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30/10/2021. Rome, Italy. Carrie Johnson, the wife of the Prime Minister visits the Colosseum alongside partners of world leaders during the G20 spousal programme in Rome. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street
USA - NEW YORK
IOC President Thomas Bach attends the signing of the new Worldwide Partner Agreement between the IOC and Intel.
Copyright: IOC/Greg Martin
A break from Mardi Gras photos, but don't worry - there are enough coming up to post to bore even the most avid of you! LOL!
Crocus blooms at Riversong
German Army Staff Sgt. Alexander Schmidt (left), assigned to 2nd Company, Infantry Battalion 291, French German Brigade, assists his soldier in preparing his Panzerfaust 3. Vaziani, Republic of Georgia, Aug. 5, 2017. Noble Partner 17 supports Georgia in conducting home station training of its second NATO Response Force (NRF) contribution. Noble Partner will further enhance NFR and Operational Capabilities Concept interoperability and readiness in order to support regional stability. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Hayley Gardner).
Sorry to be absent for a little while.......down with a bad cold.....but, this too shall pass.......Grabbed a couple bird shots out the kitchen window......hope to be out and about soon. These are little pygmy nuthatches......about three to four inches long.
While the weather wasn't being absolutely horrible again I nipped out to collect some wood, since the local council has chopped down a load of branches and left them all around. I came fully armed with my huge bow saw and gathered enough to completely fill my trailer. Matilda the Elephant Bike may be the tractor in the family but hauling heavy loads uphill with only three gears is just too much like hard work for Your Royal Hoyness.
So I've been riding Annie the Blue Bike quite a lot again. I've jacked up the handlebars with a stem I bought ten years ago and never really liked the look of, but the riding position now feels pretty good to these ancient shoulders.
My bikes all have names. Yet my Radical Cyclone has kept quiet on the whole matter. There is an unconfirmed rumour that he calls himself Thomas the Trailer.
VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, Georgia — A British Soldier Pvt. Josh Street, 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (2nd PARA), 16th Air Assault Brigade, Essex, England, prepares to land, at the drop zone on Vaziani Training Area, Georgia, Aug. 7, 2017. The red tape signifies first-time jumpers. The 2nd PARA is currently in the Republic of Georgia to participate in Exercise Noble Partner. Noble Partner is a multinational, U.S. Army Europe-led exercise conducting home station training for the Georgian light infantry company designated for the NATO Response Force. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Shiloh Capers)
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday
Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly
Why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday
Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday
A blog post on the Harvard Business Review website recently challenged readers across the world to design a house that could be constructed for less than US $300. Initially a conceptual argument by bloggers Vijay Govindarajan and Christian Sarkar, the hypothetical idea of a house constructed for under US$300 received an overwhelming response and they began to bring together a collective of thinkers, designers and investors from around the world. Eventually, with partners Jovoto, a crowd-sourcing forum for sponsored design competitions, and US$25,000 prize money underwritten by international industrial firm Ingersoll Rand, the blog post resulted in a challenge to bring affordable housing to the world's poor.
For more details, please visit: on.fb.me/mpjSQC
The "Partners" sculpture was created by Disney Legend Blaine Gibson. Blaine is most well known for creating all of the Presidents (prior to President Obama) for the Hall of Presidents attraction. You cannnot spend much time at Disney World without seeing characters that Blaine helped create ranging from the Pirates of the Caribbean to his later works with the figures for the American Adventure in Epcot. He retired after a long career at Disney in 1983, but was occasionally given special projects to work on afterward.
Marty Sklar approached Blaine about creating the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse for Disneyland. Blaine was in his mid-seventies at the time, but still was willing to take on the task. The finished product was placed in Disneyland on November 18, 1993 exactly 65 years after the launch of "Steamboat Willie." Additional copies of "Partners" were ultimately placed in each of the Disney Theme Parks around the world, with the Disney World version arriving in 1995.
