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ÜRGÜP
Canon AE-1 Program.
KODACHROME
CAPPADOCIA WORLD HERITAGE LIST :
www.whc.unesco.org/en/list/357
In a spectacular landscape, entirely sculpted by erosion, the Göreme valley and its surroundings contain rock-hewn sanctuaries that provide unique evidence of Byzantine art in the post-Iconoclastic period. Dwellings, troglodyte villages and underground towns – the remains of a traditional human habitat dating back to the 4th century – can also be seen there.
Brief synthesis
Located on the central Anatolia plateau within a volcanic landscape sculpted by erosion to form a succession of mountain ridges, valleys and pinnacles known as “fairy chimneys” or hoodoos, Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia cover the region between the cities of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos, the sites of Karain, Karlık, Yeşilöz, Soğanlı and the subterranean cities of Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu. The area is bounded on the south and east by ranges of extinct volcanoes with Erciyes Dağ (3916 m) at one end and Hasan Dağ (3253 m) at the other. The density of its rock-hewn cells, churches, troglodyte villages and subterranean cities within the rock formations make it one of the world's most striking and largest cave-dwelling complexes. Though interesting from a geological and ethnological point of view, the incomparable beauty of the decor of the Christian sanctuaries makes Cappadocia one of the leading examples of the post-iconoclastic Byzantine art period.
It is believed that the first signs of monastic activity in Cappadocia date back to the 4th century at which time small anchorite communities, acting on the teachings of Basileios the Great, Bishop of Kayseri, began inhabiting cells hewn in the rock. In later periods, in order to resist Arab invasions, they began banding together into troglodyte villages or subterranean towns such as Kaymakli or Derinkuyu which served as places of refuge.
Cappadocian monasticism was already well established in the iconoclastic period (725-842) as illustrated by the decoration of many sanctuaries which kept a strict minimum of symbols (most often sculpted or tempera painted crosses). However, after 842 many rupestral churches were dug in Cappadocia and richly decorated with brightly coloured figurative painting. Those in the Göreme Valley include Tokalı Kilise and El Nazar Kilise (10th century), St. Barbara Kilise and Saklı Kilise (11th century) and Elmalı Kilise and Karanlık Kilise (end of the 12th – beginning of the 13th century).
Criterion (i): Owing to their quality and density, the rupestral sanctuaries of Cappadocia constitute a unique artistic achievement offering irreplaceable testimony to the post-iconoclastic Byzantine art period.
Criterion (iii): The rupestral dwellings, villages, convents and churches retain the fossilized image of a province of the Byzantine Empire between the 4th century and the arrival of the Seljuk Turks (1071). Thus, they are the essential vestiges of a civilization which has disappeared.
Criterion (v): Cappadocia is an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement which has become vulnerable under the combined effects of natural erosion and, more recently, tourism.
Criterion (vii): In a spectacular landscape dramatically demonstrating erosional forces, the Göreme Valley and its surroundings provide a globally renowned and accessible display of hoodoo landforms and other erosional features, which are of great beauty, and which interact with the cultural elements of the landscape.
Integrity
Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, having been extensively used and modified by man for centuries, is a landscape of harmony combining human interaction and settlement with dramatic natural landforms. There has been some earthquake damage to some of the cones and the pillars, but this is seen as a naturally occurring phenomenon. Overuse by tourists and some vandalism have been reported and some incompatible structures have been introduced.
The erosional processes that formed the distinctive conical rock structures will continue to create new fairy chimneys and rock pillars, however due to the rate of this process, the natural values of the property may still be threatened by unsustainable use. The cultural features, including rock-hewn churches and related cultural structures, mainly at risk of being undermined by erosion and other negative natural processes coupled with mass tourism and development pressures, can never be replaced. threats Some of the churches mentioned by early scholars such as C. Texier, H.G. Rott and Guillaume de Jerphanion are no longer extant.
Authenticity
The property meets the conditions of authenticity as its values and their attributes, including its historical setting, form, design, material and workmanship adequately reflect the cultural and natural values recognized in the inscription criteria.
Given the technical difficulties of building in this region, where it is a matter of hewing out structures within the natural rock, creating architecture by the removal of material rather than by putting it together to form the elements of a building, the underlying morphological structure and the difficulties inherent in the handling of the material inhibited the creative impulses of the builders. This conditioning of human effort by natural conditions persisted almost unchanged through successive periods and civilizations, influencing the cultural attitudes and technical skills of each succeeding generation.
Protection and management requirements
The World Heritage property Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia is subject to legal protection in accordance with both the Protection of Cultural and Natural Resources Act No. 2863 and the National Parks Act No. 2873. The entire territory between the cities of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos is designated as a National Park under the Act No. 2873. In addition, natural, archaeological, urban, and mixed archaeological and natural conservation areas, two underground towns, five troglodyte villages, and more than 200 individual rock-hewn churches, some of which contain numerous frescoes, have been entered into the register of immovable monuments and sites according to the Act No. 2863.
Legal protection, management and monitoring of the Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia fall within the scope of national and regional governmental administrations. The Nevşehir and Kayseri Regional Conservation Councils are responsible for keeping the register of monuments and sites, including carrying out all tasks related to the legal protection of monuments and listed buildings and the approval to carry out any restoration-related works. They also evaluate regional and conservation area plans prepared by the responsible national and/or local (i.e. municipal) authorities.
Studies for revision and updating of the existing land use and conservation plan (Göreme National Park Long-term Development Plan) of 1981 were completed in 2003. The major planning decisions proposed were that natural conservation areas are to be protected as they were declared in 1976. Minor adjustments in the peripheral areas of settlements and spatial developments of towns located in the natural conservation sites including Göreme, Ortahisar, Çavuşin, Ürgüp and Mustafapaşa will be strictly controlled. In other words, the Plan proposes to confine the physical growth of these towns to recently established zones. Hotel developments will take into account the set limits for room capacities. Furthermore, the plan also suggested that local authorities should be advised to review land use decisions for areas that have been reserved for tourism developments in the town plans.
Preparation of conservation area plans for the urban and/or mixed urban-archaeological conservation sites within the historic sections of Göreme are in place and provide zoning criteria and the rules and guidelines to be used in the maintenance and restoration of listed buildings and other buildings which are not registered, but which are located within the historic zones. Similar planning studies for the towns of Ortahisar and Uçhisar are in place. Once finalised, a conservation area plan for the urban conservation area in Ürgüp will be in place. All relevant plans are kept up to date on a continuing basis.
Appropriate facilities aimed at improving the understanding of the World Heritage property have been completed for the subterranean towns of Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu, and are required for Göreme and Paşabağı.
Monuments in danger due to erosion, including the El Nazar, Elmalı, and Meryemana (Virgin Mary) churches, have been listed as monuments requiring priority action. Specific measures for their protection, restoration and maintenance are required at the site level.
While conservation plans and protection measures are in place for individual sites, it is recognised by the principal parties responsible for site management that an integrated Regional Plan for the Cappadocia Cultural and Tourism Conservation and Development Area is required to protect the World Heritage values of the property. Adequate financial, political and technical support is also required to secure the management of the propert
whc.unesco.org/en/list/357
www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/cappadocia/
Specimen at usual maximum shell-length for P. ulyssiponensis.
On this form, well-developed, thick, porcellaneous interior layers conceal outer shell so “marginal rays are never conspicuous” internally (Fretter and Graham, 1994), and features defined by differences of reflectivity resulting from differences in crystal-form of shell-material made by different parts of mantle are clearly visible.
1: aperture rim, minute (or absent) part of pigmented exterior shell-layer; secreted by mantle-edge.
2: wide peripheral “skirt layer” that reflects light, often iridescing blue, from many short crystalline lines parallel to rim; secreted by mantle-skirt.
3: narrower, matt, opaque, “pallial groove-band”; secreted by mantle roofing groove that contains the gills.
4: translucent, horseshoe-shape “pedal-retractor muscle scar”; mark left by muscle attachment.
5: very thin “anterior mantle-attachment scar” connecting ends of pedal-retractor scar; mark left by mantle attachment.
6: central “amphora area” enclosed by scars 4 & 5; secreted by mantle over visceral hump.
7: short mark across pallial groove-band where efferent pallial vessel enters nuchal cavity through gap in pallial gills.
8: excavated vertex patch; occurs more frequently in P. depressa than in P. ulyssiponensis, but, in this case, in the form of two adjoining elliptical pits. Cause unknown; but, as shape regular and consistent, damage by parasite/inquiline suspected. Similar pits on image Pu14 flic.kr/p/BpCkES .
SPECIES DESCRIPTION part A 2Pu flic.kr/p/BG8mKq
SPECIES DESCRIPTION part B 3Pu flic.kr/p/BRHsiR
Key id. features 4Pu flic.kr/p/BG8hhs
OTHER SPECIES ALBUMS
Even though a sheep eye and a human eye are different, they do share a few similarities. Sheep cannot see color, but they do have better peripheral vision than humans do. Scientists are very interested in studying the eyes of sheep because their research has led them to believe they can discover many new things about vision in humans and how they can correct problems.
It is extremely difficult to compare the eyes and the vision of two different species. In the case of the sheep eye and the human eye, though, there are many differences. The human eye has a fovea in the retina where the vision cells are located. This allows people to have sharp, clear vision. There is no fovea in the eye of a sheep, which means they are unable to focus on a specific object as humans can.
The eyes of the sheep are located on the sides of the head which enables them to be able to have a better peripheral vision, and this means that they have better vision to the sides. The human eyes face forward and this gives them overlapping, binocular vision. The eyes of the sheep are farther back on the top of their heads so that they have the ability to scan areas that are close by while they are grazing. This is also something that humans are unable to do.
Humans have a narrower field of vision than sheep, but they do have a greater field of depth perception than sheep. But this is not regarded as a major fault of the sheep eye because sheep not need depth perception in order to see grass in the field. For them the peripheral vision is more important because it enables them to see predators and this gives them time to escape.
More differences between the sheep eye and the human eye
1.The human eye has a circular shaped pupil, but the pupil in the sheep eye is oval in shape.
2.In the eye of the sheep there is a layer of tissues called the tapectum lucidum and this causes light to reflect off the eyes. This tissue is not present in the human eye.
3.Sheep have eyes on the sides of their heads, but human eyes face forward.
4.The human eye has depth perception, but the sheep eye does not.
5.In the human eye there are six muscles to allow movement, but in the sheep eye there are only four.
Source: *VSPages*
WEEK 22 – FGS Kroger, Set II
Here’s another look at the central portion of the façade, home to the Kroger logo and offshoot “Food & Pharmacy” signage. Actually… can this really be called the central portion? It’s actually the rightmost area of the storefront, not the center. But I would imagine the placement of the logo indicates centrality, insofar as the definition “of the greatest importance; principal or essential” is concerned (and not “of, at, or forming the center”). Oh well. Unlike me, I’m sure most (if not all!) of you could care less about all that stuff, so I digress. :P
Kroger // 1690 Powder Springs Road SW, Marietta, GA 30064
(c) 2019 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)
I can’t believe that I’ve made it to day 50! I’m borrowing this idea from cutiger who borrowed it from someone else! Here’s my list of 50 things about me!
1.I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 13 years.
2.I don’t drive and can’t get my license because I have no peripheral vision. Call me Tunnel Vision Girl!
3.My favourite colours are red, black and purple.
4.I have moved nine times in my life.
5.I sat for an artist years ago. There are drawings of my hands, me sitting on a chair and a white wax model of me somewhere out there.
6.My favourite authors are Jane Austen and Margaret Atwood.
7.I love insects! That’s right, this girl loves bugs!
8.My first memory is at the hairdresser’s talking to Mom’s very pregnant belly and having my little brother kick me through her stomach! I was almost 2.
9.I get violent hiccups. And they are the strangest sounding hiccups you’ll hear.
10.I have big feet. Ladies 10.
11.My middle name is Leanne.
12.My favourite food is cake. And soup.
13.One summer I read the entire Works of William Shakespeare. For fun.
14.I’m a jewelry whore…I really am!
15.I flew to Japan 12 seats behind the Dali Lama, and it was one of the coolest things ever. Incase you are wondering, he doesn’t fly first class!
16.I get carsick in the daytime.
17.My imagination gets the better of me almost every day.
18.I’m a choc-o-holic. The higher the cocoa content the better!
