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The Benliw Dam in Brgy. Benliw, Ubay is a newly completed irrigation facility in the province of Bohol and is deemed to critically boost the region’s rice production. Being one of the small reservoir impounding projects (SRIP), the irrigation would increase farmers’ average harvest per hectare to 5,146 tons from the current 455 tons.

 

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

 

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

 

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

 

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

 

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

 

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

 

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

 

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

 

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

 

Goldfinch

(Carduelis carduelis)

 

The average goldfinch is 12–13 cm long with a wingspan of 21–25 cm and a weight of 14 to 19 grams. The sexes are broadly similar, with a red face, black and white head, warm brown upperparts, white underparts with buff flanks and breast patches, and black and yellow wings.

 

Thank you for taking the time to view or comment.

~Andy Rooney

Enzo in natural window light. I love the line of the blinds going across his back.

 

© All Rights Reserved.

EXPLORE #424 25.04.2008

 

......no, no ... I am not snooty !!! ;-)))

  

The meerkat or suricate Suricata suricatta is a small mammal and a member of the mongoose family. It inhabits all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang", or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains around 20 meerkats at a time, but some superfamilies have had 50 or more. Meerkats have an average life span of 12-14 years.

Our average rainfall for one year is 11 inches. That shows you that any rain is a big deal in Southern California who is coming out of a years long drought.

 

Last year we got only 8 inches for the whole year and I think this current round of showers will match that. We have a test at our house: if the wall gets all the way wet it really rained, not showered. As you can see, this current rain hasn't quite made the test yet but we have promises of several more days of off and on showers.

 

You can see Hyacinth, Gemma and Julian, the mango bench (my mistake - TOO bright) and the succulent in the left front that started 2 inches high and burst its pot long ago and keeps growing.

Greyhope Bay and Nigg Bay, Torry.

 

I didn't have an ND filter with me, so this is an average of 256 images.

  

The Moon’s average distance from Earth is more than 238,800 miles, but today, it’ll be 7.26 percent closer than that. That means it'll look about 14 percent larger than your average full moon, and 30 percent brighter. And this year, the supermoon is extra close to Earth. Not only is it the closest supermoon we’ve had since January 1948, but it’s going to be closer than 99.7 percent of all full moons in the past 200 years.

 

So go. Stare at the Moon. Let it remind you of our beautiful, cosmic neighborhood that is so much bigger than ourselves.

Another Image Averaged shot from last Fridays trip to Seacliff.

 

This is an 4m 54s (effective) exposure - made up of 12 frames at 20s each with a 3s gap.

Rather average pain jobs. I like them all without helmets better.

In the last century alone, galaxy NGC 6946 has experienced 10 observed supernovae, earning its nickname as the Fireworks Galaxy. In comparison, our Milky Way averages just 1-2 supernova events per century. This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the stars, spiral arms, and various stellar environments of NGC 6946 in phenomenal detail.

 

NGC 6946 is a face-on galaxy, which means that we see the galaxy facing us, rather than seeing it from the side (known as edge-on). The Fireworks Galaxy is further classified as an intermediate spiral galaxy and as a starburst galaxy. The former means the structure of NGC 6946 sits between a full spiral and a barred spiral galaxy, with only a slight bar in its center, and the latter means it has an exceptionally high rate of star formation.

 

The galaxy resides 25.2 million light-years away, along the border of the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus (The Swan).

 

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Leroy, K. S. Long

 

For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2101a/

 

Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube

 

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

 

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

 

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

 

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

 

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

 

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

 

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

 

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

 

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

 

Current estimates of average nodule abundance in four major locations.

 

For any form of publication, please include the link to this page:

www.grida.no/resources/7366

 

This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: GRID-Arendal

Tuban Beach, Sanur, Bali - Indonesia.

Nikon D7000

Tokina 11-16mm

Lee 0.9 Hard Graduated ND filter

Image Averaging 21 x 5.8sec.

Total exposure 121.8sec.

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

 

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

 

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

 

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

 

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

 

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

 

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

 

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

 

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

 

The ex Erie Dundee Spur had sat dormant for almost six years before a flurry of activity reactivated this unusual line. Unfortunately this will be short lived, as the train seen above is helping to discard the rail being ripped up in the next town over.

 

Morristown & Erie train MO-1 slowly makes its way down Monroe Street. The SW1500 creates an almost surreal look next to the much smaller passenger vehicles parked along the street. In just a few weeks, this line will turn into just a memory.

Circa 1973. I remember this young woman as taller than average. She wasn't abnormally tall, mind you, simply taller than most of the other female students. She may have been tall as I was at the time.

 

In any case, I remember her as a sweet and lovely young woman. A resident of College Park West, I first met her as the friend of another friend, who also lived in College Park West.

 

College Park West sits between the San Diego Freeway (I-405) and the Los Angeles-Orange County Line. In order to access College Park West (Seal Beach in Orange County), one necessarily has to exit Orange County into Los Angeles County first. It sounds somewhat odd, but it is true.

 

Taken with my father's Contax IIa 35mm rangefinder camera with 5cm f/1.5 Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens.

Created with Mandelbulb 3D

Künstler Sir Tony Cragg, Standort Bonn

Average seeing, great experience :)

 

Skywatcher 10" dobson

Zwo ASI224MC colour camera

TeleVue 2.5x powermate

Baader IR-Pass filter

The reason cigarettes are easy to inhale is that the chemical additives in cigarettes lower the temperature of the smoke, allowing you to inhale without too much discomfort. Premium handmade cigars are an all natural tobacco product and generally a lot bigger than your average cigarette. Consequently, even in mild cigars, the smoke tends to be hotter, thicker, and if inhaled quickly, can possibly damage your lungs. For the new cigar smoker, inhaling can provoke a coughing fit of Richter scale proportions.

