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The Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway is Britain's highest adhesion railway, reaching 1498 feet above sea level at Hillend summit, it was originally built in 1900 for the Caledonian Railway Company.
Clyde, Leadhills and Wanlockhead Locomotive No 6 was built by Hunslet Locomotives , Leeds in 1975, as locomotive number HE6347. This Locomotive has a six cylinder water cooled Perkins diesel engine producing sixty horse power to its four wheels via a torque converter and chain drive.
Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan located on Honshu Island at 3,776.24 m. An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about 100 kilometres south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, which is snow-capped several months a year, is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and photographs, as well as visited by sightseers and climbers. It is one of Japan's "Three Holy Mountains" along with Mount Tate and Mount Haku; it is a Special Place of Scenic Beauty, an Historic Site, and has been submitted for future inscription on the World Heritage List as a Cultural Site.
Highest position - #484 Thanks, everyone!
A walk on a cloudy morning revealed this little guy. They really are tiny, less than an inch. I think it was taking a drink of water off this blade of grass.
A black and white version of this shot can be found at my Facebook page
Please view in 'Lightbox'
Highest Position: 170
Many thanks everyone.
So I'm out walking Henry the dog over the fields; taking pictures with the Canon G9 I just got.
We are approaching a piece of waste ground we always go to (Henry likes to have a poo there) , when we spot a guy in full camo gear reaching into his car and pulling out a big black bag. I didn't much like the look of him so decided to move swiftly along.
As I walked up the hill, away from the waste ground, I turned back to see this guy, now carrying something black and long, walking quickly in the same direction we are. So I pick up the pace. As you do. (At this point I'm starting to think I'll revist the waste ground and have a poo myself)
Anyway, we out-walk this guy and 2 minutes later, I turn around and he's gone. Disappeared into the bushes or something.
I keep moving but Henry spots a rabbit running across the field we just left and decides to give chase. I call him back but he's now blind (and deaf) to the chase and ignores me. (If The Dog Whisperer is reading this - you really haven't covered this one!)
Henry vanishes into a clump of bushes after the rabbit and then, two seconds later comes out running at me like a dog possessed. By the time he gets to me, he's whimpering and literally cowering under my legs. Very odd as normally he's far too stupid to be afraid of anything. So I go to the bushes to see what put the fear in him. Half way there, the camo wearing guy comes walking out of the same bushes - he's now got a balaclava on too, and is walking right at me.
I look in his hands and the long black metal thing is coming too. Great!
Still, no-one scares my dog (At this point, I'm practically Mufasa) so I keep walking. As I get closer, it becomes clear that the black metal thing is in fact a crossbow! A fecking crossbow.
Still, I'm too close to retreat now and need to know what he did to turn Henry the fearless labrador into Henrietta the big girls blouse.
"Excuse me!" I shout, "Can I have a word?"
"Keep your f'ing dog away from me," came the gruff reply.
"He can go where he wants thanks. What did you just do to him?" (At this point Mufasa has nothing on me at all. I could take on Godzilla in a fist fight and win)
"I didn't touch your dog and actually he can't go anywhere he wants as you're trespassing"
Now, as John Rambo's angry big brother stands in front, and considerably over me, I turn back into normal mode. I can feel every strain of bravado leave my body. A giant Mufasa appears in the clouds overhead and he's pointing at me, laughing.
Turns out this is the farmer who's land I trespass on every night (oops!). He's out shooting rabbits with his crossbow and I'm a big idiot.
Anyway, the picture above was taken after all this happened and considering the extent of the fear still within me and the resulting shaky hands, I can only conclude the IS mode of the G9 works pretty damn well.
Highest Navigable Lake in earth - Titicaca, in the Old Inca Empire Lands - Our Northern neighbor, Perù!
© All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images
Rocky Mountain National Park's Alpine Visitor Centre is located at 3,595 m (11,796 feet) above sea level at Fall River Pass, one mile west of the highest point on Trail Ridge Road and four miles east of the Continental Divide at Milner Pass in the U.S. state of Colorado. The Fall River Pass Alpine Visitors Centre is the highest visitor centre in the US National Park System and Trail Ridge Road, North America’s highest continuously paved highway.
All USA Trip 2018 Images HERE
Iceland's highest mountain Öræfajökull with it's highest summit named Hvannadalshnúkur (2110m) seen from the vistors centre in National park Skaftafell.
Jebel Shams Arabic: جبل شمس, is a mountain located in northeastern Oman north of Al Hamra town. It is the highest mountain of the country and part of Al Hajar Mountains range. It is a popular sightseeing area located 240 km from Muscat.
Designer unknown (佚名)
Ca. 1967
Highest instruction
Zuigao zhishi (最髙指示)
Call nr.: BG C32/477 (IISH collection)
39 Caricatures of prominent Party members, specialists, scholars and other functionaries who were under attack during the Cultural Revolution. On the two bottom rows: foreign politicians and state leaders.
Published in Shanghai.