19.I was on the swim team in high school.
20.One of the best nights of my life was in Japan spent on a mountain in Nagano with one of my best friends watching an amazing firework show!
21.I have a ridiculously high tolerance for alcohol…I’m not a cheap date!
22.I swam with dolphins in Cuba, and it was amazing…
23.Hockey is my favourite sport of all time. Don’t get me started!
24.My fiancé Ben moved in with me on the fourth date in Japan! (Long story!)
25.In college 5 of us stayed at the school for 2 days straight to get a project done.
26.My favourite movie is Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
27.I drink 15+ glasses of water a day.
28.I swear like a sailor.
29.I want to learn to play the drums.
30.The best summer of my life was when I was 12.
31.Classical music makes me angry, violently so. I don’t know why.
32.I love to dance!
33.My high school nickname was ‘Lipinski’ a friend started calling me that and it stuck. I’m not a skater. Just share the first name. Even teachers called me that!
34.My favourite bands/singers are The Pixies, Aerosmith, Janis Joplin, David Bowie and John Mayer. And the Stones. And The Doors. Oh, and Queen!
35.I saw Aerosmith in Japan with a friend. We were 29 rows from the stage. That my friends is the definition of awesomeness!
36.I like comic books. And manga. And anime.
37.I used to have my tongue and nose pierced. I want them done again.
38.My karaoke songs are (it depends on level of drunkenness at the time) Crocodile Rock, Mercedes Benz, Fat Bottom Girls, I Believe in a Thing Called Love, and Holla Back Girl! I miss karaoke in Japan!
39.I broke both of my middle fingers at the same time in 7th grade!
40.I’m a martini, sake and wine girl!
41.I’m deathly afraid of birds. Especially caged ones. And wild ones.
42.My favourite animals are giraffes and elephants.
43.One of my favourite vacations was a road trip to Toronto 7 years ago with my Mom, Aunt, cousins and best friend. It was a riot!
44.My dream dinner party would be Janis Joplin, Salvador Dali, Eva Peron, Johnny Depp, Bettie Paige, and Audrey Hepburn.
45.Japan changed my life.
46.I absolutely have to visit Africa. I promised myself that years ago!
47.My favourite TV shows ever are Friends, Fraggle Rock, Little House on the Prairie and Sex and the City.
48.I’ve played “music” on stage twice, tambourine and drums (long story again)! Neither time sounded good, but both were so damn fun!
49.Hidden talent…I can tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue!
50.I’ve lived my life guilt and regret free…and plan to continue doing so!
Okay, I'm done...is anyone sick of me now? Aww..I didn't think so! : )
163/365
"Of the many drugs that are inhaled in this manner, nitrous oxide may be one of the safest. However, the mere fact that ones lungs can be filled with the stuff, at a very rapid rate means that asphyxiation can occur by displacing oxygen from the lungs, or suffocation can occur by simply blocking the ability of oxygen to get into the lungs as it normally would."
"Chronic inhalation of nitrous oxide results in damage to the peripheral nerves. Symptoms can include numbness, a tingling sensation or total paralysis."
National Inhalant Prevention Coalition
Disclaimer:
*No whippits were done in the taking of this photo.*
Since childhood, we have been stuffing bumps, but we are moving on. We learn to walk, we fall, but we get up and try again. Growing up. And so, for example, we do not enter the institute. Someone does not give up and tries again, and someone does not make more attempts. And so in many ways. Some take life into their own hands, persistently strive to achieve goals, look for their own way, gain invaluable experience, stumble upon the misunderstanding of others, but despite this, they continue to go. "It didn't work out the first time, it will work out the second time!" - and they try further, act. And others find excuses, avoid responsibility, wait for the "X hour", do not believe in themselves, etc.
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And what do you think, if it didn't work out on the first attempt, is it worth giving up?
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Happy Defender of the Fatherland Day, strong half of humanity! Determination, resourcefulness, great achievements, courage and courage! Let there be no obstacles on your way that you could not overcome. Take care and love your family and friends! A peaceful sky over our heads for all of us!
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Ph: @safronoviv_photo
Loc: @alfabank
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#blackandwhite #computer #computermonitor #desk #outputdevice #peripheral #photograph #style #tie #whitecollarworker #NikonD4 #safronoviv_photo
The only preserved Romanesque sacred building in the Saarland
St. Peter was erected as a monastery church around 1200 by Wadgasser Premonstratensian canons, who came to Merzig as successors of the Augustinian canons. The layout shows a three-aisled basilica with a transept, chancel peripheral towers, side-apses and a western single tower. The gothic cross-vault ornamented with heraldry was not put in until the 16th century. In the course of a renovation in the 60s of the last century, the nave was extended to the west around the Mary Chapel, while the southern side nave was given a new entrance hall. Special architectural attention deserve the two north portals, the small "cemetery portal" at the transept and the larger main and lay portal at the side ship. In the course of the extensive external restoration of St. Peter, completed in December 2004, the former main portal was reopened in the west tower.
In the interior of St. Peter the visitor can see a large number of cultic works, especially from the Baroque period. The Christ, Mary and the 12 apostles, who were made around 1700 by Wolfgang Stupeler, are particularly worth mentioning. Also worth seeing is the 17th-century Pietà in the side chapel in the northern transept. Further attention-getters are the high altar with the crowning pelican figure around 1738 probably carved by the Saarlouis sculptor Ferdinand Ganal, an early Christian symbol, the stemming from the 4th century Gothic plague cross over the altar, the revolving baptismal font, or the St. Nicholas statue rediscovered and restored just a few years ago. In extensive reconstruction work in 1984/85, the paintings by the Merzig painter Heinrich Klein, which had been coated in the framework of the Second Vatican Council, were also exposed, the latter one has made them in the style of the Nazarene school after models of Eduard von Steinle.
As the most important building in our city and the only preserved Romanesque sacred building in the state of Saarland, characterises the parish church of St. Peter most of all for those coming from the east from the direction of Brotdorf the image of the core city. In spite of the many changes that St. Peter has undergone during the course of his long history through fire catastrophes, war destructions or transformations in the style of the particular zeitgeist, the church has, apart from the Westbau (west wing), kept its original shape.
Einziger erhaltener romanischer Sakralbau im Saarland
St. Peter wurde um 1200 von Wadgasser Prämonstratenserchorherren, die als Nachfolger der Augustinerchorherren 1182 nach Merzig gekommen waren, als Klosterkirche errichtet. Der Grundriss zeigt eine dreischiffige Basilika mit Querhaus, Chornebentürmen, Nebenapsiden und einem westlichen Einzelturm. Das wappenverzierte gotische Kreuzgewölbe wurde erst im 16. Jahrhundert nach einem Brand eingezogen. Im Zuge einer Renovierung in den 60er Jahren des letzten Jahrhunderts wurde das Nordseitenschiff um die Marienkapelle nach Westen verlängert, während das südliche Seitenschiff eine neue Eingangshalle erhielt. Besondere architektonische Aufmerksamkeit verdienen die beiden Nordportale, das kleine "Friedhofsportal" am Querhaus und das größere Haupt- und Laienportal am Seitenschiff. Im Zuge der im Dezember 2004 abgeschlossenen umfangreichen Außensanierung von St. Peter wurde das frühere Hauptportal im Westturm wieder geöffnet.
Im Innern von St. Peter erwartet den Besucher eine große Zahl kultischer Kunstwerke, vor allem aus der Zeit des Barock. Besonderes zu erwähnen sind beispielsweise die Christus, Maria und die 12 Apostel darstellenden Figuren, die um 1700 von Wolfgang Stupeler gefertigt wurden. Sehenswert ist auch die aus dem 17. Jahrhundert stammende Pietà in der Nebenkapelle im Nordquerhaus. Weitere Blickfänge sind der um 1738 vermutlich von dem Saarlouiser Bildhauer Ferdinand Ganal geschaffene Hochaltar mit der krönenden Pelikanfigur, einem frühchristlichen Symbol, das aus dem 14. Jahrhundert stammende gotische Pestkreuz über dem Altar, die Drehtaufe oder die erst vor wenigen Jahren wiederentdeckte und restaurierte Nikolausstatue. Bei umfangreichen Renovierungsarbeiten im Jahr 1984/85 wurden auch wieder die im Rahmen des II. Vatikanischen Konzils überstrichenen Malereien des Merziger Malers Heinrich Klein freigelegt, der diese nach Vorlagen von Eduard von Steinle im Stil der Nazarener Schule gefertigt hat.
Als das bedeutendste Bauwerk unserer Stadt und einziger erhaltener romanischer Sakralbau im Saarland prägt die Pfarrkirche St. Peter vor allem für die Besucher, die von Osten her aus Richtung Brotdorf kommen, das Bild der Kernstadt. Trotz der vielfältigen Veränderungen, die St. Peter im Lauf seiner langen Geschichte durch Brandkatastrophen, Kriegszerstörungen oder Umgestaltungen im Stile des jeweiligen Zeitgeistes erfahren hat, hat die Kirche, abgesehen vom Westbau, ihre ursprüngliche Gestalt weitgehend behalten.
European Green Woodpecker / picus viridis. Lincolnshire. 24/06/16.
'PERIPHERAL VISION'.
This view of a Green Woodpecker helped me better understand why they are such impossible birds to sneak up on, (however stealthily), from behind!
Those bulging eyes are set on the side of its head for the sole purpose of survival. Their strategic positioning allows the bird to have the very best peripheral vision possible. A wider visual field enables it to detect the slightest movement or threats from predators, whatever direction they may be coming from.
When I think back to the many hours I've spent waiting for, then crawling inch by painful inch under camouflage netting towards feeding Green Woodpeckers, I realise I was onto a loser from the start!
My thanks then to Tom Robinson, owner of Wildlife Photography Hides, who has a beautifully designed set-up which allowed me to make images in comfort.
Exposure: f5.6, ISO100 at 60seconds
Location: IWay construction site, Providence RI
Date: August 29, 2007 12:33 am
Notes: Shot with Nikon D200 with Nikon 10.5mm
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The usual crew of threshold, rizzolo, skazama and rtlm401 came out to Providence to shoot the IWAY before it's impending opening of the Rte-195 East Bound lanes in November.
Down below is a haunt we visited many times prior to the IWAY construction.
After finishing the film in my F100 and Holga I allowed the D200 to come out and play. That wasn't until 11pm and the "Late Nighters" stayed until 1:20am... man was beat the next day.
You can see a group pool here of all our shots on Flickr from the night or a slick slideshow here. It may take a week or so for all the shots to be posted.
A training slide of what I believe could be bacterial meningitis. (Different from viral meningitis by the type of white cells present.)
The larger, more reddish violet and spotted circles are likely segmented neutrophils - a type of white blood cell. The much more tiny dark violet dots speckled all around them are bacteria.
It is not usual for bacteria to be in the bloodstream at all. A slide as this is uncommon for as much as that as the fact that it is not common for that many white cells to congregate so closely together.
The image, to me, is a strong representation of the way the body fights to defend itself against foreign invaders. Swarming and rising to the challenge. Fight on!
The peripheral road on Governors Island leading to the new development called The Hill. New York, New York.
30 Days of Perception - Day 15
Walking back from an appointment, I lingered purposely and caught something bright from the corner of my eye. I turned my head and looked over through a garden in the shade. Over the fence on the other side, I saw hanging vines framing a colourful scene. It was an unexpected sunny encounter. Lingering brings many gifts!
Foreground (but still dwarfed)
Savannah Sparrow SAVS* (Passerculus sandwichensis)
Background
Sky Lark SKLA (Alauda arvensis)
Martindale Flats
Central Saanich BC
same stretch of McHugh Road featured in following( but taken earlier) photos of SAVS
DSCN2776
yes was 'reading' 'redder' than SAVSs
...and in this photo with out of focus Sky Lark one can see
the "impression" of the bird (so to speak)
Taken through one of our lounge room windows. Just spotted as the sun moved around...
Pooped into my Peripheral vision one evening..
See a collection of shadow and light.. www.flickr.com/groups/1587040@N23/pool/spelio
See www.flickr.com/photos/spelio/41002178822/in/photolist-25t...
Personal project
Mamiya Universal
Sekor 100mm f3,5
Kodak Portra 160 NC
Gracias a Andres Medina por esto Seekingmagazine
Music games with awesome plastic peripherals have always appealed to me.