Walt Disney World-Magic Kingdom- Orlando Fl.
The Mekong is a trans-boundary river in Southeast Asia. It is the world's 12th-longest river and the 7th-longest in Asia. Its estimated length is 4,350 km, and it drains an area of 795,000 km2, discharging 457 km3 of water annually.
From the Tibetan Plateau the river runs through China's Yunnan province, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. In 1995, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam established the Mekong River Commission to assist in the management and coordinated use of the Mekong's resources. In 1996 China and Myanmar became "dialogue partners" of the MRC and the six countries now work together within a cooperative framework.
The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between western China and Southeast Asia.
NAMES
In English the river is called the "Mekong River", derived from "Mae Nam Khong", a term of both Thai and Lao origin. In the Lao-Thai toponymy, "rivers" translates to "mother of water", signalled by the prefix "mae", meaning "mother", and "nam" for water. In the Mekong's case, Mae Nam Khong means "khong, the mother of water". Many northern Thai and Laos locals refer to it as the "River Khong". Such is the case with the Mae Nam Ping in Chiang Mai which is known as the "Ping River". The Tonle Sap in Cambodia is a similar example, where tonle translates as "great lake" or "great river", making the Tonle Sap River an unnecessary repetition of what is in fact the "Sap River". In Khmer language, Mékôngk means "mother of water" translated as Mé "Mother" and kôngk for kôngkea "water".
COURSE
The Mekong rises as the Za Qu and soon becomes known as the Lancang (Lantsang) in the "Three Rivers Source Area" on the Tibetan Plateau in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve; the reserve protects the headwaters of, from north to south, the Yellow (Huang He), the Mekong, and the Yangtze Rivers. It flows through the Tibetan Autonomous Region and then southeast into Yunnan Province, and then through the Three Parallel Rivers Area in the Hengduan Mountains, along with the Yangtze to its east and the Salween River (Nujiang in Chinese) to its west.
The Mekong then meets the tripoint of China, Myanmar and Laos. From there it flows southwest and forms the border of Myanmar and Laos for about 100 kilometres until it arrives at the tripoint of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. This is also the point of confluence between the Ruak River (which follows the Thai-Myanmar border) and the Mekong. The area of this tripoint is sometimes termed the Golden Triangle, although the term also refers to the much larger area of those three countries that is notorious as a drug producing region.
From the Golden Triangle tripoint, the Mekong turns southeast to briefly form the border of Laos with Thailand. It then turns east into the interior of Laos, flowing first east and then south for some 400 kilometres before meeting the border with Thailand again. Once more, it defines the Laos-Thailand border for some 850 kilometres as it flows first east, passing in front of the capital of Laos, Vientiane, then turns south. A second time, the river leaves the border and flows east into Laos soon passing the city of Pakse. Thereafter, it turns and runs more or less directly south, crossing into Cambodia.
At Phnom Penh the river is joined on the right bank by the river and lake system the Tonlé Sap. When the Mekong is low, the Tonle Sap is a tributary; water flows from the lake and river into the Mekong. When the Mekong floods, the flow reverses; the floodwaters of the Mekong flow up the Tonle Sap.
Immediately after the Sap River joins the Mekong by Phnom Penh, the Bassac River branches off the right (west) bank. The Bassac River is the first and main distributary of the Mekong; thus, this is the beginning of the Mekong Delta. The two rivers, the Bassac to the west and the Mekong to the east, enter Vietnam very soon after this. In Vietnam, the Bassac is called the Hậu River (Sông Hậu or Hậu Giang); the main, eastern, branch of the Mekong is called the Tiền River or Tiền Giang. In Vietnam, distributaries of the eastern (main, Mekong) branch include the Mỹ Tho River, the Ba Lai River, the Hàm Luông River, and the Cổ Chiên River.