 

Moreover, cigarette smokers who have either switched to cigars or smoke both have a natural tendency to inhale. A fellow I met many years ago would, in the course of a day, smoke a pack of Marlboro Red and inhale several full-bodied cigars. It just didn’t bother him. He must’ve had lungs of steel, an incredibly high tolerance to nicotine, or had no fear of ever getting lung cancer. One of the other interesting facts about tobacco is that cigarette smoke tends to absorb better in the lungs than the mouth because it is more acidic, whereas cigar and pipe smoke absorbs better through the membranes in the mouth because it is more alkaline.

 

Traditionally speaking, inhaling is not recommended or necessary for enjoying premium cigars. If you think inhaling a cigar will provide the nicotine you crave, tobacco facts show that cigars, particularly full-bodied cigars which have more ligero tobacco, will supply plenty of it without inhaling. Other facts about tobacco show that the nicotine content of well-fermented and aged cigar tobacco is much lower on average than cigarettes. The longer the tobaccos age, the more nicotine is dissipated, which is another reason cigar smoke is better absorbed by the palate.

 

www.famous-smoke.com/cigaradvisor/inhaling-cigars

  

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

 

And now just for fun:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbdxm8Ia0Wc

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiHR11QqIoI

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW7ymLxNy-0

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMmLW98xXjo

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFOPeO2fQq0

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

 

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

 

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

 

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

 

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

 

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

 

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

 

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

 

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

 

The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background, is that we all believe we are above-average drivers. ~ Dave Barry

(yup, he's right.... except with me, it's true! ;-)

And I know it's super late to enter for Me Again Monday, but I'm throwin' it in there! Theme: Quotes

The damage to his left eye didn't seem to be affecting his ability to hunt or reproduce. Such amazing and fascinating creatures.

Not often seen by the average visitor

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, 25 miles (40 km) north of Miami. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2019 census, the city has an estimated population of 182,437. Fort Lauderdale is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people in 2018.

 

The city is a popular tourist destination, with an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunshine per year. Greater Fort Lauderdale which takes in all of Broward County hosted 12 million visitors in 2012, including 2.8 million international visitors. The city and county in 2012 collected $43.9 million from the 5% hotel tax it charges, after hotels in the area recorded an occupancy rate for the year of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48. The district has 561 hotels and motels comprising nearly 35,000 rooms. Forty six cruise ships sailed from Port Everglades in 2012. Greater Fort Lauderdale has over 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 shopping malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campsites, and 100 marinas housing 45,000 resident yachts.

 

Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), younger brother of Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale. William Lauderdale was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista neighborhoods, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

 

The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than two thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.

 

The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.

 

The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.

 

Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knife point. He was arrested and being transported to a Miami jail when police were run off the road by a mob. A group of 100 white men proceeded to hang Stacy from a tree near the scene of his alleged robbery. His body was riddled with some twenty bullets. The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit US critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

 

When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control, operators. A Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.

 

On July 4, 1961, African Americans started a series of protests, wade-ins, at beaches that were off-limits to them, to protest "the failure of the county to build a road to the Negro beach". On July 11, 1962, a verdict by Ted Cabot went against the city's policy of racial segregation of public beaches.

Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lauderdale,_Florida

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

 

Me, sporting covid hair, wearing mask by Joe Average.

 

WIKI - "Joe Average (born October 10, 1957) is a Canadian artist who resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. Diagnosed HIV+ at age 27, Average made the decision to commit the rest of his life to art."

 

Joe is a beloved national icon, philanthropist and humanitarian. joeaverageart.com/

White-Tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

Pigargo Europeo

Es un ave de gran tamaño, alcanza una longitud de 69 a 92 cm y una envergadura de alas de 200 a 245 cm.4 Las hembras son de mayor tamaño que los machos. Tiene alas amplias, una cabeza grande y un grueso pico "carnicero".

The white-tailed eagle is a very large bird. It measures 66–94 cm (26–37 in) in length with a 1.78–2.45 m (5.8–8.0 ft) wingspan. The wingspan, with a midpoint of 2.18 m (7.2 ft), is on average the largest of any eagle

Christian Sanchez Photography

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston

 

Boston, officially the City of Boston, is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the Northeastern United States. The city boundaries encompass an area of about 48.4 sq mi (125 km2) and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to 4,941,632 people as of 2020, ranking as the eleventh-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the seventh-most populous in the United States.

 

Boston is one of the nation's oldest municipalities, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from the English town of the same name. During the American Revolution and the nation's founding, Boston was the location of several key events, including the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the hanging of Paul Revere's lantern signal in Old North Church, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the siege of Boston. Following American independence from Great Britain, the city continued to play an important role as a port, manufacturing hub, and center for American education and culture. The city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexation. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing more than 20 million visitors per year. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public park (Boston Common, 1634), the first public school (Boston Latin School, 1635), the first subway system (Tremont Street subway, 1897), and the first large public library (Boston Public Library, 1848).

 

In the 21st century, Boston has emerged as a global leader in higher education and academic research. Greater Boston's many colleges and universities include Harvard University and MIT, both located in suburban Cambridge and both routinely included among the world's most highly ranked universities. The city is also a national leader in scientific research, law, medicine, engineering, and business. With nearly 5,000 startup companies, the city is considered a global pioneer in innovation and entrepreneurship. Boston's economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, and government activities. Households in the city claim the highest average rate of philanthropy in the United States. Boston businesses and institutions rank among the top in the country for environmental sustainability and new investment.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Harbor

 

Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States.