Dance Dance Revolution, Samba de Amigo, EyeToy: Groove, Donkey Konga, Guitar Hero, Rockband, and now... DJ Hero!
Perhaps it's my unhealthy desire to be really good at any outlet of artistic expression right away!
Video games that make you a champion dancer, a world class rockstar, or a super-scratchin DJ with minimal investment satisfy that desire.
So this weekend, I was sampling and scratching to my heart's content! Huge headphones and all!
I sniped the $200 Special Edition for $40 on eBay too! Mwahahaaa!
Moving a little plastic platter in repetitive quarter circles has never been so fun.
Wikawikawikawika!
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The Ramayana or Rāmāyaṇa (/rɑːˈmɑːjənə/; Sanskrit: रामायणम्, Rāmāyaṇam, pronounced [rɑːˈmɑːjəɳəm]), is the first of two Sanskrit itihāsas (ancient Indian epic poem) traditionally ascribed to the Hindu muni (sage) Vālmīki - the other one being the Mahābhārata attributed to Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa.
The epic narrates the life of Rāma, a legendary rāja-kumāra (prince) of Kośala, his banishment from his kingdom by his father king Daśaratha, his travels across forests in India with his wife Sītā and brother Lakṣmaṇa, the kidnap of his wife by his enemies, resulting in a war with Rāvaṇa (the king of the island of Laṅkā) and eventual return to Ayodhya to be crowned king.
The Ramayana is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature. It is comprised nearly 24,000 verses (mostly set in the śloka meter), divided into seven Kāṇḍas (books) and about 500 sargas (chapters). In Hindu tradition, it is considered to be the ādi-kāvya (first kāvya poem). It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. The Ramayana was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Hindu life and culture. Like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is not just a story: it presents the teachings of ancient Hindu sages in narrative allegory, interspersing philosophical and ethical elements. The characters Rāma, Sītā, Lakṣmaṇa, Bharata, Hanumān and Rāvaṇa are all fundamental to the cultural consciousness of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and south-east Asian countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia.
There are many other versions of the Ramayana in Indian languages, besides Buddhist and Jain adaptations; and also Cambodian, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai, Lao, Burmese, and Malaysian versions of the tale.
ETYMOLOGY
The name Ramayana is a tatpuruṣa compound of Rāma and ayana("going, advancing"), translating to Rama's Journey.
Textual history and structure
Traditionally, the Ramayana is attributed to Valmiki. The Hindu tradition is unanimous in its agreement that the poem is the work of a single poet, the sage Valmiki, a contemporary of Rama and a peripheral actor in the drama. The story's original version in Sanskrit is known as Valmiki Ramayana.
According to Hindu tradition - and according to the Ramayana itself - the Ramayana belongs to the genre of itihāsa like the Mahabharata. The definition of itihāsa is a narrative of past events (purāvṛtta) which includes teachings on the goals of human life. According to Hindu tradition, the Ramayana takes place during a period of time known as Treta Yuga.
In its extant form, Valmiki's Ramayana is an epic poem of some 24,000 verses. The text survives in several thousand partial and complete manuscripts, the oldest of which is a palm-leaf manuscript found in Nepal and dated to the 11th century CE. A Times of India report dated 18 Dec 2015 informs about discovery of a 6th-century manuscript of Ramayana at the Asiatic Society library, Kolkata. The Ramayana text has several regional renderings, recensions, and subrecensions. Textual scholar Robert P. Goldman differentiates two major regional recensions: the northern(n) and the southern(s). Scholar Romesh Chunder Dutt writes that "the Ramayana, like the Mahabharata, is a growth of centuries, but the main story is more distinctly the creation of one mind."
There has been discussion as to whether the first and the last chapters of Valmiki's Ramayana were composed by the original author. Most Hindus still believe they are integral parts of the book, in spite of some style differences and narrative contradictions between these two chapters and the rest of the book.
Famous retellings include Gona Budda Reddy's Ramayanam in Telugu, Kamban's Ramavataram in Tamil (c. 11th–12th century), Madhava Kandali's Saptakanda Ramayana in Assamese (c. 14th century), Krittibas Ojha's Krittivasi Ramayan(also known as Shri Rama panchali) in Bengali (c. 15th century), Sarala Das' Vilanka Ramayana (c. 15th century) and Balaram Das' Dandi Ramayana(also known as the Jagamohan Ramayana) (c. 16th century) both in Odia, sant Eknath's Bhavarth Ramayan (c. 16th century) in Marathi, Tulsidas' Ramcharitamanas (c. 16th century) in Awadhi (which is an eastern form of Hindi) and Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan's Adhyathmaramayanam in Malayalam.
PERIOD
Some cultural evidence - such as the presence of sati in the Mahabharata but not in the main body of the Ramayana - suggests that the Ramayana predates the Mahabharata. However, the general cultural background of the Ramayana is one of the post-urbanization period of the eastern part of north India and Nepal, while the Mahabharata reflects the Kuru areas west of this, from the Rigvedic to the late Vedic period.
By tradition, the text belongs to the Treta Yuga, second of the four eons(yuga) of Hindu chronology. Rama is said to have been born in the treta yuga to king Dasaratha in the Ikshvaku dynasty.
The names of the characters(Rama, Sita, Dasaratha, Janaka, Vashista, Vishwamitra) are all known in late Vedic literature. However, nowhere in the surviving Vedic poetry is there a story similar to the Ramayana of Valmiki. According to the modern academic view, Vishnu - who, according to bala kanda, was incarnated as Rama - first came into prominence with the epics themselves and further during the puranic period of the later 1st millennium CE. Also, in the epic Mahabharata, there is a version of Ramayana known as Ramopakhyana. This version is depicted as a narration to Yudhishthira.
There is general consensus that books two to six form the oldest portion of the epic, while the first and last books(bala kanda and uttara kanda, respectively) are later additions. The author or authors of bala kanda and ayodhya kanda appear to be familiar with the eastern Gangetic basin region of northern India and with the Kosala and Magadha region during the period of the sixteen Janapadas, based on the fact that the geographical and geopolitical data accords with what is known about the region. The knowledge of the location of the island of Lanka also lacks detail. Basing his assumption on these features, archeologist Hasmukh Dhirajlal Sankalia has proposed a date of the 4th century BC for the composition of the text. Historian and indologist Arthur Llewellyn Basham is of the opinion that Rama may have been a minor chief who lived in the 8th or the 7th century BC.
CHARACTERS
Rāma is one of the protagonists of the tale. Portrayed as the seventh avatar of the god Vishnu, he is the eldest and favourite son of Dasharatha - the king of Ayodhya(current day Ayodhya, India) - and his Chief Queen, Kausalya. He is portrayed as the epitome of virtue. Dasharatha is forced by Kaikeyi, one of his wives, to command Rama to relinquish his right to the throne for fourteen years and go into exile. He kills the evil demon Ravana, who abducted his wife Sita and later returned to Ayodhya to form an ideal state.
Sīta is another of the tale's protagonists. She is daughter of Mother Earth, adopted by King Janaka and Rama's beloved wife. Rama went to Mithila (located in Janakpur, Nepal) and got a chance to marry her by breaking the Shiv Dhanush (bow) while trying to tie a knot to it in a competition organized by King Janaka of Nepal in Dhanusa. The competition was to find the most suitable husband for Sita and many princes from different states competed to win her. Sita is the avatara of the goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu. Sita is portrayed as the epitome of female purity and virtue. She follows her husband into exile and is abducted by the demon king Ravana. She is imprisoned on the island of Lanka, until Rama rescues her by defeating Ravana. Later, she gives birth to Lava and Kusha.
Hanumān is a vanara belonging to the kingdom of Kishkindha. He is an ideal bhakta of Rama. He is born as the son of Kesari, a Vanara king in Sumeru region and the goddess Añjanā. He plays an important part in locating Sita and in the ensuing battle. He is believed to live until our modern world.
Lakṣmaṇa, the younger brother of Rama, who chose to go into exile with him. He is the son of King Dasaratha and Queen Sumitra and twin of Shatrughna. Lakshmana is portrayed as an avatar of the Shesha, the nāga associated with the god Vishnu. He spends his time protecting Sita and Rama during which he fought the demoness Surpanakha. He is forced to leave Sita, who was deceived by the demon Maricha into believing that Rama was in trouble. Sita is abducted by Ravana upon him leaving her. He was married to Sita's younger sister Urmila.
Rāvaṇa, a rakshasa, is the king of Lanka. He was son of a sage named Vishrava and daitya princess Kaikeshi. After performing severe penance for ten thousand years he received a boon from the creator-god Brahma: he could henceforth not be killed by gods, demons,or spirits. He is portrayed as a powerful demon king who disturbs the penances of rishis. Vishnu incarnates as the human Rama to defeat him, thus circumventing the boon given by Brahma.
Jaṭāyu, the son of Aruṇa and nephew of Garuda. A demi-god who has the form of an vulture that tries to rescue Sita from Ravana. Jatayu fought valiantly with Ravana, but as Jatayu was very old, Ravana soon got the better of him. As Rama and Lakshmana chanced upon the stricken and dying Jatayu in their search for Sita, he informs them of the direction in which Ravana had gone.
Daśaratha is the king of Ayodhya and the father of Rama. He has three queens, Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra, and three other sons: Bharata, Lakshmana and Shatrughna. Kaikeyi, Dasharatha's favourite queen, forces him to make his son Bharata crown prince and send Rama into exile. Dasharatha dies heartbroken after Rama goes into exile.
Bharata is the son of Dasharatha and Queen Kaikeyi. When he learns that his mother Kaikeyi had forced Rama into exile and caused Dasharatha to die brokenhearted, he storms out of the palace and goes in search of Rama in the forest. When Rama refuses to return from his exile to assume the throne, Bharata obtains Rama's sandals and places them on the throne as a gesture that Rama is the true king. Bharata then rules Ayodhya as the regent of Rama for the next fourteen years staying outside the city of Ayodhya. He was married to Mandavi.
Śatrughna is the son of Dasharatha and his second wife Queen Sumitra. He is the youngest brother of Rama and also the twin brother of Lakshmana. He was married to Shrutakirti.
Sugrīva, a vanara king who helped Rama regain Sita from Ravana. He had an agreement with Rama through which Vaali – Sugriva's brother and king of Kishkindha – would be killed by Rama in exchange for Sugriva's help in finding Sita. Sugriva ultimately ascends the throne of Kishkindha after the slaying of Vaali and fulfills his promise by putting the Vanara forces at Rama's disposal.
Indrajit or Meghnadha, the eldest son of Ravana who twice defeated Rama and Lakshmana in battle, before succumbing to Lakshmana. An adept of the magical arts, he coupled his supreme fighting skills with various stratagems to inflict heavy losses on the Vanara army before his death.
Kumbhakarṇa, a brother of Ravana, famous for his eating and sleeping. He would sleep for months at a time and would be extremely ravenous upon waking up, consuming anything set before him. His monstrous size and loyalty made him an important part of Ravana's army. During the war he decimated the Vanara army before Rama cut off his limbs and head.
Sūrpanakha, Ravana's demoness sister who fell in love with Rama and had the magical power to take any form she wanted.
Vibhīṣaṇa, a younger brother of Ravana. He was against the kidnapping of Sita and joined the forces of Rama when Ravana refused to return her. His intricate knowledge of Lanka was vital in the war and he was crowned king after the fall of Ravana.
SYNOPSIS
BALA KANDA
Dasharatha was the king of Ayodhya. He had three wives: Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra. He was childless for a long time and anxious to produce an heir, he performs a fire sacrifice known as putra-kameshti yagya. As a consequence, Rama is first born to Kausalya, Bharata is born to Kaikeyi, Lakshmana and Shatrughna are born to Sumitra. These sons are endowed, to various degrees, with the essence of the Supreme Trinity Entity Vishnu; Vishnu had opted to be born into mortality to combat the demon Ravana, who was oppressing the gods, and who could only be destroyed by a mortal. The boys are reared as the princes of the realm, receiving instructions from the scriptures and in warfare. When Rama is 16 years old, the sage Vishwamitra comes to the court of Dasharatha in search of help against demons who were disturbing sacrificial rites. He chooses Rama, who is followed by Lakshmana, his constant companion throughout the story. Rama and Lakshmana receive instructions and supernatural weapons from Vishwamitra and proceed to destroy the demons.