DRAINAGE BASIN
The Mekong Basin can be divided into two parts: the 'Upper Mekong Basin' in Tibet of China, and the 'Lower Mekong Basin' from Yunnan downstream from China to the South China Sea. From the point where it rises to its mouth, the most precipitous drop in the Mekong occurs in Upper Mekong Basin, a stretch of some 2,200 km. Here, it drops 4,500 metres before it enters the Lower Basin where the borders of Thailand, Laos, China and Myanmar come together in the Golden Triangle. Downstream from the Golden Triangle, the river flows for a further 2,600 km through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia before entering the South China Sea via a complex delta system in Vietnam.
UPPER BASIN
The Upper Basin makes up 24 percent of the total area and contributes 15 to 20 percent of the water that flows into the Mekong River. The catchment here is steep and narrow. Soil erosion has been a major problem and approximately 50 percent of the sediment in the river comes from the Upper Basin.
In Yunnan province in China, the river and its tributaries are confined by narrow, deep gorges. The tributary river systems in this part of the basin are small. Only 14 have catchment areas that exceed 1,000 km2, yet the greatest amount of loss of forest cover in the entire river system per square kilometer has occurred in this region due to heavy unchecked demand for natural resources. In the south of Yunnan, in Simao and Xishuangbanna Prefectures, the river changes as the valley opens out, the floodplain becomes wider, and the river becomes wider and slower.
LOWER BASIN
Major tributary systems develop in the Lower Basin. These systems can be separated into two groups: tributaries that contribute to the major wet season flows, and tributaries that drain low relief regions of lower rainfall. The first group are left bank tributaries that drain the high-rainfall areas of Lao PDR. The second group are those on the right bank, mainly the Mun and Chi rivers, that drain a large part of northeast Thailand.
Laos lies almost entirely within the Lower Mekong Basin. Its climate, landscape and land use are the major factors shaping the hydrology of the river. The mountainous landscape means that only 16 percent of the country is farmed under lowland terrace or upland shifting cultivation. With upland shifting agriculture (slash and burn), soils recover within 10 to 20 years but the vegetation does not. Shifting cultivation is common in the uplands of Northern Laos and is reported to account for as much as 27 percent of the total land under rice cultivation. As elsewhere in the basin, forest cover has been steadily reduced during the last three decades by shifting agriculture and permanent agriculture. The cumulative impacts of these activities on the river regime have not been measured. However, the hydrological impacts of land-cover changes induced by the Vietnam War were quantified in two sub-catchments of the Lower Mekong River Basin.
Loss of forest cover in the Thai areas of the Lower Basin has been the highest in all the Lower Mekong countries over the past 60 years. On the Khorat Plateau, which includes the Mun and Chi tributary systems, forest cover was reduced from 42 percent in 1961 to 13 percent in 1993. Although this part of northeast Thailand has an annual rainfall of more than 1,000 mm, a high evaporation rate means it is classified as a semi-arid region. Consequently, although the Mun and Chi Basins drain 15 percent of the entire Mekong Basin, they only contribute six percent of the average annual flow. Sandy and saline soils are the most common soil types, which makes much of the land unsuitable for wet rice cultivation. In spite of poor fertility, however, agriculture is intensive. Glutinous rice, maize and cassava are the principal crops. Drought is by far the major hydrological hazard in this region.
As the Mekong enters Cambodia, over 95 percent of the flows have already joined the river. From here on downstream the terrain is flat and water levels rather than flow volumes determine the movement of water across the landscape. The seasonal cycle of changing water levels at Phnom Penh results in the unique "flow reversal" of water into and out of the Great Lake via the Tonle Sap River. Phnom Penh also marks the beginning of the delta system of the Mekong River. Here the mainstream begins to break up into an increasing number of branches.
In Cambodia, wet rice is the main crop and is grown on the flood plains of the Tonle Sap, Mekong, and Bassac (the Mekong delta distributary known as the Hậu in Vietnam) Rivers. More than half of Cambodia remains covered with mixed evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forest, but forest cover has decreased from 73 percent in 1973 to 63 percent in 1993. Here, the river landscape is flat. Small changes in water level determine the direction of water movement, including the large-scale reversal of flow into and out of the Tonle Sap basin from the Mekong River.