 

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

 

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

 

(Massachusetts) "ماساتشوستس" "麻萨诸塞州" "मैसाचुसेट्स" "マサチューセッツ" "매사추세츠 주" "Массачусетс"

 

(Boston) "بوسطن" "波士顿" "बोस्टन" "ボストン" "보스턴" "Бостон"

[fr]: heure Bleue sur l'Académie Francaise II, Paris, France

 

[more of this series]: Part I

 

[image info]: DRI from average (HDR from 5 exposures) and minimum exposures - Nikon D200 - tripod - Sigma 10-20mm@10mm - 3000K WB

 

[Level of Retouching]: 15% (basic levels and curves (dodging), saturation) - total processing: 25 minutes

 

[news]: I just ordered a Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 lens and a sekonic L358 flashmeter. I'll tell you more about the reasons behind this investment later... This is part I of the plan ;-)

  

it's a MUST view BIGGER On Black

 

More of the set Paris By Night | More of the set Night Scenes

 

See my most interesting pictures here or take some time to view the slideshow

 

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With an average daily flow of 286 million gallons of water, Big Spring is generally considered to be tied for the title of the biggest spring in America. The three contenders for the title are Big Spring, Idaho's Snake River Spring Complex and Florida's Silver Spring. Underground passages carry water from as far as 45 miles away, which roil to the surface at the base of a limestone bluff on the west side of the Current River valley in the Missouri Ozarks in Carter County. The spring is estimated to dissolve and remove 175 tons of limestone during an average day. This dissolved rock gives the water its aqua-blue color, which rises to the surface with great force creating white caps, and then calms to a crystal clear channel.

 

Big Spring was a Missouri state park from 1924 until 1969, when the people of Missouri donated it to the National Park Service. It is now a part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

  

© All rights reserved - - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of the photographer.

 

The best way to view my photostream is on Flickriver: Nikon66's photos on Flickriver

First of the year for me. Taken at Sandy while I was looking for the hawfinch. It was worth getting cold and muddy knees for.

++++++++ FROM WIKIPEDIA ++++++++++

 

Kalimpong is a hill station in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an average elevation of 1,250 metres (4,101 ft). The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district.The Indian Army's 27 Mountain Division is located on the outskirts of the town.

 

Kalimpong is known for its educational institutions, many of which were established during the British colonial period.[5] It used to be a gateway in the trade between Tibet and India before China's annexation of Tibet and the Sino-Indian War. Kalimpong and neighbouring Darjeeling were major centres calling for a separate Gorkhaland state in the 1980s, and more recently in 2010.

 

The municipality sits on a ridge overlooking the Teesta River and is a tourist destination owing to its temperate climate, magnificent Himalayan beauty and proximity to popular tourist locations in the region. Horticulture is important to Kalimpong: It has a flower market notable for its wide array of orchids; nurseries, which export Himalayan grown flower bulbs, tubers and rhizomes, contribute to the economy of Kalimpong.[2] Home to Nepalisindigenous Lepchas, other ethnic groups and non-native immigrants from other parts of India, the town is a religious centre of Buddhism. The Tibetan Buddhist monastery Zang Dhok Palri Phodang holds a number of rare Tibetan Buddhist scriptures.[6]

 

The Kalimpong Science Centre, established under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) in 2008 is a recent addition to its many tourist attractions. The Science Centre, which provides for scientific awareness among the students of the town and the locals sits atop the Deolo Hill.

 

Name origin

The precise etymology of the name Kalimpong remains unclear. There are many theories on the origin of the name. One widely accepted theory claims that the name "Kalimpong" means "Assembly (or Stockade) of the King's Ministers" in Tibetan, derived from kalon ("King's ministers") and pong ("stockade"). It may be derived from the translation "ridge where we play" from Lepcha, as it was known to be the place for traditional tribal gatherings for summer sporting events. People from the hills call the area Kalempung ("the black spurs").[7]

 

According to K.P. Tamsang, author of The Untold and Unknown Reality about the Lepchas, the term Kalimpong is deduced from the name Kalenpung, which in Lepcha means "Hillock of Assemblage";[8] in time, the name was distorted to Kalebung, and later further contorted to Kalimpong. Another possible derivation points to Kaulim, a fibrous plant found in abundance in the region.[9]

History

Katherine Graham Memorial Chapel, Dr. Graham's Homes

The Clock Tower of Kalimpong.

 

Until the mid-19th century, the area around Kalimpong was ruled in succession by the Sikkimese and Bhutanese kingdoms.[8][10] Under Sikkimese rule, the area was known as Dalingkot.[11] In 1706, the king of Bhutan won this territory from the Sikkimese monarch and renamed it Kalimpong.[11] Overlooking the Teesta Valley, Kalimpong is believed to have once been the forward position of the Bhutanese in the 18th century. The area was sparsely populated by the indigenous Lepcha community and migrant Bhutia and Limbu tribes.

 

After the Anglo-Bhutan War in 1864, the Treaty of Sinchula (1865) was signed, in which Bhutanese held territory east of the Teesta River was ceded to the British East India Company.[8] At that time, Kalimpong was a hamlet, with only two or three families known to reside there.[12] The first recorded mention of the town was a fleeting reference made that year by Ashley Eden, a government official with the Bengal Civil Service. Kalimpong was added to district of Darjeeling in 1866. In 1866–1867 an Anglo-Bhutanese commission demarcated the common boundaries between the two, thereby giving shape to the Kalimpong subdivision and the Darjeeling district.[13]

 

After the war, the region became a subdivision of the Western Duars district, and the following year it was merged with the district of Darjeeling.[8] The temperate climate prompted the British to develop the town as an alternative hill station to Darjeeling, to escape the scorching summer heat in the plains. Kalimpong's proximity to the Nathu La and Jelep La passes (La means "pass"), offshoots of the ancient Silk Road, was an added advantage. It soon became an important trading outpost in the trade of furs, wools and food grains between India and Tibet.[14] The increase in commerce attracted large numbers of Nepali's from the neighbouring Nepal and the lower regions of Sikkim, the areas where, Nepali's were residing since the Gorkha invasion of Sikkim in 1790. The movement of people into the area, transformed Kalimpong from a small hamlet with a few houses, to a thriving town with increased economic prosperity. Britain assigned a plot within Kalimpong to the influential Bhutanese Dorji family, through which trade and relations with Bhutan flowed. This later became Bhutan House, a Bhutanese administrative and cultural centre.[15][16][17]