Janaka was the king of Mithila. One day, a female child was found in the field by the king in the deep furrow dug by his plough. Overwhelmed with joy, the king regarded the child as a "miraculous gift of god". The child was named Sita, the Sanskrit word for furrow. Sita grew up to be a girl of unparalleled beauty and charm. The king had decided that who ever could lift and wield the heavy bow, presented to his ancestors by Shiva, could marry Sita. The sage Vishwamitra takes Rama and Lakshmana to Mithila to show the bow. Then Rama desires to lift it and goes on to wield the bow and, when he draws the string, it breaks. Marriages are arranged between the sons of Dasharatha and daughters of Janaka. Rama gets married to Sita, Lakshmana to Urmila, Bharata to Mandavi and Shatrughan to Shrutakirti. The weddings are celebrated with great festivity at Mithila and the marriage party returns to Ayodhya.
AYODHYA KANDA
After Rama and Sita have been married for twelve years, an elderly Dasharatha expresses his desire to crown Rama, to which the Kosala assembly and his subjects express their support. On the eve of the great event, Kaikeyi - her jealousy aroused by Manthara, a wicked maidservant - claims two boons that Dasharatha had long ago granted her. Kaikeyi demands Rama to be exiled into the wilderness for fourteen years, while the succession passes to her son Bharata. The heartbroken king, constrained by his rigid devotion to his given word, accedes to Kaikeyi's demands. Rama accepts his father's reluctant decree with absolute submission and calm self-control which characterises him throughout the story. He is joined by Sita and Lakshmana. When he asks Sita not to follow him, she says, "the forest where you dwell is Ayodhya for me and Ayodhya without you is a veritable hell for me." After Rama's departure, King Dasharatha, unable to bear the grief, passes away. Meanwhile, Bharata who was on a visit to his maternal uncle, learns about the events in Ayodhya. Bharata refuses to profit from his mother's wicked scheming and visits Rama in the forest. He requests Rama to return and rule. But Rama, determined to carry out his father's orders to the letter, refuses to return before the period of exile. However, Bharata carries Rama's sandals and keeps them on the throne, while he rules as Rama's regent.
ARNYA KANDA
Thirteen years pass and in the last year of exile Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana journey southward along the banks of river Godavari, where they build cottages and live off the land. At the Panchavati forest they are visited by a rakshasa (demon) woman, Surpanakha, the sister of Ravana. She attempts to seduce the brothers and failing in this, attempts to kill Sita. Lakshmana stops her by cutting off her nose and ears. Hearing of this, her demon brother, Khara, organises an attack against the princes. Rama annihilates Khara and his demons.
When news of these events reaches Ravana, he resolves to destroy Rama by capturing Sita with the aid of the rakshasa Maricha. Maricha, assuming the form of a golden deer, captivates Sita's attention. Entranced by the beauty of the deer, Sita pleads with Rama to capture it. Lord Rama, aware that this is the ploy of the demons, cannot dissuade Sita from her desire and chases the deer into the forest, leaving Sita under Lakshmana's guard. After some time, Sita hears Rama calling out to her; afraid for his life, she insists that Lakshmana rush to his aid. Lakshmana tries to assure her that Rama is invincible and that it is best if he continues to follow Rama's orders to protect her. On the verge of hysterics, Sita insists that it is not she but Rama who needs Lakshmana's help. He obeys her wish but stipulates that she is not to leave the cottage or entertain any strangers. He draws a chalk outline, the Lakshmana rekha, around the cottage and casts a spell on it that prevents anyone from entering the boundary but allows people to exit. With the coast finally clear, Ravana appears in the guise of an ascetic requesting Sita's hospitality. Unaware of the devious plan of her guest, Sita is tricked into leaving the rekha and is then forcibly carried away by the evil Ravana.
Jatayu, a vulture, tries to rescue Sita, but is mortally wounded. At Lanka, Sita is kept under the heavy guard of rakshasis. Ravana demands Sita marry him, but Sita, eternally devoted to Rama, refuses. Rama and Lakshmana learn about Sita's abduction from Jatayu and immediately set out to save her. During their search, they meet the demon Kabandha and the ascetic Shabari, who direct them towards Sugriva and Hanuman.
KISHKINDHA KANDA
The kishkindha kanda is set in the ape (Vanar) citadel Kishkindha. Rama and Lakshmana meet Hanuman, the bigest devotee of Rama, the greatest of ape heroes and an adherent of Sugriva, the banished pretender to the throne of Kishkindha. Rama befriends Sugriva and helps him by killing his elder brother Vali thus regaining the kingdom of Kiskindha, in exchange for helping Rama to recover Sita. However Sugriva soon forgets his promise and spends his time in enjoying his powers. The clever former ape queen Tara (wife of Vali) calmly intervenes to prevent an enraged Lakshmana from destroying the ape citadel. She then eloquently convinces Sugriva to honour his pledge. Sugriva then sends search parties to the four corners of the earth, only to return without success from north, east and west. The southern search party under the leadership of Angad and Hanuman learns from a vulture named Sampati (elder brother of Jatayu), that Sita was taken to Lanka.
SUNDARA KANDA
The sundara kanda forms the heart of Valmiki's Ramayana and consists of a detailed, vivid account of Hanuman's adventures. After learning about Sita, Hanuman assumes a gargantuan form and makes a colossal leap across the sea to Lanka. On the way he faces many challenges like facing a gandharva kanya who comes in the form of demon to test his abilities and he faces a mountain naming Mainakudu who offers Lord Hanuman some help to take some rest but he refuses because of the time is running out and there is a very less time remaining for searching Sita. After entering into Lanka he finds a demon lankini who protects the entire Lanka and Hanuman fights with her and kills her in order to get into Lanka. Here, Hanuman explores the demons' kingdom and spies on Ravana. He locates Sita in ashoka grove, who is wooed and threatened by Ravana and his rakshasis to marry Ravana. He reassures her, giving Rama's signet ring as a sign of good faith. He offers to carry Sita back to Rama, however she refuses and says that it is not the dharma. She says that Rama himself must come and avenge the insult of her abduction.
Hanuman then wreaks havoc in Lanka by destroying trees and buildings and killing Ravana's warriors. He allows himself to be captured and produced before Ravana. He gives a bold lecture to Ravana to release Sita. He is condemned and his tail is set on fire, but he escapes his bonds and leaping from roof to roof, sets fire to Ravana's citadel and makes the giant leap back from the island. The joyous search party returns to Kishkindha with the news.
LANKA KANDA
Also known as Lanka kanda, this book describes the Ramayana War between the army of Rama and the army of Ravana. Having received Hanuman's report on Sita, Rama and Lakshmana proceed with their allies towards the shore of the southern sea. There they are joined by Ravana's renegade brother Vibhishana. The apes named Nala and Nila construct a floating bridge (known as Rama Setu) across the sea, using stones that floated on water because they had Rama's name written on them. The princes and their army cross over to Lanka. A lengthy war ensues. During a battle, Ravana's son Indrajit hurls a powerful weapon at Lakshmana, who is badly wounded and is nearly killed. So Hanuman assumes a gigantic form and flies from Lanka to the Himalayas. Upon reaching Mount Sumeru, Hanuman was unable to identify the herb that could cure Lakshmana, and so decided to bring the entire mountain back to Lanka. Eventually, the war ends when Rama kills Ravana. Rama then installs Vibhishana on the throne of Lanka.
On meeting Sita, Rama asks her to undergo an "agni pareeksha" (test of fire) to prove her purity, as he wants to get rid of the rumours surrounding Sita's purity. When Sita plunges into the sacrificial fire, Agni the lord of fire raises Sita, unharmed, to the throne, attesting to her purity. The episode of agni pariksha varies in the versions of Ramayana by Valmiki and Tulsidas. In earlier versions this event does not occur and many scholars consider it to have been added later as society became more patriarchal. In Tulsidas's Ramacharitamanas Sita was under the protection of Agni (see Maya Sita) so it was necessary to bring her out before reuniting with Rama. At the expiration of his term of exile, Rama returns to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshmana, where the coronation is performed. This is the beginning of Ram Rajya, which implies an ideal state with good morals.
UTTARA KANDA
The uttara kanda is regarded to be a later addition to the original story by Valmiki and concerns the final years of Rama, Sita and Rama's brothers. After being crowned king, Rama passes time pleasantly with Sita. After some time, Sita gets pregnant with twin children. However, despite the agni pariksha (fire ordeal) of Sita, rumours about her purity are spreading among the populace of Ayodhya. Rama yields to public opinion and reluctantly banishes Sita to the forest, where the sage Valmiki provides shelter in his ashrama (hermitage). Here, she gives birth to twin boys, Lava and Kusha, who become pupils of Valmiki and are brought up in ignorance of their identity.
Valmiki composes the Ramayana and teaches Lava and Kusha to sing it. Later, Rama holds a ceremony during Ashwamedha yagna, which the sage Valmiki, with Lava and Kusha, attends. Lava and Kusha sing the Ramayana in the presence of Rama and his vast audience. When Lava and Kusha recite about Sita's exile, Rama becomes grief-stricken and Valmiki produces Sita. Sita calls upon the earth, her mother, to receive her and as the ground opens, she vanishes into it. Rama then learns that Lava and Kusha are his children. Many years later, a messenger from the Gods appears and informs Rama that the mission of his incarnation was over. Rama returns to his celestial abode.
It was dramatised as the Uttararamacarita by the Sanskrit poet Bhavabhuti.
VARIANT VERSIONS
As in many oral epics, multiple versions of the Ramayana survive. In particular, the Ramayana related in north India differs in important respects from that preserved in south India and the rest of south-east Asia. There is an extensive tradition of oral storytelling based on the Ramayana in Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam and Maldives. Father Kamil Bulke, author of Ramakatha, has identified over 300 variants of Ramayana.
In India
The 7th century CE "bhatti's poem" Bhaṭṭikāvya of Bhaṭṭi is a Sanskrit retelling of the epic that simultaneously illustrates the grammatical examples for Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as the major figures of speech and the Prakrit language.
There are diverse regional versions of the Ramayana written by various authors in India. Some of them differ significantly from each other. During the 12th century, Kamban wrote Ramavataram, known popularly as Kambaramayanam in Tamil. A Telugu version, Ranganatha Ramayanam, was written by Gona Budda Reddy in the 14th century. The earliest translation to a regional Indo-Aryan language is the early-14th century Saptakanda Ramayana in Assamese by Madhava Kandali. Valmiki's Ramayana inspired the Sri Ramacharit Manas by Tulsidas in 1576, an epic Awadhi(a dialect of Hindi) version with a slant more grounded in a different realm of Hindu literature, that of bhakti; it is an acknowledged masterpiece of India, popularly known as Tulsi-krta Ramayana. Gujarati poet Premanand wrote a version of Ramayana in the 17th century. Other versions include Krittivasi Ramayan, a Bengali version by Krittibas Ojha in the 15th century; the Vilanka Ramayana by the 15th century poet Sarala Dasa and the Dandi Ramayana (also known as Jagamohana Ramayana) by the 16th century poet Balarama Dasa both in Odia; a Torave Ramayana in Kannada by the 16th-century poet Narahari; Adhyathmaramayanam, a Malayalam version by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in the 16th century; in Marathi by Sridhara in the 18th century; in Maithili by Chanda Jha in the 19th century; and in the 20th century, Rashtrakavi Kuvempu's Sri Ramayana Darshanam in Kannada.
There is a sub-plot to Ramayana, prevalent in some parts of India, relating the adventures of Ahi Ravana and Mahi Ravana, the evil brother of Ravana, which enhances the role of Hanuman in the story. Hanuman rescues Rama and Lakshmana after they are kidnapped by the Ahi-Mahi Ravana at the behest of Ravana and held prisoner in a subterranean cave, to be sacrificed to the goddess Kali. Adbhuta Ramayana is a version that is obscure but also attributed to Valmiki - intended as a supplementary to original Valmiki Ramayana. In this variant of the narrative, Sita is accorded far more prominence such as elaboration of the events surrounding her birth — in this case to Ravana's wife, Mandodari as well as her conquest of Ravana's older brother in her Mahakali form.