The Mekong delta in Vietnam is farmed intensively and has little natural vegetation left. Forest cover is less than 10 percent. In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, forest cover was reduced from over 95 percent in the 1950s to around 50 percent in the mid-1990s. Agricultural expansion and population pressure are the major reasons for land use and landscape change. Both drought and flood are common hazards in the Delta, which many people believe is the most sensitive to upstream hydrological change.
WATER FLOW ALONG ITS COURSE
By taking into account hydrological regimes, physiography land use, and existing, planned and potential resource developments, the Mekong is divided into six distinct reaches:Reach 1: Lancang Jiang or Upper Mekong River in China. In this part of the river, the major source of water flowing into the river comes from melting snow on the Tibetan Plateau. This volume of water is sometimes called the “Yunnan Component” and plays an important role in the low-flow hydrology of the lower mainstream. Even as far downstream as Kratie, the Yunnan Component makes up almost 30 percent of the average dry season flow. A major concern is that the ongoing and planned expansion of dams and reservoirs on the Mekong mainstream in Yunnan could have a significant effect on the low-flow regime of the Lower Mekong Basin system.
Reach 2: Chiang Saen to Vientiane and Nong Khai. This reach is almost entirely mountainous and covered with natural forest, although there has been widespread slash and burn agriculture. Although this reach could hardly be described as "unspoiled", the hydrological response is perhaps the most natural and undisturbed in all the Lower Basin. Many hydrological aspects of the Lower Basin start to change rapidly at the downstream boundary of this reach.
Reach 3: Vientiane and Nong Khai to Pakse. The boundary between Reach 2 and 3 is where the Mekong hydrology starts to change. Reach 2 is dominated in both wet and dry seasons by the Yunnan Component. Reach 3 is increasingly influenced by contributions from the large left bank tributaries in Laos, namely the Nam Ngum, Nam Theun, Nam Hinboun, Se Bang Fai, Se Bang Hieng, and Se Done rivers. The Mun-Chi river system from the right bank in Thailand enters the mainstream within this reach.
Reach 4: Pakse to Kratie. The main hydrological contributions to the mainstream in this reach come from the Se Kong, Se San, and Sre Pok catchments. Together, these rivers make up the largest hydrological sub-component of the Lower Basin. Over 25 percent of the mean annual flow volume to the mainstream at Kratie comes from these three river basins. They are the key element in the hydrology of this part of the system, especially to the Tonle Sap flow reversal.
Reach 5: Kratie to Phnom Penh. This reach includes the hydraulic complexities of the Cambodian floodplain, the Tonle Sap and the Great Lake. By this stage, over 95 percent of the total flow has entered the Mekong system. The focus turns from hydrology and water discharge to the assessment of water level, over- bank storage and flooding and the hydrodynamics that determine the timing, duration and volume of the seasonal flow reversal into and out of the Great Lake.
Reach 6: Phnom Penh to the South China Sea. Here the mainstream divides into a complex and increasingly controlled and artificial system of branches and canals. Key features of flow behaviour are tidal influences and salt water intrusion. Every year, 35–50 percent of this reach is flooded during the rainy season. The impact of road embankments and similar infrastructure developments on the movement of this flood water is an increasingly important consequence of development.
Flows at Chiang Saen entering the Lower Basin from Yunnan make up about 15 percent of the wet season flow at Kratie. This rises to 40 percent during the dry season, even this far downstream. During the wet season, the proportion of average flow coming from Yunnan rapidly decreases downstream of Chiang Saen, from 70 percent to less than 20 percent at Kratie. The dry season contribution from Yunnan is much more significant. The major portion of the balance comes from Laos, which points to a major distinction in the low-flow hydrology of the river. One fraction comes from melting snow in China and Tibet and the rest from over-season catchment storage in the Lower Basin. This has implications for the occurrence of drought conditions. For example, if runoff from melting snow in any given year is very low, then flows upstream of Vientiane-Nong Khai would be lower.