 

The arrival of Scottish missionaries saw the construction of schools and welfare centres for the British.[12] Rev. W. Macfarlane in the early 1870s established the first schools in the area.[12] The Scottish University Mission Institution was opened in 1886, followed by the Kalimpong Girls High School. In 1900, Reverend J.A. Graham founded the Dr. Graham's Homes for destitute Anglo-Indian students.[12] The young missionary (and aspiring writer and poet) Aeneas Francon Williams, aged 24, arrived in Kalimpong in 1910 to take up the post of assistant schoolmaster at Dr. Graham's Homes,[18] where he later became Bursar and remained working at the school for the next fourteen years.[19] From 1907 onwards, most schools in Kalimpong had started offering education to Indian students. By 1911, the population comprised many ethnic groups, including Nepalis, Lepchas, Tibetans, Muslims, the Anglo-Indian communities. Hence by 1911, the population had swollen to 7,880.[12]

 

Following Indian independence in 1947, Kalimpong became part of the state of West Bengal, after Bengal was partitioned between India and East Pakistan. With China's annexation of Tibet in 1959, many Buddhist monks fled Tibet and established monasteries in Kalimpong. These monks brought many rare Buddhist scriptures with them. In 1962, the permanent closure of the Jelep Pass after the Sino-Indian War disrupted trade between Tibet and India, and led to a slowdown in Kalimpong's economy. In 1976, the visiting Dalai Lama consecrated the Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery, which houses many of the scriptures.[12]

Most large houses in Kalimpong were built during the British era. In the background is Mount Kangchenjunga.

Morgan House is a classic example of colonial architecture in Kalimpong.

 

Between 1986 and 1988, the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland and Kamtapur based on ethnic lines grew strong. Riots between the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and the West Bengal government reached a stand-off after a forty-day strike. The town was virtually under siege, and the state government called in the Indian army to maintain law and order. This led to the formation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, a body that was given semi-autonomous powers to govern the Darjeeling district, except the area under the Siliguri subdivision. Since 2007, the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state has been revived by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and its supporters in the Darjeeling hills.[20] The Kamtapur People's Party and its supporters' movement for a separate Kamtapur state covering North Bengal have gained momentum.[21]

Geography

A view from the Deolo Resort, atop Deolo Hill, Kalimpong's highest point

 

The town centre is on a ridge connecting two hills, Deolo Hill and Durpin Hill,[12] at an elevation of 1,247 m (4,091 ft). Deolo, the highest point in Kalimpong, has an altitude of 1,704 m (5,591 ft) and Durpin Hill is at an elevation of 1,372 m (4,501 ft). The River Teesta flows in the valley below and separates Kalimpong from the state of Sikkim. The soil in the Kalimpong area is typically reddish in color. Occasional dark soils are found due to extensive existence of phyllite and schists.[22] The Shiwalik Hills, like most of the Himalayan foothills, have steep slopes and soft, loose topsoil, leading to frequent landslides in the monsoon season.[22] The hills are nestled within higher peaks and the snow-clad Himalayan ranges tower over the town in the distance. Mount Kanchenjunga at 8,586 m (28,169 ft) the world's third tallest peak,[23] is clearly visible from Kalimpong.[2]

View of the Himalaya range

 

Kalimpong has five distinct seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter and the monsoons. The annual temperature ranges from a high of 30 °C (86 °F) to a low of 9 °C (48 °F). Summers are mild, with an average maximum temperature of 30 °C (86 °F) in August.[24] Summers are followed by the monsoon rains which lash the town between June and September. The monsoons are severe, often causing landslides which sequester the town from the rest of India. Winter lasts from December to February, with the maximum temperature being around 15 °C (59 °F). During the monsoon and winter seasons, Kalimpong is often enveloped by fog.[25]

Economy

Oranges grown in the hillsides are exported to many parts of India.

 

Tourism is the most significant contributor to Kalimpong's economy.[26] The summer and spring seasons are the most popular with tourists, keeping many of town's residents employed directly and indirectly. The town—earlier an important trade post between India and Tibet—hopes to boost its economy after the reopening of the Nathu La (pass) in April 2006.[27] Though this has resumed Indo–China border trades,[28] it is expected that Kalimpong will have a better chance of revival as a hub for Indo–China trades if the demand of local leaders for reopening of Jelep La pass also is met.[28]

 

Kalimpong is a major ginger growing area of India. Kalimpong and the state of Sikkim together contribute 15 percent of ginger produced in India.[29] The Darjeeling Himalayan hill region is internationally famous for its tea industry.[30] However, most of the tea gardens are on the western side of Teesta river (towards the town of Darjeeling) and so tea gardens near Kalimpong contribute only 4 percent of total tea production of the region. In Kalimpong division, 90 percent of land is cultivable but only 10 percent is used for tea production.[31] Kalimpong is well known for its flower export industry—especially for its wide array of indigenous orchids and gladioli.[32]

 

A significant contributor to the town's economy is education sector.[26] The schools of Kalimpong, besides imparting education to the locals, attract a significant number of students from the plains, the neighbouring state of Sikkim and countries such as Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand.[26]

 

Many establishments cater to the Indian army bases near the town, providing it with essential supplies. Small contributions to the economy come by the way of the sale of traditional arts and crafts of Sikkim and Tibet. Government efforts related to sericulture, seismology, and fisheries provide a steady source of employment to many of its residents.