Mappillapattu - a genre of song popular among the Muslims belonging to Kerala and Lakshadweep - has incorporated some episodes from the Ramayana into its songs. These songs, known as mappila ramayana, have been handed down from one generation to the next orally. In mappila ramayana, the story of the Ramayana has been changed into that of a sultan, and there are no major changes in the names of characters except for that of Rama which is `laman' in many places. The language and the imagery projected in the mappilapattu are in accordance with the social fabric of the earlier Muslim community.
BUDDHIST VERSION
In the Buddhist variant of Rāmāyaṇa(Dasarathajātaka, #467), Dasaratha was the king of Benares and not Ayodhya. Rāma [called Rāmapaṇḍita in this version] was son of Kausalya, first wife of Dasaratha, Lakṣmaṇa [Lakkhaṇa] was sibling of Rama and son of Sumitra second wife of Dasaratha, and Sita wife of Rama. To protect his children from his wife Kaikayi, who wished to promote her son Bharata, Dasaratha sent the three to a hermitage in the Himalayas for a twelve-year exile. After nine years, Dasaratha died and Lakkhaṇa and Sita returned; Rāmapaṇḍita, in deference to his father's wishes, remained in exile for a further two years. This version does not include the abduction of Sītā.
In the explanatory commentary on the Jātaka, Rāmapaṇḍita is said to have been a previous incarnation of the Buddha and Sītā an incarnation of Yasodharā.
This version is notable for depicting Rama and Sita as siblings who marry. Such sibling marriages are a common symbolic imagery in early Buddhist literature to denote purity of a dynasty. As the Buddha is supposed to have come from the Ikshvaku dynasty (of Rama).
SIKH VERSION
In Guru Granth Sahib, there is description of two types of Ramayana. One is spiritual Ramayana which is actual subject of Guru Granth Sahib, in which Ravan is ego, Seeta is budhi (intellect), Rama is inner soul and Laxman is mann (attention, mind). Guru Granth Sahib also believes in existence of dasavtara who were kings of their times which tried their best to bring revolution in the world. King Ramchandra was one of those and it is not covered in Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Granth Sahib states:
ਹੁਕਮਿ ਉਪਾਏ ਦਸ ਅਉਤਾਰਾ॥
हुकमि उपाए दस अउतारा॥
By hukam (supreme command), he created his ten incarnations,
This version of Ramayana was written by Guru Gobind Singh, which is part of Dasam Granth. In dasam granth, Guru Gobind Singh also explained that he does not believe Ramchandra as a God. He is equating Ramchandra with a common man.
He also said that the almighty, invisible, all prevailing God created so many of Indras, Moons and Suns, Deities, Demons and sages, so many Prophets and Brahmanas(enlightened people). But they too were caught in the noose of death (KAAL) (Transmigration of soul). This is very well same to as explained in Geeta which is part of Mahabharata.
JAIN VERSION
Jain versions of Ramayana can be found in the various Jain agamas like Padmapurana (story of Padmaja and Rama, Padmaja being the name of Sita), Hemacandra's Trisastisalakapurusa charitra (hagiography of 63 illustrious persons), Sanghadasa's Vasudevahindi and Uttarapurana by Gunabhadara. According to Jain cosmology, every half time cycle has nine sets of Balarama, Vasudeva and prativasudeva. Rama, Lakshmana and Ravana are the eighth baladeva, vasudeva, and prativasudeva respectively. Padmanabh Jaini notes that, unlike in the Hindu puranas, the names Baladeva and Vasudeva are not restricted to Balarama and Krishna in Jain Puranas. Instead they serve as names of two distinct class of mighty brothers, who appear nine times in each half time cycle and jointly rule the half the earth as half-chakravartins. Jaini traces the origin of this list of brothers to the jinacharitra (lives of the jinas) by Acharya Bhadrabahu (3–4th century BCE).
In the Jain epic of Ramayana, it is Lakshmana who ultimately kills Ravana and not Rama as told in the Hindu version. In the end, Rama who led an upright life renounces his kingdom, becomes a Jain monk and attains moksha. On the other hand, Lakshmana and Ravana go to hell. However, it is predicted that ultimately they both will be reborn as upright persons and attain liberation in their future births. According to Jain texts, Ravana will be the future Tirthankara (omniscient teacher) of Jainism.
The Jain versions have some variations from Valmiki's Ramayana. Dasharatha, the king of Saketa had four queens: Aparajita, Sumitra, Suprabha and Kaikeyi. These four queens had four sons. Aparajita's son was Padma and he became known by the name of Rama. Sumitra's son was Narayana: he became to be known by another name, Lakshmana. Kaikeyi's son was Bharata and Suprabha's son was Shatrughna. Furthermore, not much was thought of Rama's fidelity to Sita. According to Jain version, Rama had four chief-queen's: Maithili, Prabhavati, Ratinibha, and Sridama. Furthermore, Sita takes renunciation as a Jain ascetic after Rama abandons her and is reborn in heaven. Rama, after Lakshmana's death, also renounces his kingdom and becomes a Jain monk. Ultimately, he attains Kevala Jnana omniscience and finally liberation. Rama predicts that Ravana and Lakshmana, who were in fourth hell, will attain liberation in their future births. Accordingly, Ravana is the future tirthankara of next half ascending time cycle and Sita will be his Ganadhara.
IN NEPAL
Besides being the site of discovery of the oldest surviving manuscript of Ramayana, Nepal gave rise to two regional variants in mid 19th – early 20th century. One, written by Bhanubhakta Acharya, is considered the first epic of Nepali language, while the other, written by Siddhidas Mahaju in Nepal Bhasa was a foundational influence in the renaissance of that language.
The Ramayana written by Bhanubhakta Acharya is one of the most popular verses in Nepal. The popularization of the 'Ramayana' and its tale, originally written in Sanskrit Language was greatly enhanced by the work of Bhanubhakta. Mainly because of his writing of Nepali Ramayana, Bhanubhakta is also called 'Aadi Kavi' or 'The Pioneering Poet'.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN VERSIONS
Phra Lak Phra Lam is a Lao language version, whose title comes from Lakshmana and Rama. The story of Lakshmana and Rama is told as the previous life of the Buddha. In Hikayat Seri Rama of Malaysia, Dasharatha is the great-grandson of the Prophet Adam. Ravana receives boons from Allah instead of Brahma. In many Malay language versions, Lakshmana is given greater importance than Rama, whose character is considered somewhat weak.
The Cambodian version of Ramayana, the Reamker, is the most famous story of Khmer literature since the Kingdom of Funan era. It adapts the Hindu concepts to Buddhist themes and show's the balance of good and evil in the world. The Reamker has several differences from the original Ramayana, including scenes not included in the original and emphasis on Hanuman and Sovanna Maccha, a retelling which influences the Thai and Lao versions. Reamker in Cambodia is not confined to the realm of literature but extends to all Cambodian art forms, such as sculpture, Khmer classical dance, theater known as lakhorn luang (the foundation of the royal ballet), poetry and the mural and bas reliefs seen at the Silver Pagoda and Angkor Wat.
Thailand's popular national epic Ramakien(thai:รามเกียรติ์.,from Sanskrit rāmakīrti, "glory of Rama") is derived from the Hindu epic. In Ramakien, Sita is the daughter of Ravana and Mandodari(thotsakan and montho). Vibhisana(phiphek), the astrologer brother of Ravana, predicts calamity from the horoscope of Sita. Ravana has her thrown into the water, but is later rescued by Janaka(chanok). While the main story is identical to that of the Ramayana, many other aspects were transposed into a Thai context, such as the clothes, weapons, topography and elements of nature, which are described as being Thai in style. It has an expanded role for Hanuman and he is portrayed as a lascivious character. Ramakien can be seen in an elaborate illustration at Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok.
Other Southeast Asian adaptations include Kakawin Ramayana of Java, Ramakavaca of Bali(Indonesia), Maharadia Lawana and Darangen of the Moro Muslims of Mindanao (Philippines) and the Yama Zatdaw of Myanmar.
Influence on culture and art
One of the most important literary works of ancient India, the Ramayana has had a profound impact on art and culture in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia with the lone exception of Vietnam. The story ushered in the tradition of the next thousand years of massive-scale works in the rich diction of regal courts and Hindu temples. It has also inspired much secondary literature in various languages, notably the Kambaramayanam by the Tamil poet Kambar of the 12th century, the Telugu-language Molla Ramayanam by poet Molla and Ranganatha Ramayanam by poet Gona Budda Reddy, 14th century Kannada poet Narahari's Torave Ramayana, and 15th century Bengali poet Krittibas Ojha's Krittivasi Ramayan, as well as the 16th century Awadhi version, Ramacharitamanas, written by Tulsidas.
The Ramayana became popular in southeast Asia during the 8th century and was represented in literature, temple architecture, dance and theatre. Today, dramatic enactments of the story of Ramayana, known as Ramlila, take place all across India and in many places across the globe within the Indian diaspora.
The Ramayana has also been depicted in many paintings, most notably by the Malaysian artist Syed Thajudeen in 1972. The epic tale was picturized on canvas in epic proportions measuring 72 x 453 cm in 9 panels. The painting depicts three prolific parts of the epic, namely The Abduction of Sita, Hanuman visits Sita and Hanuman Burns Lanka. The painting is currently in the permanent collection of the Malaysian National Visual Arts Gallery.
RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE
Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is one of the most popular deities worshipped in the Hindu religion. Each year, many devout pilgrims trace their journey through India and Nepal, halting at each of the holy sites along the way. The poem is not seen as just a literary monument, but serves as an integral part of Hinduism, and is held in such reverence that the mere reading or hearing of it, or certain passages of it, is believed by Hindus to free them from sin and bless the reader or listener.
According to Hindu tradition, Rama is an incarnation (Avatar) of the god Vishnu. The main purpose of this incarnation is to demonstrate the righteous path (dharma) for all living creatures on earth.
IN THE MEDIA
A number of movies and television serials have been produced based upon the Ramayana.
STAGE
Starting in 1978 and under the supervision of Baba Hari Dass, the Ramayana has been performed every year by Mount Madonna School in Watsonville, California. Currently, it is the largest yearly, Western version of the epic being performed. It takes the form of a colorful musical with custom costumes, sung and spoken dialog, jazz-rock orchestration and dance. This performance takes place in a large audience theater setting usually in June, in San Jose, CA. Baba Hari Dass has taught acting arts, costume-attire design, mask making and choreography to bring alive characters of Sri Ram, Sita, Hanuman, Lakshmana, Shiva, Parvati, Vibhishan, Jatayu, Sugriva, Surpanakha, Ravana and his rakshasa court, Meghnadha, Kumbhakarna and the army of monkeys and demons.
WIKIPEDIA
Peripheral glaciers and ice caps (isolated from the main ice sheet, which is seen in the upper right section of the image) in eastern Greenland.
To learn about the contributions of glaciers to sea level rise, visit:
www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/glacier-sea-rise.html
Credit: Frank Paul, University of Zurich
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This is the first computer that I owned. I make that distinction because I worked with business computers for many years prior to buying my own. Mouse over the image for notes.
I bought this computer for $400. in 1980. That was the bare bones computer, 4k of memory with a "Non-extended BASIC" operating system. "Extended BASIC" was a more extensive set of commands which was at an additional cost. This was a ROM, Read Only Memory, based operating system. A TV set was used as the monitor. This photo was taken in 1983. By that time, the system had been upgraded to at least 32K, maybe 64K of memory. It had Extended Basic and several peripherals, printer, modem etc. The system eventually grew to an OS-9 by Microware system with a 40 MB hard drive. I built an interface to connect a WD1002 disk controller to the computer.
My floppy disk drive can be seen to the far right of the computer. Radio Shack catalog page featuring that drive:
www.flickr.com/photos/jmschneid/15906212516/
To the right of the TV is an Anderson Jacobson A 242 Acoustic Coupler
www.flickr.com/photos/jmschneid/15932286552
To the left of the TV is an NCR 260 thermal printer. It was previously an I/O writer on an NCR Criterion Mainframe computer. As an I/O writer it sat into a hole in the console table, that's why there is no cabinet for the printer.
