshop, which I really enjoy. I want to try to get more creative in my post processing and take some artistic liberties to produce images that are a little out of the box and out of the ordinary. After a 7-week lay off it's good to be back at it.
Coryton, Essex
This for me captures what this landscape and place was about, a feeling of complete and utter isolation.
The defunct Coryton oil refinery is in the background, it sadly closed this year leading to a lot of lay offs. It is due to be turned into a fuel terminal of some sorts.
Skylar: Forgotten it already? Oh man, they always say the brain is the first to go in old age. Perhaps we should lay off of the horror movies for the night
Aura: Hell then - if my brain is going, I might as well enjoy them while I can, right?
Skylar: So you admit it? Huh - I guess you really did go to high school with my great grandmother after all.
Aura: *smirk* Just shut up & pass me the remote.
Skylar: Yeah, Yeah
Aura: And since when are you so snarky?
Skylar: What can I say, I had a great teacher.
Aura: Damn right you did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welp, looks like the jig is up for Reese!
She should brace herself for hurt feelings- Aura is not one to be lied to. But hopefully it'll all work out for her ;3
Happy New Year everyone!
I had been driving for hours. I was relieved to stumble upon a Victorian Bed and Breakfast Inn in Wethersfield, Connecticut. But then, a woman emerged to greet me. She was only attired in a Victorian petticoat. It was then that I decided, "I have got to lay off the bottle for a while."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malam_Jabba#
Malam Jabba (also Maalam Jabba, Urdu: مالم جبہ) is a Hill Station in the Karakoram mountain range nearly 40 km from Saidu Sharif in Swat Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is 314 km from Islamabad and 51 km from Saidu Sharif Airport.
Malam Jabba is home to the only ski resort in Pakistan.[1] The area also contains two Buddhist stupas and six monasteries that are scattered around the resort. The presence of the monuments at such a height indicates that the area has been inhabited for over 2000 years.
Two trekking trails are located near the Malam Jabba resort. The first passes through the Ghorband Valley and Shangla Top and starts about 18 km from the resort. The other trail passes through the Sabonev Valley and is about 17 km from the resort.
Malam Jabba ski resort
The Malam Jabba Ski Resort, owned by the Pakistani Tourism Development Corporation, had a ski slope of about 800 m with the highest point of the slope 2804 m (9200 ft) above sea level. Malam Jabba Ski Resort was the joint effort of the Pakistan government with its Austrian counterpart. The resort was equipped with modern facilities including roller/ice-skating rinks, chair lifts, skiing platforms, telephones and snow clearing equipment.[citation needed]
In late June 2008, the Malam Jabba Ski Resort was set on fire and destroyed after being closed for more than a year. Residents said a large portion of the resort had been reduced to ashes and the militants also damaged chairlifts and a tower belonging to the meteorological department. The Pakistani government had long since lost control over the administration and security of the valley and had abandoned the resort, laying off its employees there. This was due to the war in the Swat valley between government security forces and Taliban militias (who were likely relocating from nearby FATA and Afghanistan).[2] The Pakistani government accepted a Taliban truce in the Swat valley.[3] The Taliban started infiltrating armed members into the adjoining state of Buner and openly invited Osama bin Laden. In May 2009 however the army started an offensive against the Taliban and retook the town.[4] The ski hill at the resort has now been rebuilt and is fully operational.[5] The ski track has undergone reconstruction and rehabilitation.The hotel is still awaiting reconstruction.
I can't seem to lay off these (I don't even like peppermint...at all)! But, I love these. I wanted to photograph them. Next thing I knew, as I was looking through the viewfinder...someone else was also watching...a little snitcher :)
This was totally unexpected, ha! HBW!
I was going to lay off posting another of my bazillion burrowing owl images but I'm just too tickled with myself not to share. The deal is... I was using my fixed focal length 600mm and I actually couldn't get the whole family in, not to mention the difficulty with DOF in a lineup like this. So ... I had two images - one where the pair at the left was all in and mama was looking my way, and one where the owlets at the right were all looking in some general forward direction. Photoshop Merge and there they are: everyone is all in and everyone has eyes. My heart be still.