 

Kalimpong is well renowned for its cheese, noodles and lollipops. Kalimpong exports a wide range of traditional handicrafts, wood-carvings, embroidered items, bags and purses with tapestry work, copper ware, scrolls, Tibetan jewellery and artifacts.[32][33]

Transport

NH31A winds along the banks of the river Teesta near Kalimpong.

 

Kalimpong is located off the National Highway 31A (NH31A), which links Sevok to Gangtok. The NH31A is an offshoot of the NH 31, which connects Sevok to Siliguri.[34] These two National Highways together, via Sevok, links Kalimpong to the plains.[35] Regular bus services and hired vehicles connect Kalimpong with Siliguri and the neighbouring towns of Kurseong, Darjeeling and Gangtok. Four wheel drives are popular means of transport, as they can easily navigate the steep slopes in the region. However, road communication often get disrupted in the monsoons due to landslides. In the town, people usually travel by foot. Residents also use bicycle, two-wheelers and hired taxis for short distances.

 

The nearest airport is in Bagdogra near Siliguri, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) from Kalimpong. Air India, Jet Airways and Druk Air (Bhutan) are the four major carriers that connect the airport to Delhi, Kolkata, Paro (Bhutan), Guwahati and Bangkok (Thailand). The closest major railway station is New Jalpaiguri, on the outskirts of Siliguri,[2] which is connected with almost all major cities of the country.

Demographics

Population growth

 

At the 2011 India census,[37] Kalimpong town area had a population of 42,988, of which 52% were male and 48% female.[37]

 

At the 2001 census,[38] Kalimpong had an average literacy rate of 79%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy was 84%, and female literacy was 73%. In Kalimpong, 8% of the population was under 6 years of age. The Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes population for Kalimpong was 5,100 and 5,121 respectively.[39]

Civic administration

 

Kalimpong is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district. The semi-autonomous Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), set up by the West Bengal government in 1988, administers this district as well as the Darjeeling Sadar and Kurseong subdivisions.[40] Kalimpong elects eight councillors to the DGHC, who manages the departments of Public Health, Education, Public Works, Transport, Tourism, Market, Small scale industries, Agriculture, Agricultural waterways, Forest (except reserved forests), Water, Livestock, Vocational Training and Sports and Youth services.[41] The district administration of Darjeeling, which is the authoritative body for the departments of election, panchayat, law and order, revenue, etc., also acts as an interface of communication between the Council and the State Government.[41] The rural area in the district covers three community development blocks Kalimpong I, Kalimpong II and Gorubathan consisting of forty-two gram panchayats.[42] A Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) presides over the Kalimpong subdivision. Kalimpong has a police station that serves the municipality and 18 gram panchayats of Kalimpong–I CD block.[43]

 

The Kalimpong municipality, which was established in 1945,[39] is in charge of the infrastructure of the town such as potable water and roads. The municipal area is divided into twenty-three wards.[44] Kalimpong municipality is constructing additional water storage tanks to meet the requirement of potable water, and it needs an increase of water supply from the 'Neora Khola Water Supply Scheme' for this purpose.[45] Often, landslides occurring in monsoon season cause havoc to the roads in and around Kalimpong.[46] The West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Corporation Limited (WBSEDCL) provides electricity here.[47] Renewable Energy Development Agency of the state has plans to promote usage of solar street lights in Kalimpong and proposed an energy park here to sell renewable energy gadgets.[48] The Public Works Department is responsible for the road connecting the town to the National Highway–NH-31A.[49] The Kalimpong municipality has a total of 10 health care units, with a total of 433 bed capacity.[50]

 

The Kalimpong assembly constituency, which is an assembly segment of the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency, elects one member of the Vidhan Sabha of West Bengal.[51]

People, culture, and cuisine

The Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery atop Durpin Hill

 

The original settlers of Kalimpong are the Lepchas, although the majority of the populace are ethnic Nepali, having migrated from Nepal to Kalimpong in search of jobs while it was under British rule.[52]

 

Indigenous ethnic groups include the Newars, Bhutia, Sherpas, Limbus, Rais, Magars,[53] Chettris, Bahuns, Thakuris, Gurungs, Tamangs, Yolmos, Bhujels, Sunuwars, Sarkis, Damais and the Kamis.[54] The other non-native communities as old as the Nepalese are the Bengalis, Muslims, Anglo-Indians, Chinese, Biharis and Tibetans who escaped to Kalimpong after fleeing the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet. Kalimpong is home to Trinley Thaye Dorje—one of the 17th Karmapa incarnations.[55] Kalimpong is the closest Indian town to Bhutan's western border, and has a small number of Bhutanese nationals residing here. Hinduism is the largest religion followed by Nijananda Sampradaya, Buddhism and Christianity.[53] Islam has a minuscule presence in this region, The Oldest settlers include people residing since the mid of 19th Century and also mostly Tibetan Muslims who fled in 1959 after Chinese invasion of Tibet.[56] The Buddhist monastery Zang Dhok Palri Phodang holds a number of rare Tibetan Buddhist scriptures.[6] There is a Mosque, Kalimpong Anjuman Islamia Established in 1887 in the bazaar area of Kalimpong.[57]

 

Popular Hindu festivals include Dashain, Tihar, Cultural Programme and the Tibetan festival of Losar. Languages spoken in Kalimpong include Nepali, which is the predominant language; Lepcha, Limbu, Tamang, Kirat, Hindi, English and Bengali.[2] Though there is a growing interest in cricket as a winter sport in Darjeeling Hills, football still remains the most popular sport in Kalimpong.[58] Every year since 1947, the Independence Shield Football Tournament is organized here as part of the two-day-long Independence Day celebrations.[59] Former captain of India national football team, Pem Dorjee hails from Kalimpong.[60]

 