Radio Shack catalog page featuring the computer:
www.flickr.com/photos/jmschneid/15906212516/
Character Creation
Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark, also known as Wonder Girl, is a superheroine appearing in DC Comics. She was created by John Byrne and first appeared in Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #105 (January 1996). The second Wonder Girl, Cassie is a sidekick of the superheroine Wonder Woman and has been featured as a member of the Teen Titans.
When Cassie was introduced, she was the daughter of an archaeologist, Dr. Helena Sandsmark, a friend of Wonder Woman's. To help Wonder Woman during an adventure, she borrowed magical artifacts which bestowed upon Cassie superpowers, with which she fought crime as Wonder Girl.
Later, Zeus, king of the Greek gods, grants her real powers. Later revelations showed that Cassie was in fact a demigoddess and the daughter of Zeus and Dr. Sandsmark.
In 2011, when DC relaunched Wonder Woman and revealed she was Zeus's daughter, the publisher retroactively changed Cassie's backstory to establish she was actually Zeus's granddaughter, making her Wonder Woman's niece.
Publication history
Cassie Sandsmark was created as a supporting character for Wonder Woman by writer/artist John Byrne in 1996, making her debut in Wonder Woman #105. Byrne's initial depiction of Cassie was that of a tow-headed tomboyish girl who could almost be mistaken for a boy. It was not until much later, when Cassie had grown and come to terms with being a super-powered daughter of Zeus, that other artists began to depict her as an attractive young woman (her concerns over her appearance were a recurring early theme). Unlike Donna Troy whose publication history is mostly in the pages of the Teen Titans, Cassie has undergone a great deal of character development in the pages of Wonder Woman.
Cassandra Sandsmark initially appears as a supporting cast member in Wonder Woman. She later appears as part of an ensemble in Young Justice and Teen Titans.
She appeared in supporting roles in 52, Supergirl, and the 2006 relaunch of the Wonder Woman series.
In September 2007, she appeared in the six-issue limited series Wonder Girl: Champion written by J. Torres and illustrated by Sanford Greene and Nathan Massengill.
Fictional Character History
Cassandra is the third character at DC Comics to bear the distinction of Wonder Girl and is the present holder of this title. Before her came the golden age stories of Wonder Woman as a teenager and the more famous stories of Donna Troy throughout most of the silver and modern age of comics. Cassandra’s first appearance was before she had received her powers.
After the battle alongside Artemis against the White Magician, Diana decided to leave Boston for Gateway City and while there she decided to work at a museum. Her boss was a woman by the name of Helena Sandsmark and Cassandra was her daughter. Cassandra aided Diana in some of her early adventures, but her first real action as a superhero was when she donned the gauntlets of Atlas and winged sandals of Hermes.
Soon after she was granted a boon by Zeus who granted her superpowers (though these could be switched on and off by her mother.) It would later be revealed that her father was, in fact, Zeus, the result of a relationship her mother had had while on an archaeological expedition (though as with most of Zeus dalliances, it is implied that he was disguised.) Soon after her appearance with powers, it was determined that Cassie is indoctrinated in the ways of the Amazons and her training began under Artemis.
Cassandra grew up with her mother, her father having left when she was four years old, going around from archeological dig to the next, never settling down. While her mother was unearthing ancient treasures, Cass was robbing them from the museums. While in China, she was cornered by a guard who was knocked out by Diesel.
It was 'lust at first sight,' and the pair grew close as Diesel followed Cass on her mother's ventures while seducing her to take part in a more criminal lifestyle. While in Cambodia on a dig, Cass returned at night, knowing that Diesel would try to loot it, and she searched for him, finding a secret corridor he had opened. She found Diesel, the Silent Armor secured to his face and she donned the war gauntlets in an attempt to pry it off of him.
She spoke with the armor, convincing it that she was the better candidate, and it possessed her, nearly overwhelming her. Diesel attacked her, enraged that she had stolen his 'treasure,' but the chamber collapsed and Cass used the armor to escape. She apparently split from her mother afterward as she was alone when Red Robin encountered her. It has recently been revealed and confirmed that Wonder Woman is Cassie's Aunt and the demigoddess, Cassandra is her other Aunt.
Character Evolution
During an unexpected visit to Mount Olympus Cassie was able to convince Zeus into granting her superpowers, which he did but with the caveat that Helena could disable whenever she chose to do so. After Donna Troy's history was redefined she felt it was time to move on from her Wonder Girl persona, a role which she passed on to Cassie, including her original uniform.
As Cassie grew and accepted a heroic lifestyle, it was decided she should be trained as an Amazon, a role which a revived Artemis took upon herself. One of the most defining aspects of her character is her friendship and later relationship with Conner Kent (Superboy). She also has a fairly close friendship with Tim Drake.
Personality
Cassie has displayed a remarkable amount of growth in her relatively short career, which is comparable to her older namesake Wonder Woman. Cassie has become one of the most highly recognized and trusted young heroes.
Two of the reasons for which she took on the role of Wonder Girl have continued to define her as a character: her youthful adventurousness and her sense of duty to her allies and friends. Her inexperience was a common point of crisis and conflict during her early years but she has maintained her indomitable spirit throughout her career.
Cassie's tenure as a member of Young Justice was littered with change, in both her civilian and superhero identities. She found herself with a powerful crush on Superboy, leading to new moments of indecision and dramatic fluctuations in confidence. However, it was out of these low points that Cassie truly found herself. Cassie ditched her childish original costume in favor of a more adult outfit, a sign of her burgeoning confidence in herself and her abilities.
It was during this period that Cassie's leadership potential emerged, as she took the reigns of the team from Robin and led a massive strike force of young and inexperienced heroes into the team's most epic battle.
Her confidence was again shaken with the apparent death of Donna Troy, leading to a reduced (and sometimes reluctant) role in the new Teen Titans. She still displayed the strength that had made her such a strong member of Young Justice, however, going as far as to take the lead in her relationship with Superboy and help Raven adjust to her life as a teenager.
Cassie continued as a stable, dedicated heroine until the death of Superboy and the loss of her powers. She has distanced herself from her mother and her teammates, letting her grief and the influence of Ares make her bitter and more violent. She has shown glimpses of the "old" Cassie during recent events, however, leading one to believe that her personality will right itself as she deals with her loss.
Young Justice
While assisting the Amazons whenever the opportunity arose, Cassie found herself wandering deeper into the world of superheroes. After being assaulted by the villain Harm, Cassie found herself recruited by Robin, Superboy, and Bart Allen, a group of teenage heroes known as Young Justice. Along with Arrowette, Secret, and Empress, Wonder Girl represented the second wave of Young Justice members, creating an honest team out of what was originally three sidekicks goofing off and fighting crime as an afterthought.
During her tenure with Young Justice, Wonder Girl grew into a full-fledged superhero. She took over leadership of the team when Robin stepped down from the post, all while cultivating a crush on Superboy and close friendship with Secret and Arrowette. It was during this period that Cassie's secret identity was revealed to the public when she was forced to defend her high school against an attack by Wonder Woman's nemesis the Silver Swan who thought that she should be Wonder Girl.
Just as Wonder Girl began settling into her leadership role, the Teen Titans and Young Justice were offered sponsorship by a mysterious corporation called Optitron. While mulling over the pitch, both teams were assaulted by Indigo, a misunderstood android who unwittingly activated a homicidal Superman robot. Donna Troy was thought to be killed in the ensuing battle, an incident that left the heroes shattered. Depressed and guilt-ridden over the death of her friend and idol, Cassie contemplated retiring from super heroics.
Joining the Teen Titans
Instead, she found herself persuaded to join a new incarnation of the Teen Titans, reformed from the impact of Donna's apparent death by Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire. Wonder Girl fought alongside former Young Justice teammates Superboy, Robin, and Impulse (now going by Kid Flash), as well a de-aged Raven and new recruit Speedy.
The new team came up against a litany of threats from the original incarnations past, fending off assaults by Deathstroke, Brother Blood, The Fearsome Five and Dr. Light. She also found herself constantly confronted by the Olympian Ares, who gave her the lasso she currently uses.
While a member of the Titans, Cassie surmised the true identity of her father during the story arc "The Bronze Doors." After assisting Wonder Woman in defeating Hades and restoring order to the Olympian Pantheon, Cassie was granted one wish which she used to force the revelation of her true parentage -- Zeus himself. Zeus and Helena Sandsmark had a dalliance while Zeus was disguised as a human, resulting in the now half-Olympian Cassie.
Cassie also finally began dating Conner Kent, the then current Superboy. They enjoyed a comparatively normal courtship until Lex Luthor activated long-latent mind control of Conner, resulting in Superboy brutally attacking the combined forces of the Teen Titans and the Outsiders.
It was Cassie who eventually returned Superboy to sanity, but the incident resulted in his leaving the Titans and therefore his relationship with Cassie. It is also Connor who influences Cassie to change her costume to something similar to his (even though she is often later seen wearing Amazon battle armor.)
Wonder Girl continued to fight alongside the Titans, including venturing to the planet of New Cronus to save the life of Donna Troy, until the Infinite Crisis hit. When the Olympian gods left Earth following an attack by Maxwell Lord's OMACs, Cassie found herself without her power source. She reluctantly accepted half of Ares' godly abilities, a gift from the war god in exchange for Cassie accepting him as her brother.
Infinite Crisis
As the final battle with the maniacal Alexander Luthor loomed, Cassie reunited with Conner, followed by the two finally consummate their relationship. Their newfound love was not to last, however, as Superboy seemingly died heroically while single-handedly destroying Luthor's universe-generation machine.
After Superboy's apparent death, a depressed and vulnerable Cassie found herself taken in by a Kryptonian resurrection cult in hopes of bringing Superboy back to life. She ultimately saw through the "Cult of Conner" with the help of Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man (even if it seemed they may have stumbled onto some true results in their resurrection ceremony).
52
Directly after Infinite Crisis, the Teens Titans fall apart. Cassandra leaves the Titans during the year in which 52 takes place, following Robin's departure. She feels abandoned by her best friends.
Cassie becomes involved in an online cult heavily influenced by Kryptonian culture. She sets up an altar in Titans Tower with Kryptonian crystals and a gold figure with the Superman-insignia, which means "hope" in Kryptonian. Soon, Ralph Dibny approaches her because someone defaced the grave of his wife Sue with an upside down 'S' Shield, which in Kryptonian means "restoration."
About five days later, Cassie and her fellow cult members meet with Ralph. Cassie mentions that it was another member, Devem, who led her to join. Cassie explains that the goal of the cult is to resurrect Superboy. As a test of their process, they intend to restore Sue Dibny.
Cassie and Ralph attend a ceremony designed to resurrect Sue, but Ralph grows suspicious and with the help of other superheroes, disrupts the ceremony, destroying the Kryptonite which was essential to the process.
Cassie leaves with Devem, blaming Ralph for destroying her chances to restore Superboy. After stopping Weather Wizard in Metropolis, Cassie meets Supernova and refers to him incorrectly as Kon-El, who actually turns out to be Booster Gold in disguise.
One Year Later
After regaining her senses, an increasingly violent and erratic Wonder Girl began a career as a solo superhero by tracking the Brotherhood of Evil. This search brought her to Robin's new Teen Titans team, whose membership she accepted begrudgingly.
Still unable to fully cope with Superboy's death, Cassie found herself working alongside Robin in the hopes of resurrecting Conner -- all while trying to control a new and unwanted attraction to the Boy Wonder. Wonder Girl and Robin did share a kiss in front of Superboy's costume, and Cassie then ran away crying. Nothing came of the kiss and the attraction seemed to have ended.
The Teen Titans were called on to save Raven from Bombshell, who was hired by Deathstroke the Terminator to get Jericho's disk back since it held his soul. Raven used one of Brother Blood's spells to cleanse Jericho of the evil force that once held him in its thrall. Wonder Girl asked if Raven could do the same for Superboy, but Raven said that she could not detect Conner's soul.
The Titans were kidnapped by the Titans East and the two teams fought. It was very hard for Wonder Girl and Robin since a Superboy look-alike (Match, a bizarro version of Connor) was there, and he looked and spoke just like Conner.
Match even went as far as to say that he was Conner. This enraged Wonder Girl, but Match seemed to truly have some memories that belonged to Conner, so Cassie stopped fighting him for a moment. Match took this opportunity to knock her and Robin out.
The entire team was now beaten, until Nightwing, Donna Troy, and Flash showed up and helped defeat the Titans East.