This is the back of www.flickr.com/photos/chinesepostersnet/12176184976
More? See: chineseposters.net
Moel Famau is the highest hill in the Clwydian Range and the highest point of the county of Flintshire in Wales. It lies on the boundary between Denbighshire and Flintshire. The hill, which also gives its name to the Moel Famau country park, has been classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty since 1985
1.5 million of soldiers from Uzbekistan fought Nazi Germany in the Soviet Army, hundreds were awarded the highest military honors, and almost 500,000 lost their lives in that terrible war. Also a large number of factories were evacuated here along with their staff, as well as many cultural figures and even the entire staff of the Moscow State University - this in turn gave an impetus to industrial and cultural progress in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan also provided refuge to hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees and until their mass emigration to US and Israel in the 1990's Tashkent had one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.
Полтора миллиона выходцев из Узбекистана сражались с нацистской Германией в рядах Красной Армии, сотни заслужили высшие награды, и почти 500,000 солдат из Узбекистана погибли в той ужасной войне. Кроме того, многие заводы были вывезены в Ташкент вместе со своими рабочими и служащими. Многие члены интеллигенции также эвакуировались сюда, включая всех преподавателей МГУ. Это, в свою очередь, дало толчок для ускорения экономического и культурного прогресса в Узбекистане. В Узбекистане также нашли убежище сотни тысяч евреев-беженцев, и до из массовой эмиграции в США и Израиль в 90-е гг. еврейская община Ташкента была одной из крупнейших в мире.
One of the highest tides of the year coincided with six inches of rain. Bits of San Pedro Road in China Camp State park were under water.
Explore Highest position # 228 on Saturday, October 4, 2008
Orchids from our garden. To my flickr friends. Special thanks to Daylily18 for a very beautiful testimonial. Hope you have a great weekend.:)
Cattleya ชื่อกล้วยไม้หลายชนิดในสกุล Cattleya วงศ์ Orchidaceae
แคทลียาเป็นกล้วยไม้ที่ได้รับความนิยมปลูกเลี้ยงอย่างกว้างขวางในหลายประเทศ เนื่องจากแคทลียาเป็นกล้วยไม้ที่มีดอกขนาดใหญ่ที่สุดและสีสวยงามที่สุด บางชนิดมีกลิ่นหอม และถือกันว่าแคทลียาเป็น ราชินีแห่งกล้วยไม้ และเป็นสัญญลักษณ์สากลของกล้วยไม้ทั่วไป
มีถิ่นกำเนิดอยู่ในเขตร้อนแถบอเมริกากลางและอเมริกาใต้ตอนเหนือ
Exposure: 1/350 sec, Aperture: f/6.7, Focal Length: 70 mm, ISO: 100, +1EV
Nikon D80, Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
鲜花 "الزهور " 鮮花 цветя květiny blomster bloemen bulaklak kukkien fleurs Blumen λουλούδια פרחים virágokat blóm bunga bláthanna fiori 花 꽃 blomster گل kwiaty flores цветы blommor çiçekler квіти hoa
Schweiz / Berner Oberland - Lauterbrunnental
seen from Männlichen
gesehen vom Männlichen
Lauterbrunnen is a village and municipality in the Interlaken-Oberhasli administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The municipality comprises the other villages of Wengen, Mürren, Gimmelwald, Stechelberg, and Isenfluh, as well as several other hamlets. The population of the village of Lauterbrunnen is less than that of Wengen, but larger than that of the others.
The municipality comprises the Lauterbrunnen Valley (German: Lauterbrunnental), located at the foot of the Bernese Alps. It is notably overlooked by the Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau and many other high peaks. The valley, drained by the White Lütschine, comprises the Soustal, the Sefinental and the upper Lauterbrunnen Valley with Untersteinberg. The valley includes several glaciers. Together with the adjacent valley of Grindelwald, the Lauterbrunnen Valley forms part of the Jungfrau Region of the Bernese Oberland, between Interlaken and the main crest of the Bernese Alps.
Similarly to Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen has become a major tourist destination. It is connected to Interlaken by the Bernese Oberland Railway and is the start of the Wengernalp Railway, leading to Kleine Scheidegg. The latter resort is the start of the Jungfrau Railway, the highest railway in Europe and a gateway to the Jungfrau-Aletsch protected area.
Toponymy
Lauterbrunnen was first mentioned in 1240 as "in claro fonte", a Romance language place name meaning "clear spring". By 1253, it was known to German speakers as Liuterbrunnon; the town had an alternate spelling of Luterbrunnen by 1268. While the meaning of brunnen is undoubtedly spring or fountain, there is some dispute about the meaning of lauter. Some translate it as clear, clean or bright (which compares to the earlier Romance language meaning of the place mentioned above), while others translate it as "many" or "louder". A local explanation is that the name Lauterbrunnen means "many springs", using a modern meaning of the word lauter in German; however, this could be an example of a folk etymology.
History
The oldest trace of a settlement in the area is a single Roman coin which was discovered in the Blumental.