A popular snack in Kalimpong is the momo, steamed dumplings made of pork, beef or vegetable cooked in a wrapping of flour and served with watery soup. Wai-Wai is a packaged Nepalese snack made of noodles which are eaten either dry or in soup form. Churpee, a kind of hard cheese made from yak's or chauri's (a hybrid of yak and cattle) milk, is sometimes chewed.[61] A form of noodle called Thukpa, served in soup form is popular in Kalimpong.[62] There are a large number of restaurants which offer a wide variety of cuisines, ranging from Indian to continental, to cater to the tourists. Tea is the most popular beverage in Kalimpong, procured from the famed Darjeeling tea gardens. Kalimpong has a golf course besides Kalimpong Circuit House.[2][63]

 

The cultural centres in Kalimpong include, the Lepcha Museum and the Zang Dhok Palri Phodang monastery. The Lepcha Museum, a kilometre away from the town centre, showcases the culture of the Lepcha community, the indigenous peoples of Sikkim. The Zang Dhok Palri Phodong monastery has 108 volumes of the Kangyur, and belongs to the Gelug of Buddhism.

 

Media

Kalimpong has access to most of the television channels aired in the rest of India. Cable Television still provides service to many homes in the town and it's outskirts, while DTH connections are now practically mandatory throughout the country. Besides mainstream Indian channels, many Nepali-language channels such as Dainandini DD, Kalimpong Television KTv, Haal Khabar (an association of the Hill Channel Network), Jan Sarokar, Himalayan People's Channel (HPC), and Kalimpong Times are broadcast in Kalimpong. These channels, which mainly broadcast locally relevant news, are produced by regional media houses and news networks, and are broadcast through the local cable network, which is now slowly becoming defunct due to the Indian government's ruling on mandatory digitization of TV channels. The movie production houses like JBU films produces the movies on the nepali and other languages.

 

Newspapers in Kalimpong include English language dailies The Statesman and The Telegraph, which are printed in Siliguri,[65][66] and The Economic Times and the Hindustan Times, which are printed in Kolkata.

 

Among other languages, Nepali, Hindi and Bengali are prominent vernacular languages used in this region.[25] Newspapers in all these four languages are available in the Darjeeling Hills region. Of the largely circulated Nepali newspapers Himalay Darpan, Swarnabhumi and some Sikkim-based Nepali newspapers like Hamro Prajashakti and Samay Dainik are read most.[67] The Tibet Mirror was the first Tibetan-language newspaper published in Kalimpong in 1925.[68] while Himalayan Times was the first English to have come out from Kalimpong in the year 1947, it was closed down in the year 1962 after the Chinese aggression but was started once again and is now in regular print. Internet service and Internet cafés are well established; these are mostly served through broadband, data card of different mobile services, WLL, dialup lines,[69][70] Kalimpong News, Kalimpong Online News, Kalimpong Times and KTV are the main online news sites that collect and present local and North Bengal & Sikkim news from its own agencies like KalimNews and other newspapers. Besides this there are others like kalimpong.info, kalimpongexpress.blogspot.com and several others. All India Radio and several other National and Private Channels including FM Radio are received in Kalimpong.

 

The area is serviced by major telecommunication companies of India with most types of cellular services in most areas.

 

Education

There are fifteen major schools in Kalimpong, the most notable ones being Scottish Universities Mission Institution, Dr. Graham's Homes, St Joseph's Convent, St. Augustine's School, Rockvale Academy, Saptashri Gyanpeeth, Springdale Academy, St. Philomenas School, Kalimpong Girls' High School, Kumdini Homes, Chandramaya High School, Lolay Sampu High School and Gandhi Ashram School. The Scottish Universities Mission Institution was the first school that was opened in 1886. The schools offer education up to high secondary standard, following which students may choose to join a Junior College or carry on with additional two years of schooling.

 

Kalimpong College, Cluny Women's College and Rockvale Management College are the main colleges in the town. Former two are affiliated to the North Bengal University and the latter affiliated to West Bengal University of Technology and apart from these, Good Shepherd IHM (Hotel management Institution) offers courses on hospitality sectors. Most students however, choose to further their studies in Siliguri, Kolkata, and other colleges in the Indian metropolis. The Tharpa Choling Monastery, at Tirpai Hill near Kalimpong, is managed by Yellow Hat sect and has a library of Tibetan manuscripts and thankas.

 

Flora and fauna

The area around Kalimpong lies in the Eastern Himalayas, which is classified as an ecological hotspot, one of only three among the ecoregions of India. Neora Valley National Park lies within the Kalimpong subdivision and is home to tigers.[72] Acacia is the most commonly found species at lower altitudes, while cinnamon, ficus, bamboo and cardamom, are found in the hillsides around Kalimpong. The forests found at higher altitudes are made up of pine trees and other evergreen alpine vegetation. Seven species of rhododendrons are found in the region east of Kalimpong. The temperate deciduous forests include oak, birch, maple and alder. Three hundred species of orchid are found around Kalimpong.

 

The Red panda, Clouded leopard, Siberian weasel, Asiatic black bear,[75] barking deer,[76] Himalayan tahr, goral, gaur[76] and pangolin are some of the fauna found near Kalimpong. Avifauna of the region include the pheasants, cuckoos, minivets, flycatchers, bulbuls, orioles, owls, partridges, sunbirds, warblers, swallows, swifts and woodpeckers.

 

Kalimpong is a major production centre of gladioli in India,[78] and orchids, which are exported to many parts of the world. The Rishi Bankim Chandra Park is an ecological museums within Kalimpong Citrus Dieback Research Station at Kalimpong works towards control of diseases, plant protection and production of disease free orange seedlings.