The Leader of the Teen Titans
The Titans then took a drastic new turn. When Robin left to return to Gotham after the death of Batman, Cassie became the team leader. Miss Martian and Ravager left the team. After Wonder Girl told Supergirl that the only reason they were friends was that she was her only remaining link to Conner, Supergirl also quit the team. Cassie was left with Red Devil and Blue Beetle but soon recruited other new members -- Bombshell, Static, Aquagirl and Miss Martian eventually returned.
Wonder Girl found herself leading a new team that had very little experience in working with each other, which was incredibly difficult since she had even less experience at leading a team.
When Titans veteran Beast Boy arrived and told Wonder Girl that the Teen Titans needed a real leader, Wonder Girl and her team remained adamant that Cassie was the true leader of the Teen Titans. The mystical enemy known only as Wyld arrives and attacked Raven. This led to Raven rejoining the team and the Titans fighting off Wyld and his horde.
Wonder Girl has remained the leader of the Teen Titans, growing in confidence as the team becomes tighter and more efficient. On a mission in Dakota, Wonder Girl and her team do battle with Holocaust and get captured which leads to ex-Titans Kid Flash and Superboy to rejoin the team.
Following the mission, Cassie has shown that she has mixed feelings about her recently restored boyfriend Superboy. Upon their return from Dakota, Raven is abducted by Wyld once again and Cassie and the Titans travel into the Wyld's tainted dimension in order to save their teammate.
The team works well together but are marred by bad luck as Aquagirl and Bombshell are overwhelmed and lost in the dark depths of the ocean. While other members of Cassie's Titans also leave the team following this mission for different reasons, Wonder Girl decides that she cannot lead heroes who she does not feel comfortable leading.
Following this decision, Wonder Girl invites Ravager to rejoin the team, which Rose surprisingly agrees to. Seeming to begin anew, Wonder Girl has developed a professional attitude while leading the team. This rubs Superboy the wrong way and their relationship continues to be strained. Batman (Dick Grayson) arrives at the Tower and requests that Robin (Damian Wayne) be put on the team despite not being a teenager. Wonder Girl accepts this new Robin and the team does battle with new villains Dr. Caligan, Headcase and the Feral Boys.
Wonder Girl recently starred in her own one-shot title, released in 2011. While visiting her mother at an architectural conference in London, Wonder Girl met a teenage girl of Indian descent named Kiran.
After a brief but friendly conversation, Kiran revealed herself to be the super-heroine called Solstice. Wonder Girl and Solstice teamed up to do battle against villain Lady Zand, a tyrannical ruler of Zandia that was searching for lost artifacts from her country.
The duo worked well together despite Lady Zand escaping. Following this battle, Cassie seemed to mend her relationship with her mother, which had grown cold since Cassie had taken over leadership of the Teen Titans.
Cassie has also over the same time frame appeared as a supporting character in the Wonder Woman title. She is usually called upon when Diana needs additional firepower (such as against Circe) or when the Amazons have needed to stand united against a threat (such as against Genocide). Her lack of confidence in her actions has occasionally been used against her by such villains as Devastation.
Red Robin (Tim Drake) decides to reclaim his place amongst the Teen Titans and the band is back together. Wonder Girl immediately relieves herself of leadership and allows Red Robin to take the reigns once more. Superboy and Cassie are officially broken up and the team responds to a missing person report from Cassie's mother, Dr. Helena Sandsmark. Once they arrive, the Titans find themselves in battle with Hindu demons. But with Solstice as their ally, the Titans may have a shot at defeating them.
Infinite Frontier
After being alerted to Yara Flor's presence, Cassie volunteered to the Amazons to keep Yara safe. She then went on a search to find where Yara was and ran into Artemis along the way. They had a brief fight before Cassie convinced Artemis to work together with her.
They eventually found Yara but the interaction was short. Artemis confronted Yara and Cassie tried (and failed) to calm them down. Before following Artemis and leaving, Cassie gave Yara some advice with being Wonder Girl.
Later, Cassie ranted to her uncle Hermes about the situation. When he had to leave, she talked with Potira and apologized for Artemis' behavior. Potira then revealed to Cassie that she was a part of a tribe and Cassie was happily surprised to learn of another tribe. Potira took her to their city and revealed to her their plans to battle the Olympians. Before Cassie could say something about that, Potira surprised her again by showing her that their "last weapon" was Donna Troy.
Donna and Cassie talked, where Donna told her that after she had failed to check-in with the Amazons on her mission to meet Yara, Donna was sent after her, where she met the other tribe. They walked with the other women to confront the Olympian gods.
Abilities
When Cassie first became Wonder Girl, she attempted to fight crime with the help of Amazon artifacts "borrowed" from Wonder Woman. She derived super strength from the Gauntlet of Atlas while gaining flight and super speed from the "Sandals of Hermes." It was also during this period that she was trained in unarmed combat, largely by former Wonder Woman stand-in Artemis.
The powers granted to Cassie by Zeus were largely the same as those granted by the artifacts, but they operated at a higher level. Unfortunately, they also came with a rarely used loophole given to Cassie's mother Helena, wherein her powers could be canceled if her mother so wished.
Soon after Cassie joined the Teen Titans, she was granted the Lasso of Ares by the War-god himself. The lasso gave Cassie the ability to manipulate electricity through it's enchanted fibers. She also has a suit of Armor similar to Diana's with a shield and sword to go with it, for times of great Danger or need.
When Zeus and the rest of the Olympic Pantheon left Earth during the Infinite Crisis, Cassie realized that her powers were waning -- with some instances of total failure. In order to help defeat Alexander Luthor, Cassie finally gave into Ares, taking half of his powers to replace what she had lost. She seems to have retained her former abilities, but recent battles show her strength may have been enhanced -- a fact Cassie herself has commented on.
Cassie served Ares as his connection to our realm, until recently when he brought his son back to take her place. After talking to her father, Cassie realized that she had spent too much time relying on others first artifacts, then her father and later her brother.
During her battle with her nephew, she gave him all of her brother's power and was able to tap into the divine energy that was her birthright as a daughter of Zeus. Cassie appears to have all the same abilities, though her strength has once more increased.
Superhuman Strength
Cassie Partial Olympian flesh and bone is about one and a half times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the Olympians' superhuman strength and weight. Cassie when powered by Zeus previously, was not as strong and could lift around 100 tons, and could effortlessly throw a bus around. Now Cassie is much stronger after she taps into her own powers from being the daughter of Olympian God Zeus Cassie powers grow to now being able to lift in excess of 100 tons.
Superhuman Durability
Cassie possesses a high resistance to damage and magical attacks. If she were somehow wounded, her partial godly energies would enable her to recover with superhuman speed.
Flight
Cassie can also mystically fly through the atmosphere through sure act of will, enabling her to soar through the atmosphere at sub-orbital levels and travel across the planet. She is immune from the effects of extreme height, such as dizziness and lightheartedness.
Superhuman Reflexes
Cassie is fast enough, her mind processes information at least on a subliminal level that she is aware of her surroundings. She is fast enough to deflect and catch bullets.
Superhuman Speed
Cassie can move at supersonic speeds. She can move fast enough to not register in the normal peripheral range of humans and seemingly vanish and disappear at will.
Healing
Cassie's body heals at a superhuman level.
Superhuman Agility
Cassie's agility is far beyond that of even an Olympic level athlete.
Superhuman Stamina
Cassie can last a great deal of time in any fight.
Superhuman Senses
All five of Cassie senses can be used to a superhuman degree.
Martial Combat
Cassie can fight armed and unarmed and has had Amazon training.
Divine Birthright
Cassie being the daughter of Olympian God Zeus, Cassie can tap into her own powers as a demi-god (like her brother Heracles). Her real powers increased to an even greater level of strength and abilities than ever before. Cassie is still a young girl and as she grows so may her powers and abilities and she may one day be even greater than Wonder Woman herself or join her father as an Olympian Goddess.
Lasso of Lightning
The Lasso of Lightning is a mystical item given to Cassandra Sandsmark by her brother Ares. Lightning emitted by the whip is fueled by its wielder's anger. This allows Cassie to expels Zeus's lightning when used in anger.
Bracelets
These are a pair of steel cuffs that are indestructible because they were created from Amazon magic, Cassie's Bracelets work like Diana's. Cassie uses her super reflexes to deflect projectiles, blades, punches, or any form of offensive attack used against her. She can also use them to deflect an object back into her enemies.
Amazon Armour
When faced with a large threat Cassie will wear her Amazon Battle Armor for added protection as well as use martial weapons such as swords.
Sandals of Hermes
The Sandals of the God Hermes, this enchanted winged footwear gives its wearer flight and enhanced speed. When Cassie first became Wonder Girl, she attempted to fight crime with the help of Amazon artifacts "borrowed" from Wonder Woman. She long since gained her own powers and abilities.
Gauntlet of Atlas
The Gauntlet of Atlas magnifies its wearer's strength by a factor of ten. However, the wearer must be careful or find themselves in a frenzied state. Wonder Woman herself has used the gauntlet on occasion but is hesitant to do so due to the difficulty in controlling her strength at such a level. hen Cassie first became Wonder Girl, she attempted to fight crime with the help of Amazon artifacts "borrowed" from Wonder Woman. She long since gained her own powers and abilities.
Weaknesses
Maternal De-empowerment: Discouraged by previously shown arrogance in his children (Ares and Heracles), Zeus also blessed Cassie's mother with the ability to take away her powers for a short time via a simple touch. After Cassie taps into her own powers as demi-god it is now shown is her mother can still take away her powers. Cassie is somewhat vulnerable to piercing weapons, such as projectiles. Rifle or top notch machine-gun fire can cause bruising to slight penetration wounds.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: Cassandra "Cassie" Sandsmark
Publisher: DC
First appearance: Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #105 (January 1996)
Created by: John Byrne (writer & artist)
First appearance cover:
Grey Heron - The Serpentine, Hyde Park, London. A couple of odd images detailing its peripheral range of view.
Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately 60 miles (97 km) long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles (9.7 km) wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres (377.98 sq mi; 97,895.08 ha; 978.95 km2) of desert landscape and is open all year, with May through September being the highest visitation months.
Partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally named "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths; however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. Road access was improved in 1962 with the construction of State Route 24 through the Fremont River Canyon.
The majority of the nearly 100 mi (160 km) long up-thrust formation called the Waterpocket Fold—a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell—is preserved within the park. Capitol Reef is an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold by the Fremont River. The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.
Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth.
The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold.
The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name. The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962. State Route 24 cuts through the park traveling east and west between Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but few other paved roads invade the rugged landscape.
The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, but most of the park is arid desert. A scenic drive shows park visitors some highlights, but it runs only a few miles from the main highway. Hundreds of miles of trails and unpaved roads lead into the equally scenic backcountry.
Fremont-culture Native Americans lived near the perennial Fremont River in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold around the year 1000. They irrigated crops of maize and squash and stored their grain in stone granaries (in part made from the numerous black basalt boulders that litter the area). In the 13th century, all of the Native American cultures in this area underwent sudden change, likely due to a long drought. The Fremont settlements and fields were abandoned.
Many years after the Fremont left, Paiutes moved into the area. These Numic-speaking people named the Fremont granaries moki huts and thought they were the homes of a race of tiny people or moki.
In 1872 Almon H. Thompson, a geographer attached to United States Army Major John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. None of these expeditions explored the Waterpocket Fold to any great extent.
Following the American Civil War, officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City sought to establish missions in the remotest niches of the Intermountain West. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of natives penetrated the high valleys to the west. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing Loa, Fremont, Lyman, Bicknell, and Torrey.
Mormons settled the Fremont River valley in the 1880s and established Junction (later renamed Fruita), Caineville, and Aldridge. Fruita prospered, Caineville barely survived, and Aldridge died. In addition to farming, lime was extracted from local limestone, and uranium was extracted early in the 20th century. In 1904 the first claim to a uranium mine in the area was staked. The resulting Oyler Mine in Grand Wash produced uranium ore.
By 1920 no more than ten families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years. The area remained isolated. The community was later abandoned and later still some buildings were restored by the National Park Service. Kilns once used to produce lime are still in Sulphur Creek and near the campgrounds on Scenic Drive.