When the Lauterbrunnen Valley first appears in the historic record, during the 13th century, it was owned by the Freiherr of Wädenswil. In 1240 the Freiherr of Wädenswil sold the Sefinen Valley to Interlaken Monastery. Over the following century, the monastery and other local lords began to expand their power in the Lauterbrunnen and neighboring valleys. However, around 1300, the Lord of Turn began to settle his Walser-speaking people in the nearby Lötschen Valley and into the highlands of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. By 1346, the Walser villages of Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald, Mürren, Sichellauenen and Trachsellauenen all had village governments and a certain amount of independence from the monastery. Three years later, much of the Bernese Oberland unsuccessfully rose up against monastery. When the monastery suppressed the rebellion, the Walser villages bore the brunt of the monastery's wrath.
By the 15th century, the villages of the valley were part of the large parish of Gsteig bei Interlaken (now part of Gsteigwiler). Between 1487 and 1488, the villagers in Lauterbrunnen built a filial church of the parish. In 1506, the parish appointed a full-time priest for Lauterbrunnen. In 1528, the city of Bern adopted the new faith of the Protestant Reformation and began imposing it on the Bernese Oberland. Lauterbrunnen joined many other villages and the monastery in an unsuccessful rebellion against the new faith. After Bern imposed its will on the Oberland, they secularized the monastery and annexed all the monastery lands. Lauterbrunnen became the center of a new Reformed parish.
Mines were built in the Trachsellauenen area in the upper valley beginning in the late 16th century. An iron smelter was built in Zweilütschinen (now part of Gündlischwand) in 1715 to process the iron ore from Trachsellauenen. Most of the money from the mines went to the noble landowners, and the villagers remained poor. In the 17th and 18th centuries the poverty was so widespread that many of the villagers joined mercenary regiments or emigrated. Many emigrants moved to the Carolinas in the United States.
Beginning in the late 18th century, foreign mountain climbers began to use Lauterbrunnen as a starting point for their expeditions into the nearby Alps. Initially the climbers stayed in the village rectory. However, as Lauterbrunnen's fame grew and with the completion of a road from Interlaken in 1834 and the 1890 Bernese Oberland Railway, more hotels were needed for tourists. As new hotels were built, other tourist infrastructure was also built in the village. Cable cars were built to Mürren in 1891 and to Wengen in 1893. But the most significant piece of infrastructure was the Jungfrau railway, which was built in 1912. The Jungfrau rack railway runs 9 km (5+1⁄2 mi) from Kleine Scheidegg to the highest railway station in Europe at Jungfraujoch. The railway runs almost entirely within a tunnel built into the Eiger and Mönch mountains and contains two stations in the middle of the tunnel where passengers can disembark to observe the neighboring mountains through windows built into the mountainside.
In 1909, the English brothers Walter and Arnold Lunn popularized skiing, curling and bobsledding at Lauterbrunnen. These winter sports provided a whole new group of winter tourists and converted the summer tourist industry into a year-round business. The tourist economy of Lauterbrunnen was devastated by World War I and II and the Great Depression. However, following the end of World War II, tourism rebounded. Many new vacation homes and chalets were built along with ski lifts, chair lifts and a heliport.
On 1 January 1973, the former municipality of Isenfluh merged into the municipality of Lauterbrunnen. On 31 December 2009, Amtsbezirk Interlaken, the municipality's former district, was dissolved. On the following day, 1 January 2010, it joined the newly created Verwaltungskreis Interlaken-Oberhasli.
In May 2024, it was reported the local authority had initiated a working group to explore solutions for over-tourism, drawing inspiration from Venice's trial entry fee for day trippers. One proposed measure is the introduction of a 5 to 10 Swiss franc entry fee, applicable to visitors arriving by car for the day, excluding those with pre-booked accommodations or arriving by public transport.
Geography
Lauterbrunnen lies at the bottom of a U-shaped valley that extends south and then south-westwards from the village to meet the 8-kilometer (5.0 mi) Lauterbrunnen Wall. The Lauterbrunnen Valley (Lauterbrunnental) is one of the deepest in the Alpine chain when compared with the height of the mountains that rise directly on either side. It is a true cleft, rarely more than one kilometer in width, between limestone precipices, sometimes quite perpendicular and everywhere of extremely steep. In places the cliff walls are up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft) high. It is to this form that the valley owes the numerous waterfalls from which it derives its name. The streams descending from the adjoining mountains and, on reaching the verge of the rocky walls of the valley, form cascades so high that they are almost lost in spray before they reach the level of the valley. The most famous of these is Staubbach Falls, less than one kilometer from the village of Lauterbrunnen. The 297 m (974 ft) high Staubbach is the highest free-falling waterfall in Switzerland. Also near Lauterbrunnen is the highest waterfall in Switzerland, the 417 m (1,368 ft) Mürrenbach Fall. Finally, the Mattenbachfall (cascade waterfall) with a height of 930 meters is Europe's highest waterfall and the third highest in the world.