 

Kalimpong is also famous for their rich practice of cactus cultivation. Its nurseries attract people from far and wide for the absolutely stunning collection of cacti they cultivate. The strains of cacti, though not indigenous to the locale, have been carefully cultivated over the years, and now the town boasts one of the most fascinating and exhaustive collections of the Cactaceae family. The plants have adapted well to the altitude and environment, and now prove to be one of the chief draws of tourism to the township.

 

West Bengal (/bɛŋˈɡɔːl/, Bengali: Paschim Banga [ˈpoʃtʃim ˈbɔŋgo] (About this soundlisten)) is a state in the eastern region of India along the Bay of Bengal. With over 91 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous state and the fourteenth-largest state by area in India. Covering an area of 88,752 km2 (34,267 sq mi), it is also the eighth-most populous country subdivision of the world. Part of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, it borders Bangladesh in the east, and Nepal and Bhutan in the north. It also borders the Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata, the third-largest metropolis, and seventh largest city by population in India. West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, the Ganges delta, the Rarh region and the coastal Sundarbans. The state's main ethnic group are the Bengalis, with the Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority.

 

The area's early history featured a succession of Indian empires, internal squabbling, and a tussle between Hinduism and Buddhism for dominance. Ancient Bengal was the site of several major Janapadas, while the earliest cities date back to the Vedic period. The region was part of several ancient pan−Indian empires, including the Vangas, Mauryans, and the Guptas. The citadel of Gauḍa served as the capital of the Gauḍa Kingdom, the Pala Empire, and the Sena Empire. Islam was introduced through trade with the Abbasid Caliphate, but following the Ghurid conquests led by Bakhtiyar Khalji and the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, the Muslim faith spread across the entire Bengal region. During the Bengal Sultanate, the territory was a major trading nation in the world, and was often referred by the Europeans as the "richest country to trade with". It was absorbed into the Mughal Empire in 1576. Simultaneously, some parts of the region were ruled by several Hindu states, and Baro-Bhuyan landlords, and part of it was briefly overrun by the Suri Empire. Following the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in the early 1700s, the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal became a semi-independent state under the Nawabs of Bengal, and showed signs of the first Industrial revolution.[8][9] The region was later conquered by the British East India Company at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and became part of the Bengal Presidency.[10][11]

 

The region was a hotbed of the Indian independence movement and has remained one of India's great artistic and intellectual centres.[12] Following widespread religious violence, the Bengal Legislative Council and the Bengal Legislative Assembly voted on the Partition of Bengal in 1947 along religious lines into two independent dominions: West Bengal, a Hindu-majority Indian state, and East Bengal, a Muslim-majority province of Pakistan which later became the independent Bangladesh.

 

Post Indian independence, West Bengal's economy is based on agricultural production and small and medium-sized enterprises.[13] For many decades the state underwent political violence and economic stagnation.[14] Today, the economy of West Bengal is the sixth-largest state economy in India with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹12.54 lakh crore (US$180 billion),[3] and has the country's 23rd-highest GSDP per capita of ₹115,748 (US$1,600).[3] West Bengal also has the 28th-highest ranking among Indian states in human development index, with the index value being less than that of India.[5] The state government debt of ₹4.0 lakh crore (US$56 billion), or 32.6% of GSDP, is fifth highest India, but has dropped from 40.65% since 2010–11.[15][16] There is moderate unemployment.[17] West Bengal has two World Heritage sites and ranks as the seventh-most visited tourist destination in India.

Explore Thank You

The average weight of a harpy eagle is 18.4 lbs (8.2 kg). Female harpy eagles are larger than the males. A female can weigh from 14 to 18 lbs (7-9 kg), while the males weigh 10 to 16 lbs (5-8 kg). Their body length is between 36 and 40 inches (1 meter).

 

Their feathers are slate-black above and white to light gray underneath. A black band runs across the chest up to the neck. The tail has long, dark gray feathers with horizontal bars. Their legs are covered with light gray feathers ending in yellow feet as big as a human hand, and 5 inch long talons.

 

The heads of both male and female are covered with a double crest of large, pale gray feathers. They raise this crest when alerted or showing hostility. A facial disk like that of an owl is thought to focus sound. Their eyes are dark brown and close-set, allowing them to judge distances. They have a powerful, hooked gray bill

 

Their dark gray, large, rounded, broad wings have a span of 7 feet. These wings are relatively short compared to other eagles. They are designed for speed and maneuverability necessary for flying through a forest.

  

The harpy eagle is monogamous, meaning it mates for life. They nest high in the canopy of emergent trees about 100 to 200 feet (40 meters) above the ground. The nests are built loosely of sticks and fresh leaves in the crutch of the first branches of ceiba or kapok trees. Usually two eggs are laid, but after the first egg hatches, the other one is ignored and fails to hatch. The incubation period lasts for 52 to 56 days.

  

www.blueplanetbiomes.org/harpy_eagle.htm

Mengening beach, Bali - Indonesia.

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Nikon D7100

Tokina 11-16mm

Lee 0.9 hard graduated filter

Lee Big Stopper

Image Averaging

I think for the average person the idea of becoming a transsexual is absurd and alost surreal. But for those of us with certain female genes in our body the seeds are always there and even though we start life very much being like everyone else self-awareness or something that happens to us triggers it off. I wasn't unhappy as Christopher but as far as life was concerned I felt a bit like an under-achiever and socially a bit of a square peg in a round hole as things rarely went smoothly and I felt a bit of a leper as people of both sexes couldn't quite know what to make of me. Now everything is out in the open and because people can see the real me they not only mostly don't mind they accept me for what I am and I seem to have so many friends in the town as everyone seems happy to know me. Without having to make a commitment most see no problem after all they don't have to look very far to find bad people who harm themselves and others and yes we might be a sign of lack of control and decadence but why shouldn't we just make the best of it because nobody really listens or cares any more because I'm afraid whichever way you look at it literally our world is fucked. I think despite the warnings global warming can't be stopped as the global economy is a big unstoppable machine whose whole purpose is to create commerce and wealth and if we put more people on the planet it is seen as something good because it creates business but that discounts the harm it does too. Well at least being a trans girl means I won't inflate the population but we need a system based on measurable sustainability. Oh dear I suppose you have not got this far as obviously Jojo is a bit dotty.....