Local Ephraim Portman Pectol organized a "booster club" in Torrey in 1921. Pectol pressed a promotional campaign, furnishing stories to be sent to periodicals and newspapers. In his efforts, he was increasingly aided by his brother-in-law, Joseph S. Hickman, who was the Wayne County High School principal. In 1924, Hickman extended community involvement in the promotional effort by organizing a Wayne County-wide Wayne Wonderland Club. That same year, Hickman was elected to the Utah State Legislature.
In 1933, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wayne Wonderland Club. The club raised U.S. $150 (equivalent to $3,391 in 2022) to interest a Salt Lake City photographer in taking a series of promotional photographs. For several years, the photographer, J. E. Broaddus, traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland".
In 1933, Pectol was elected to the legislature and almost immediately contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked for the creation of "Wayne Wonderland National Monument" out of the federal lands comprising the bulk of the Capitol Reef area. Federal agencies began a feasibility study and boundary assessment. Meanwhile, Pectol guided the government investigators on numerous trips and escorted an increasing number of visitors. The lectures of Broaddus were having an effect.
Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef National Monument on August 2, 1937. In Proclamation 2246, President Roosevelt set aside 37,711 acres (15,261 ha) of the Capitol Reef area. This comprised an area extending about two miles (3 km) north of present State Route 24 and about 10 mi (16 km) south, just past Capitol Gorge. The Great Depression years were lean ones for the National Park Service (NPS), the new administering agency. Funds for the administration of Capitol Reef were nonexistent; it would be a long time before the first rangers would arrive.
Administration of the new monument was placed under the control of Zion National Park. A stone ranger cabin and the Sulphur Creek bridge were built and some road work was performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. Historian and printer Charles Kelly came to know NPS officials at Zion well and volunteered to watchdog the park for the NPS. Kelly was officially appointed custodian-without-pay in 1943. He worked as a volunteer until 1950, when the NPS offered him a civil-service appointment as the first superintendent.
During the 1950s Kelly was deeply troubled by NPS management acceding to demands of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that Capitol Reef National Monument be opened to uranium prospecting. He felt that the decision had been a mistake and destructive of the long-term national interest. It turned out that there was not enough ore in the monument to be worth mining.
In 1958 Kelly got additional permanent help in protecting the monument and enforcing regulations; Park Ranger Grant Clark transferred from Zion. The year Clark arrived, fifty-six thousand visitors came to the park, and Charlie Kelly retired for the last time.
During the 1960s (under the program name Mission 66), NPS areas nationwide received new facilities to meet the demand of mushrooming park visitation. At Capitol Reef, a 53-site campground at Fruita, staff rental housing, and a new visitor center were built, the latter opening in 1966.
Visitation climbed dramatically after the paved, all-weather State Route 24 was built in 1962 through the Fremont River canyon near Fruita. State Route 24 replaced the narrow Capitol Gorge wagon road about 10 mi (16 km) to the south that frequently washed out. The old road has since been open only to foot traffic. In 1967, 146,598 persons visited the park. The staff was also growing.
During the 1960s, the NPS purchased private land parcels at Fruita and Pleasant Creek. Almost all private property passed into public ownership on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis.
Preservationists convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to set aside an enormous area of public lands in 1968, just before he left office. In Presidential Proclamation 3888 an additional 215,056 acres (87,030 ha) were placed under NPS control. By 1970, Capitol Reef National Monument comprised 254,251 acres (102,892 ha) and sprawled southeast from Thousand Lake Mountain almost to the Colorado River. The action was controversial locally, and NPS staffing at the monument was inadequate to properly manage the additional land.
The vast enlargement of the monument and diversification of the scenic resources soon raised another issue: whether Capitol Reef should be a national park, rather than a monument. Two bills were introduced into the United States Congress.
A House bill (H.R. 17152) introduced by Utah Congressman Laurence J. Burton called for a 180,000-acre (72,800 ha) national park and an adjunct 48,000-acre (19,400 ha) national recreation area where multiple use (including grazing) could continue indefinitely. In the United States Senate, meanwhile, Senate bill S. 531 had already passed on July 1, 1970, and provided for a 230,000-acre (93,100 ha) national park alone. The bill called for a 25-year phase-out of grazing.
In September 1970, United States Department of Interior officials told a house subcommittee session that they preferred about 254,000 acres (103,000 ha) be set aside as a national park. They also recommended that the grazing phase-out period be 10 years, rather than 25. They did not favor the adjunct recreation area.
It was not until late 1971 that Congressional action was completed. By then, the 92nd United States Congress was in session and S. 531 had languished. A new bill, S. 29, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah and was essentially the same as the defunct S. 531 except that it called for an additional 10,834 acres (4,384 ha) of public lands for a Capitol Reef National Park. In the House, Utah Representative K. Gunn McKay (with Representative Lloyd) had introduced H.R. 9053 to replace the dead H.R. 17152. This time, the House bill dropped the concept of an adjunct Capitol Reef National Recreation Area and adopted the Senate concept of a 25-year limit on continued grazing. The Department of Interior was still recommending a national park of 254,368 acres (102,939 ha) and a 10-year limit for grazing phase-out.
S. 29 passed the Senate in June and was sent to the House, which dropped its own bill and passed the Senate version with an amendment. Because the Senate was not in agreement with the House amendment, differences were worked out in Conference Committee. The Conference Committee issued its report on November 30, 1971, and the bill passed both houses of Congress. The legislation—'An Act to Establish The Capitol Reef National Park in the State of Utah'—became Public Law 92-207 when it was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971.
The area including the park was once the edge of a shallow sea that invaded the land in the Permian, creating the Cutler Formation. Only the sandstone of the youngest member of the Cutler Formation, the White Rim, is exposed in the park. The deepening sea left carbonate deposits, forming the limestone of the Kaibab Limestone, the same formation that rims the Grand Canyon to the southwest.
During the Triassic, streams deposited reddish-brown silt that later became the siltstone of the Moenkopi Formation. Uplift and erosion followed. Conglomerate, followed by logs, sand, mud, and wind-transported volcanic ash, then formed the uranium-containing Chinle Formation.
The members of the Glen Canyon Group were all laid down in the middle- to late-Triassic during a time of increasing aridity. They include:
Wingate Sandstone: sand dunes on the shore of an ancient sea
Kayenta Formation: thin-bedded layers of sand deposited by slow-moving streams in channels and across low plains
Navajo Sandstone: huge fossilized sand dunes from a massive Sahara-like desert.
The Golden Throne. Though Capitol Reef is famous for white domes of Navajo Sandstone, this dome's color is a result of a lingering section of yellow Carmel Formation carbonate, which has stained the underlying rock.
The San Rafael Group consists of four Jurassic-period formations, from oldest to youngest:
Carmel Formation: gypsum, sand, and limey silt laid down in what may have been a graben that was periodically flooded by sea water
Entrada Sandstone: sandstone from barrier islands/sand bars in a near-shore environment
Curtis Formation: made from conglomerate, sandstone, and shale
Summerville Formation: reddish-brown mud and white sand deposited in tidal flats.
Streams once again laid down mud and sand in their channels, on lakebeds, and in swampy plains, creating the Morrison Formation. Early in the Cretaceous, similar nonmarine sediments were laid down and became the Dakota Sandstone. Eventually, the Cretaceous Seaway covered the Dakota, depositing the Mancos Shale.
Only small remnants of the Mesaverde Group are found, capping a few mesas in the park's eastern section.
Near the end of the Cretaceous period, a mountain-building event called the Laramide orogeny started to compact and uplift the region, forming the Rocky Mountains and creating monoclines such as the Waterpocket Fold in the park. Ten to fifteen million years ago, the entire region was uplifted much further by the creation of the Colorado Plateau. This uplift was very even. Igneous activity in the form of volcanism and dike and sill intrusion also occurred during this time.
The drainage system in the area was rearranged and steepened, causing streams to downcut faster and sometimes change course. Wetter times during the ice ages of the Pleistocene increased the rate of erosion.
There are more than 840 species of plants that are found in the park and over 40 of those species are classified as rare and endemic.
The closest town to Capitol Reef is Torrey, about 11 mi (18 km) west of the visitor center on Highway 24, slightly west of its intersection with Highway 12. Its 2020 population is less than 300. Torrey has a few motels and restaurants and functions as a gateway town to Capitol Reef National Park. Highway 12, as well as a partially unpaved scenic backway named the Burr Trail, provide access from the west through the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the town of Boulder.
A variety of activities are available to tourists, both ranger-led and self-guided, including auto touring, hiking, backpacking, camping, bicycling (on paved and unpaved roads only; no trails), horseback riding, canyoneering, and rock climbing. The orchards planted by Mormon pioneers are maintained by the National Park Service. From early March to mid-October, various fruit—cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, or apples—can be harvested by visitors for a fee.
A hiking trail guide is available at the visitor center for both day hikes and backcountry hiking. Backcountry access requires a free permit.
Numerous trails are available for hiking and backpacking in the park, with fifteen in the Fruita District alone. The following trails are some of the most popular in the park:
Cassidy Arch Trail: a very steep, strenuous 3.5 mi (5.6 km) round trip that leads into the Grand Wash to an overlook of the Cassidy Arch.
Hickman Bridge Trail: a 2 mi (3.2 km) round trip leading to the natural bridge.
Frying Pan Trail: an 8.8 mi (14.2 km) round trip that passes the Cassidy Arch, Grand Wash, and Cohab Canyon.
Brimhall Natural Bridge: a popular, though strenuous, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) round trip with views of Brimhall Canyon, the Waterpocket Fold, and Brimhall Natural Bridge.
Halls Creek Narrows: 22 mi (35 km) long and considered strenuous, with many side canyons and creeks; typically hiked as a 2-3 day camping trip.
Visitors may explore several of the main areas of the park by private vehicle:
Scenic Drive: winds through the middle of the park, passing the major points of interest; the road is accessible from the visitor center to approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) into the Capitol Gorge.
Notom-Bullfrog Road: traverses the eastern side of the Waterpocket Fold, along 10 mi (16 km) of paved road, with the remainder unpaved.
Cathedral Road: an unpaved road through the northern areas of the park, that traverses Cathedral Valley, passing the Temples of the Sun and Moon.
The primary camping location is the Fruita campground, with 71 campsites (no water, electrical, or sewer hookups), and restrooms without bathing facilities. The campground also has group sites with picnic areas and restrooms. Two primitive free camping areas are also available.
Canyoneering is growing in popularity in the park. It is a recreational sport that takes one through slot canyons. It involves rappelling and may require swimming and other technical rope work. Day-pass permits are required for canyoneering in the park, and can be obtained for free from the visitor's center or through email. It's key to know that each route requires its own permit. If one is planning on canyoneering for multiple days, passes are required for each day. Overnight camping as part of the canyoneering trip is permitted, but one must request a free backcountry pass from the visitor center.
It is imperative to plan canyoneering trips around the weather. The Colorado Plateau is susceptible to flash flooding during prime rainy months. Because canyoneering takes place through slot canyons, getting caught in a flash flood could be lethal. Take care to consult reliable weather sources. The Weather Atlas shows charts with the monthly average rainfall in inches.
Another risk to be aware of during the summer months is extreme heat. Visitors can find weather warnings on the National Weather Service website. The heat levels are detailed by a color and numerical scale (0-4).
One of the most popular canyoneering routes in Capitol Reef National Park is Cassidy Arch Canyon. A paper by George Huddart, details the park's commitment to working with citizens to maintain the route as well as the vegetation and rocks. The canyon route is approximately 2.3 miles long (0.4 miles of technical work), consisting of 8 different rappels, and takes between 2.5 and 4.5 hours to complete. The first rappel is 140 ft and descends below the famous Cassidy Arch.
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.
Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.
People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.
Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.
The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.
Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.
Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.
In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.
As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.
On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century
During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.
Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:
William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859
Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866
3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868
A Black man in Uintah, 1869
Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873
Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874
Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880
William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883
John Murphy in Park City, 1883
George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884
Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886
Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925
Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).
Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.
Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.
As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.
It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.
Climbing trips abroad sometimes offer the odd peripheral photo opportunities. Having climbed Jbel Toubkal in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains I took the rather long walk across Marrakech to the railway station to see what was going on. Here E-1251 is seen looking very smart at the head of 1.00 pm departure for ages and Agadir.
A little bit of research shows this locomotive as being one of twelve to have been built by Hitachi in 1984.