The Weisse Lütschine river flows through Lauterbrunnen and overflows its banks about once a year. The source of the river comes from melting snow high in the mountains, thus making it a very pure and clean source of water. Trümmelbach Falls is 3 km (1.9 mi) from Lauterbrunnen, connected by bus from the station.
Notable waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen
Staubbach Fall
Trimmelbach Falls
Mirrenbach Fall
Spissbach Falls
Sefinen Fall
Staldenbach Falls
Holdri Falls
Talbach Fall
The valley also includes many glaciers, such as the Tschingelfirn and the Rottalgletscher.
The municipality of Lauterbrunnen extends a considerable distance beyond the village and valley, with an area of 164.51 km2 (63.52 sq mi). It reaches as far as the peaks of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau to the east, the Gletscherhorn, Mittaghorn, Grosshorn, Breithorn and Tschingelhorn to the south, and the Gspaltenhorn and Schilthorn to the west. The Kleine Scheidegg Pass crosses over to Grindelwald to the east, whilst the Sefinenfurgge Pass crosses to Griesalp and Reichenbach im Kandertal to the west. Both passes carry hiking trails that form part of the Alpine Pass Route, a long-distance hiking trail across Switzerland between Sargans and Montreux. Besides the village of Lauterbrunnen, the municipality also includes the villages of Wengen, Mürren, Gimmelwald, Stechelberg, and Isenfluh.
Of the municipal area, 36.79 km2 (14.20 sq mi) or 22.4% is used for agricultural purposes, while 28.84 km2 (11.14 sq mi) or 17.5% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.31 km2 (0.89 sq mi) or 1.4% is settled (buildings or roads), 1.08 km2 (0.42 sq mi) or 0.7% is either rivers or lakes and 95.39 km2 (36.83 sq mi) or 58.0% is unproductive land. Of the built-up area, housing and buildings make up 0.7% and transportation infrastructure make up 0.5%. Of the forested land, 13.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.0% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 3.5% is pastures and 18.9% is used for alpine pastures. All the water in the municipality is flowing water. Of the unproductive areas, 10.3% is unproductive vegetation, 31.3% is too rocky for vegetation and 16.3% of the land is covered by glaciers.
Heritage sites of national significance
The cableway between Stechelberg and Schilthorn and the Trachsellauenen silver mine, which was active in the medieval to early modern periods, are listed as Swiss heritage site of national significance. The village of Gimmelwald and the Kleine Scheidegg region are both part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.
Climate
Between 1981 and 2010 Lauterbrunnen had an average of 136.5 days of rain or snow per year and on average received 1,207 mm (47.5 in) of precipitation. The wettest month was July during which time Lauterbrunnen received an average of 144 mm (5.7 in) of rain or snow. During this month there was precipitation for an average of 13.8 days. The month with the most days of precipitation was June, with an average of 14.1, but with only 133 mm (5.2 in) of rain or snow. The driest month of the year was October with an average of 78 mm (3.1 in) of precipitation over 9.5 days.
Cultural references
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem "Gesang der Geister über den Wassern" ("Song of the Spirits over the Waters") was written while he stayed at the parish house near the Staubbach Falls waterfall in Lauterbrunnen.
J. R. R. Tolkien hiked from Interlaken to the Lauterbrunnen Valley while on a trip to the Continent in 1911. The landscape of the valley later provided the concept and pictorial model for his sketches and watercolours of the fictitious valley of Rivendell, the dwelling place of Elrond Half-elven and his people.
Lauterbrunnen featured in several scenes from the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, including a car chase in which Bond (played for the only time by George Lazenby) was driven away from henchmen of Ernst Stavro Blofeld by his girlfriend Tracy di Vicenzo in a dramatic pursuit which culminated in them shaking off the pursuers in a stock car race.[34] The 360 degree revolving restaurant Piz Gloria which crowns the Schilthorn peak was used to film Blofeld's hideout. In the movie Bond escapes from it by skiing down the mountain to reach the village of Mürren at its base.
The location features in the Forza Motorsport series of games, with a fictional track by the name of 'Bernese Alps' incorporated into the mountainside.
(Wikipedia)
The Männlichen is a 2,343-metre (7,687 ft) mountain in the Swiss Alps located within the Canton of Berne.
It can be reached from Wengen by the Wengen–Männlichen aerial cableway, or from the new (December 2019) Grindelwald Terminal station using the Grindelwald–Männlichen gondola cableway (GM). It then takes 15 minutes to walk to the summit. It is a popular viewpoint over the Lauterbrunnen valley and a popular start location for hikers and skiers.
(Wikipedia)
Das Lauterbrunnental ist ein Tal im Berner Oberland in den Schweizer Alpen. Der Begriff Lauterbrunnen bezieht sich auf die klaren (lauteren) Quellen und Bäche (Brunnen). Bereits im 13. Jahrhundert wurde das Tal Claro Fonte genannt. Im 14. Jahrhundert tauchte das Wort Luterbrunnen zum ersten Mal auf. Das Lauterbrunnental inspirierte J. R. R. Tolkien zu dem Ort Bruchtal im Roman Der Herr der Ringe.