Engineer Michael Pyle (aka The Pyle Driver) is at the controls of NS 708 as seen here crossing the Tallapoosa River. While this may be another coal drag to the average viewer, for us foamers in North Georgia, this was possibly the last chance to catch one of these runs up Dugdown Mountain.

 

The former Central of Georgia line between Griffin, GA & Chattanooga, TN via a short stint on the Southern between Brice Station & Rome, was always a glorified branch line, even back in the CofG days. After being absorbed by the Southern & eventually NS, the line only saw its status diminish even more, especially with the line now only going as far "east" per the old CofG timetables as Senoia since the 90s after having the portion between there & Griffin disconnected. With that, the only road trains that would venture on here were the coal drags that would serve Plant Wansley & Plant Yates. After the two remaining units at Yates were converted to Natural Gas in 2015 & Units 1 & 2 at Wansley being idled a couple of years ago, Many thought that would be it & that the line would only see the local traffic for its fairly small customer base from here on out. Out of nowhere last summer though, some limestone trains ran to Wansley in preparation for the units to be brought back online. After a few coal drags had already ran, I finally got my first chance to get one of these runs on December 23rd, 2021. With clear skies & lots of friends trackside to also catch this run, it was without a doubt a great day to get my first run up the dreaded Dugdown grade.

 

While this was a joyous moment for the railfan me, the realist was also having to deal with the reality of the situation as well. Georgia Power has shared its ambitious goals to shut down all but 4 of its coal fired units by 2028 (all 4 are at Plant Bowen). The first ones on the chopping block you may ask are units 1 & 2 at Wansley. With their hopes of shutting down units 1 & 2 by the end of this year (2022) being known, I do hope that I get at least one more chance to catch this run before it happens, but at least I'll be able to say I did get one. Now we just gotta hope the customer base will help keep the C-Line alive & thriving, especially on the "west" end between Bremen & Cedartown. 12-23-21

Average height: probably 6'2"

I read the average person laughs 15 times a day, i think i got my quota for a week with this pee in the river pic

Yours truly playing outdoors

318 your average household gods are gleaming alluringly and twisting capriciously in this innocuous little white-roofed house p 40x50

 

On average, goldcrests are slightly lighter than the similarly diminutive, and closely related, firecrest. This makes the species the UK's smallest bird. Goldcrests are named after the crest of bright feathers in the middle of their head. This is completely yellow on females, but has an orange centre on males.(Regulus regulus)

Goldcrests are delightful little birds but can be hard to spot. They are the smallest warbler in the UK and tend to hide in evergreen shrubs and conifers

Average condition for one of these at least its not broken I'm not sure if its complete some have rings some don't this one doesn't

Many thanks for the visits, faves and comments. Cheers

 

Restless Flycatcher

Scientific Name: Myiagra inquieta

Description: The Restless Flycatcher has a glossy blue-black head, with a small crest, and is white below, from the chin to the undertail, with a blue-black bill surrounded by bristles. The back, wings and tail are darker grey and there may be a slight orange brown tint on the breast. Young birds are duller grey black above, with the throat and breast washed orange-brown. The slightly smaller northern Australian sub-species,nana, known as the Paperbark Flycatcher, has a smaller bill and has the glossy blue-black colouring extending further down the back. The Restless Flycatcher is an extremely mobile and active bird and is able to hover while feeding, uttering a grinding call that gives it yet another common name: Scissors Grinder.

Similar species: The Restless Flycatcher is often found in the same habitats as the similarly sized and patterned Willie Wagtail. However, this species has a white eyebrow, and its black colouring extends down the throat and onto the upper breast; it also has a more rounded, fanned tail which it characteristically 'wags' and it lacks the Restless Flycatcher's head crest.

Distribution: The Restless Flycatcher is found throughout northern and eastern mainland Australia, as well as in south-western Australia. It is also found in Papua New Guinea. The southern subspecies, inquieta, is found in south-western Australia and from eastern South Australia to Julia Creek and Mount Isa, Queensland. The northern subspecies,nana, is found from the Kimberley region, Western Australia, to Cooktown and Townsville, Queensland. The two subspecies do not seem to mix where their ranges meet in central eastern Queensland.

Habitat: The Restless Flycatcher is found in open forests and woodlands and is frequently seen in farmland.

Seasonal movements: South-eastern populations move north during winter.

Feeding: The Restless Flycatcher feeds on insects, as well as other invertebrates such as spiders and centipedes and usually feeds alone or in pairs. It is able to hover, hanging almost vertically in the air with its head and spread tail pointing downwards as it picks insects off the leaves. It rarely comes to the ground, preferring to 'hawk' for insects from perches in the mid-level of the canopy.

Breeding: The Restless Flycatcher builds a small cup-shaped nest of bark and grass bound with spider web, camoflaged with pieces of lichen and bark, and placed in a exposed position on a tree branch, often near or over water. Males and females both help to build the nest, incubate the eggs and feed the young. Up to three broods may be raised in one season and the young disperse quickly after fledging.

Calls: Continuous whirring or rasping hisses when hovering.

Minimum Size: 16cm

Maximum Size: 21cm

Average size: 19cm

Average weight: 20g

Breeding season: July to January in south; August to March in north

Clutch Size: 3 to 4

Incubation: 14 days

Nestling Period: 14 days

(Source: www.birdsinbackyards.net)

 

© Chris Burns 2016

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