In a large river system like the Mekong, seasonal flows can be quite variable from year to year. Although the pattern of the annual hydrograph is fairly predictable, its magnitude is not. The average monthly flows along the mainstream are listed in Table 3, providing an indication of their range and variability from year to year. At Pakse, for example, flood season flows during August would exceed 20,000 cubic metres per second 9 years out of 10, but exceed 34,000 m³/s only 1 year in ten.
RIVER MODIFICATIONS
The Mekong is already heavily dammed, with many more dams planned and under construction. China has already built 6 dams on the Mekong since 1995, and plans another 14 dams in the coming years. Downriver countries such as Laos are planning to build an additional 11 large dams on the Mekong, making it the fastest growing large river basin in the world in terms of hydropower construction.
NATURAL HISTORY
The Mekong basin is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. Only the Amazon boasts a higher level of biodiversity. Biota estimates for the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) include 20,000 plant species, 430 mammals, 1,200 birds, 800 reptiles and amphibians, and an estimated 850 freshwater fish species (excluding euryhaline species mainly found in salt or brackish water, as well as introduced species). The most species richness orders among the freshwater fish in the river basin are cypriniforms (377 species) and catfish (92 species). New species are regularly described from the Mekong. In 2009, 145 new species were described from the region, comprising 29 fish species previously unknown to science, 2 new bird species, 10 reptiles, 5 mammals, 96 plants and 6 new amphibians. The Mekong Region contains 16 WWF Global 200 ecoregions, the greatest concentration of ecoregions in mainland Asia. No other river is home to so many species of very large fish. The biggest include three species of Probarbus babs, which can grow up to 1.5 metres and weigh 70 kilograms, the giant freshwater stingray (Himantura polylepis, syn. H. chaophraya), which can have a length of up to 4.3 metres, the giant pangasius (Pangasius sanitwongsei), giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) and the endemic Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas). The last three can grow up to about 3 metres in length and weigh 300 kilograms. All of these are in serious decline, because of dams, flood control and overfishing.
One species of freshwater dolphin, the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), was once common in the whole of the Lower Mekong but is now very rare, with only 85 individuals remaining.
Among other wetland mammals that have been living in and around the river are the smooth-coated otter (Lutra perspicillata) and fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus).
The endangered Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) occurs in small isolated pockets within the northern Cambodian and Laotian portions of the Mekong River. The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) once ranged from the Mekong Delta up the river into Tonle Sap and beyond but is now extinct in the river, along with being extinct in all of Vietnam and possibly even Cambodia.
WIKIPEDIA
Two of my photographing partners. My husband and our black lab Candi. Looking north towards Bell Mtn in the Little Lost valley. They are the best!
VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, Georgia — British officers and leaders of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (2nd PARA), 16th Air Assault Brigade, Essex, England, rally at the collection point after jumping into the drop zone on Vaziani Training Area, Georgia, Aug. 7, 2017. The 2nd PARA is currently in the Republic of Georgia to participate in Exercise Noble Partner. Noble Partner is a multinational, U.S. Army Europe-led exercise conducting home station training for the Georgian light infantry company designated for the NATO Response Force. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Shiloh Capers)
Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) on New York's USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Court 15 playing with doubles partner Maria Kirilenko (Rus) vs. Kai-Chen Chang (Tpe) & Raquel Kops-Jones (USA) in the US Open 2010 First Round.
(10) Kirilenko / Radwanska def. Chang / Kops-Jones 63 60.
Brig. Gen. Ahmed Habibi, commander of the 1st KANDAK, 502nd Afghan National Army Corps, and Col. Todd Wood, commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division and Task Force Arctic Wolves. The two leaders established a professional partnership between the two military units in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. (Photo courtesy 1-25 SBCT)