Siedlungen
Im Talboden liegen die Ortschaften Lauterbrunnen und Stechelberg. Auf einer Terrasse auf der Ostseite befindet sich das Dorf Wengen, auf solchen auf der Westseite die Dörfer Mürren, Gimmelwald und Isenfluh.
Alle Dörfer gehören zur politischen Gemeinde Lauterbrunnen; Hauptort ist Lauterbrunnen.
Geographie
Durch das Tal fliesst die Weisse Lütschine. Der vielen Wasserfälle wegen wird das Lauterbrunnental auch Tal der 72 Wasserfälle genannt. Von Stechelberg (919 m ü. M.) bis zum Jungfraugipfel (4158 m ü. M.) beträgt der Höhenunterschied 3239 Meter, wobei die Horizontaldistanz nur 4630 Meter beträgt. Der hintere Teil des Tales ist Naturschutzgebiet und Teil des UNESCO-Weltnaturerbes Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.
Im Umfeld des Tals gibt es viele touristische Attraktionen wie das Schilthorn, das Jungfraujoch, die Lobhörner, der Männlichen, die Kleine Scheidegg mit Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau. Das durch Gletscher geformte Trogtal enthält zahlreiche Wasserfälle, die bekanntesten sind der Staubbachfall und die Trümmelbachfälle. Der Mürrenbachfall mit einer Fallhöhe von 417 Metern und der Buchenbachfall mit einer Fallhöhe von 380 Meter gelten als die beiden höchsten Wasserfälle der Schweiz. Der Staubbachfall ist mit seinen 297 Meter der höchste frei fallende Wasserfall der Schweiz. Der Mattenbachfall als Kaskadenwasserfall ist mit seinen 840 Metern europaweit knapp hinter dem Vinnufallet und dem Skorga der dritt- und weltweit der achthöchste Wasserfall.
Base-Jumping im Lauterbrunnental
Aufgrund der zahlreichen, fast senkrechten Felswände gilt das Lauterbrunnental als Paradies für Base-Jumper, die von den umliegenden bis zu 810 Meter hohen, steilen Felswänden, wie der Mürrenfluh oder der Staldenfluh abspringen. Seit den 1980er Jahren kam es zu zahlreichen Unfällen, teilweise mit Todesopfern, weswegen das Tal grosse Präsenz in den Medien zu verzeichnen hatte. Der erste Todesfall ereignete sich 1994 mit dem Absturz von Xaver Bongard. Seither lassen im Lauterbrunnental pro Jahr durchschnittlich zwei Personen aus dieser Extremsportart ihr Leben. Bis einschliesslich 14. Juli 2022 kamen insgesamt 61 Base-Jumper ums Leben. Etwa 15 % der weltweiten Todesfälle im Base-Jumping ereigneten sich im Lauterbrunnental.
(Wikipedia)
Der Männlichen ist ein 2342 m ü. M. hoher Gipfel in den Berner Voralpen. Von Wengen aus führt die Luftseilbahn Wengen–Männlichen (LWM), von Grindelwald die Gondelbahn Grindelwald–Männlichen (GGM) auf den Männlichen. Die Bergstationen der Bahnen befinden sich auf rund 2230 m ü. M. auf einem flacheren Rücken südlich des Gipfels. Der eigentliche Gipfel lässt sich von dort über den «Royal Walk» in rund 30 Min. ersteigen.
Der Männlichen ist als Aussichtspunkt mit ausgezeichneter Sicht auf das Dreigestirn Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau bekannt sowie als Ausgangsort für Bergwanderer und Skifahrer. 20 Bahnen und Lifte erschliessen im Winter das Skigebiet Kleine Scheidegg-Männlichen mit über 100 km Pisten. Die Gondelbahn Grindelwald-Männlichen war bei der Eröffnung die längste Gondelbergbahn der Welt. Ausser mit der Seilbahn ist der Männlichen zu Fuss von Grindelwald auf einer Strasse in einem Fussmarsch von etwa vier Stunden zu erreichen oder von Wengen in etwa drei Stunden auf einem schmalen Fusspfad, der bei 1,8 Kilometern Luftlinie-Entfernung einen Höhenunterschied von über 950 Meter ermöglicht.
Obwohl der Männlichen niedriger ist als der Tschuggen (2521 m ü. M.) und das Lauberhorn (2472 m ü. M.), wird die Kette dieser drei Berge nach dem Männlichen benannt, so zum Beispiel als Gruppe Männlichen (B.9) innerhalb der SOIUSA-Aufteilung der Berner Voralpen.
(Wikipedia)
My highest plate from Zug! There are already many 6-digits plates driving in Zürich!
Distance from home: 50 km.
"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." ~ George Washington.
New Yorkers Protest the US$850 BILLION (US$3 TRILLION) Wall Street BAILOUT: Wall Street, NYC - September 25, 2008
Photographer: a. golden, eyewash design - c. 2008.
Upon talking about attending this BAILOUT protest, a Native American associate of mine mentioned that somewhere near the location of the NY Stock Exchange - on Wall Street - was the site for a bloody battle between Native tribes and American invaders. I thought this to be rather profound and rather apropos, considering, well, everything!
After some research, I could not find that this exact location was THE LOCATION, but discovered the following information from the www.hmbd.org website:
"Sankofa" ---> African Burial Ground National Monument
Inscription. [On the marker is the Adinkra symbol "Sankofa," a symbol for the importance of learning from the past]
"For all those who were lost,
For all those who were stolen,
For all those who were left behind,
For all those who were not forgotten."
*Erected 2007 by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.*
Location. 40° 42.864′ N, 74° 0.267′ W. Marker is in New York City, New York, in New York County. Marker is on Federal Plaza/Duane Street 0.04 miles west of African Burial Ground Way/Elk Street, on the right when traveling east. Click for map. Marker inscriptions are part of the African Burial Ground Memorial designed by Rodney Leon and are accessible to pedestrians on the eastern grounds of the Ted Weiss Federal Building (290 Broadway) off Federal Plaza/Duane Street. Marker is in this post office area: New York NY 10007, United States of America.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Richard Montgomery (approx. 0.3 miles away); Remains of Maj. Gen. Richard Montgomery (approx. 0.3 miles away); St. Paul's Chapel (approx. 0.3 miles away); 100 Year-Old Sycamore (approx. 0.3 miles away); Americans of Chinese Ancestry (approx. 0.3 miles away); Lin Ze Xu (approx. 0.3 miles away); Men who died whilst imprisoned in this City (approx. 0.6 miles away); Ohio Company of Associates (approx. 0.6 miles away).
If anyone has any information regarding the battle to which my friend spoke, I'd love to hear about it. In the meantime, I might just have to ask again!
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Friends,
The richest 400 Americans -- that's right, just four-hundred people -- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans COMBINED! 400 of the wealthiest Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion -- the same amount that they were demanding We give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!
Of course, they are not going to do that -- at least not voluntarily. George W. Bush was handed a $127 billion surplus when Bill Clinton left office. Because that money was OUR money and not HIS, he did what the rich prefer to do -- spend it and never look back. Now we have a $9.5 trillion debt that will take seven generations from which to recover. Why -- on --earth – did -- our -- "representatives" -- give -- these -- robber -- barons -- $US850 BILLION -- of – OUR -- money?
Last week, proposed my own bailout plan. My suggestions, listed below, were predicated on the singular and simple belief that the rich must pull themselves up by their own platinum bootstraps. Sorry, fellows, but you drilled it into our heads one too many times: THERE...IS...NO…FREE... LUNCH ~ PERIOD! And thank you for encouraging us to hate people on welfare! So, there should have been NO HANDOUTS FROM US TO YOU! Last Friday, after voting AGAINST this BAILOUT, in an unprecedented turn of events, the House FLIP-FLOPPED their "No" Vote & said "Yes", in a rush version of a "bailout" bill vote. IN SPITE OF THE PEOPLE'S OVERWHELMING DISAPPROVAL OF THIS BAILOUT BILL... IN SPITE OF MILLIONS OF CALLS FROM THE PEOPLE CRASHING WASHINGTON "representatives'" PHONE LINES...IN SPITE OF CRASHING OUR POLITICIAN'S WEBSITES...IN SPITE OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE PROTESTING AROUND THE COUNTRY... THEY VOTED FOR THIS BAILOUT! The People first succeeded on Monday with the House, but failed do it with the Senate and then THE HOUSE TURNED ON US TOO!
It is clear, though, we cannot simply continue protesting without proposing exactly what it is we think THESE IDIOTS should/'ve do/one. So, after consulting with a number of people smarter than Phil Gramm, here’s the proposal, now known as "Mike's Rescue Plan." (From Michael Moore's Bailout Plan) It has 10 simple, straightforward points. They are that you DIDN'T, BUT SHOULD'VE:
1. APPOINTED A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR TO CRIMINALLY INDICT ANYONE ON WALL STREET WHO KNOWINGLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS COLLAPSE. Before any new money was expended, Congress should have committed, by resolution, to CRIMINALLY PROSECUTE ANYONE who had ANYTHING to do with the attempted SACKING OF OUR ECONOMY. This means that anyone who committed insider trading, securities fraud or any action that helped bring about this collapse should have and MUST GO TO JAIL! This Congress SHOULD HAVE called for a Special Prosecutor who would vigorously go after everyone who created the mess, and anyone else who attempts to scam the public in future. (I like Elliot Spitzer ~ so, he played a little hanky-panky...Wall Street hates him & this is a GOOD thing.)
2. THE RICH SHOULD HAVE PAID FOR THEIR OWN BAILOUT! They may have to live in 5 houses instead of 7. They may have to drive 9 cars instead of 13. The chef for their mini-terriers may have to be reassigned. But there is no way in hell, after forcing family incomes to go down more than $2,000 dollars during the Bush years, that working people and the middle class should have to fork over one dime to underwrite the next yacht purchase.
If they truly needed the $850 billion they say they needed, well, here is an easy way they could have raised it:
a) Every couple makeing over a million dollars a year and every single taxpayer who makes over $500,000 a year should pay a 10% surcharge tax for five years. (It's the Senator Sanders plan. He's like Colonel Sanders, only he's out to fry the right chickens.) That means the rich would have still been paying less income tax than when Carter was president. That would have raise a total of $300 billion.
b) Like nearly every other democracy, they should have charged a 0.25% tax on every stock transaction. This would have raised more than $200 billion in a year.
c) Because every stockholder is a patriotic American, stockholders should have forgone receiving a dividend check for ONE quarter and instead this money would have gone the treasury to help pay for the bullsh*t bailout.
d) 25% of major U.S. corporations currently pay NO federal income tax. Federal corporate tax revenues currently amount to 1.7% of the GDP compared to 5% in the 1950s. If we raised the corporate income tax BACK to the levels of the 1950s, this would give us an extra $500 billion.
All of this combined should have been enough to end the calamity. The rich would have gotten to keep their mansions and their servants and our United States government ("COUNTRY FIRST!") would've have a little leftover to repair some roads, bridges and schools...
3. YOU SHOULD HAVE BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE LOSING THEIR HOMES, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO WILL BUILD AN EIGHTH HOME! There are 1.3 million homes in foreclosure right now. That is what is at the heart of this problem. So, instead of giving the money to the banks as a gift, they should have paid down each of these mortgages by $100,000. They should have forced the banks to renegotiate the mortgage so the homeowner could pay on its current value. To insure that this help wouldn't go to speculators and those who tried to making money by flipping houses, the bailout should have only been for people's primary residences. And, in return for the $100K pay-down on the existing mortgage, the government would have gotten to share in the holding of the mortgage so it could get some of its money back. Thus, the total initial cost of fixing the mortgage crisis at its roots (instead of with the greedy lenders) is $150 billion, not $850 BILLION.
And let's set the record straight. People who have defaulted on their mortgages are not "bad risks." They are our fellow Americans, and all they wanted was what we all want: a home to call their own. But, during the Bush years, millions of the People lost the decent paying jobs they had. SIX MILLION fell into poverty! SEVEN MILLION lost their health insurance! And, every one of them saw their real wages go DOWN by $2,000! Those who DARE look down on these Americans who got hit with one bad break after another should be ASHAMED.! We are a better, stronger, safer and happier society when all of our citizens can afford to live in a home they own.
4. THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A STIPULATION THAT IF YOUR BANK OR COMPANY GOT ANY OF OUR MONEY IN A "BAILOUT," THEN WE OWN YOU. Sorry, that's how it's done. If the bank gives me money so I can buy a house, the bank "owns" that house until I pay it all back -- with interest. Same deal for Wall Street. Whatever money you need to stay afloat, if our government considers you a safe risk -- and necessary for the good of the country -- then you can get a loan, but WE SHOULD OWN YOU. If you default, we will sell you. This is how the Swedish government did it and it worked.
5. ALL REGULATIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN BE RESTORED. THE REAGAN REVOLUTION IS DEAD! This catastrophe happened because we let the fox have the keys to the hen-house. In 1999, Phil Gramm authored a bill to remove all the regulations that governed Wall Street and our banking system. The bill passed and Clinton signed it. Here's what Sen.Phil Gramm, McCain's chief economic advisor, said at the bill signing:
"In the 1930s ... it was believed that government was the answer. It was believed that stability and growth came from government overriding the functioning of free markets.
"We are here today to repeal [that] because we have learned that government is not the answer. We have learned that freedom and competition are the answers. We have learned that we promote economic growth and we promote stability by having competition and freedom.
"I am proud to be here because this is an important bill; it is a deregulatory bill. I believe that that is the wave of the future, and I am awfully proud to have been a part of making it a reality."
FOR THIS NOT TO REOCCUR, This BILL SHOULD HAVE BEEN REPEALED! Bill Clinton could have helped by leading the effort for the repeal of the Gramm bill and the reinstating of even tougher regulations regarding our financial institutions. And when they were done with that, they should have restored the regulations for the airlines, the inspection of our food, the oil industry, OSHA, and every other entity that affects our daily lives. All oversight provisions for any "bailout" should have had enforcement monies attached to them and criminal penalties for all offenders.
6. IF IT'S TOO BIG TO FAIL, THEN THAT MEANS IT'S TOO BIG TO EXIST! Allowing the creation of these mega-mergers and not enforcing the monopoly and anti-trust laws has allowed a number of financial institutions and corporations to become so large, the very thought of their collapse means an even bigger collapse across the entire economy. No ONE or TWO companies should EVER have this kind of power! The so-called "economic Pearl Harbor" can't happen when you have hundreds -- thousands -- of institutions where people have their money. When we have a dozen auto companies, if one goes belly-up, we DON'T FACE A NATIONAL DISASTER! If we have three separately-owned daily newspapers in your town, then one media company can't call all the shots (I know... What am I thinking?! Who reads a paper anymore? Sure glad all those mergers and buyouts left us with a STRONG and "FREE" press!). Laws Should have been enacted to prevent companies from being so large and dominant that with one slingshot to the eye, the GIANT FALLS and DIES. And no institution should be allowed to set up money schemes that NO ONE understands. If you can't explain it in two sentences, you shouldn't be taking anyone's money!
7. NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD EVER BE PAID MORE THAN 40 TIMES THEIR AVERAGE EMPLOYEE, AND NO EXECUTIVE SHOULD RECEIVE ANY KIND OF "PARACHUTE" OTHER THAN THE VERY GENEROUS SALARY HE OR SHE MADE WHILE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY. In 1980, the average American CEO made 45 times what their employees made. By 2003, they were making 254 times what their workers made. After 8 years of Bush, they now make over 400 times what their average employee makes. How We have allowed this to happen at publicly held companies is beyond reason. In Britain, the average CEO makes 28 times what their average employee makes. In Japan, it's only 17 times! The last I heard, the CEO of Toyota was living the high life in Tokyo. How does he do it on so little money? Seriously, this is an OUTRAGE! We have created the mess we're in by letting the people at the top become bloated beyond belief with millions of dollars. THIS HAS TO STOP! Not only should no executive who receives help out of this mess profit from it, but any executive who was in charge of running his company into the ground should be FIRED before the company receives ANY help.
8. CONGRESS SHOULD HAVE STRENGTHENED THE FDIC AND MADE IT A MODEL FOR PROTECTING NOT ONLY PEOPLE'S SAVINGS, BUT ALSO THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR HOMES. Obama was correct to propose expanding FDIC protection of people's savings in their banks to $250,000. But, this same sort of government insurance must be given to our NEVER have to worry about whether or not the money they've put away for their old age will be there. This should have meant strict government oversight of companies who manage their employees' funds -- or perhaps it means the companies should have been forced to turn over those funds and their management to the government? People's private retirement funds must also be protected, but perhaps it's time to consider not having one's retirement invested in the casino known as the stock market??? Our government should have a solemn duty to guarantee that no one who grows old in this country has to worry about becoming destitute.
9. EVERYBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH, CALM DOWN, AND NOT LET FEAR RULE THE DAY. Turn off your TVs! We are NOT in the Second Great Depression. The sky is NOT falling, Chicken Little! Pundits and politicians have lied to us so FAST and FURIOUS it's hard not to be affected by all the fear mongering. Even I wrote to and repeated what I heard on the news last week, that the Dow had the biggest one day drop in its history. Well, that was true in terms of points, but its 7% drop came nowhere close to Black Monday in 1987 when the stock market in one day lost 23% of its value. In the '80s, 3,000 banks closed, but America didn't go out of business. These institutions have always had their ups and downs and eventually it works out. It has to, because the rich do not like their wealth being disrupted! They have a vested interest in calming things down and getting back into their Jacuzzis before they slip into their million thread-count sheets to drift off to a peaceful, Vodka tonic and Ambien-induced slumber.
As crazy as things are right now, tens of thousands of people got a car loan last week. Thousands went to the bank and got a mortgage to buy a home. Students just back to college found banks more than happy to put them into hock for the next 15 years with a student loan. I was even pre-approved for a US$5K personal loan. Yes, life has gone on with little-or-no-change (other than the whopping 6.1% unemployment rate, but that happened last month). Not a single person lost any of his/her monies in bank, or a treasury note, or in a CD. And, the perhaps the most amazing thing is that the American public FINALLY didn't buy the scare campaign. The citizens didn't blink, instead telling Congress to take that bailout and shove it. THAT was impressive. Why didn't the population succumb to the fright-filled warnings from their president and his cronies? Well, you can only say 'Saddam has the bomb' so many times before the people realize you're a lying sack of shit. After eight long years, the nation is worn out and simply can't take it any longer. The WORLD is fed up & I don't blame them.
10. THEY SHOULD HAVE CREATED A NATIONAL BANK, A "PEOPLE'S BANK." Since they're really itching to print up a trillion dollars, instead of giving it to a few rich people, why don't We give it to ourselves? Now that We own Freddie and Fannie, why not set up a People's bank? One that can provide low-interest loans for all sorts of people who want to own a home, start a small business, go to school, come up with the cure for cancer or create the next great invention. And, now that we own AIG - the country's largest insurance company - let's take the next step and PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE FOR EVERYONE. MEDICARE FOR ALL! It will SAVE us SO MUCH MONEY in the LONG RUN (not to mention bring peace of mind to all). And, America won't be 12th on the life expectancy list! We'll be able to have a longer lifespan, enjoying our government-protected pension and will live to see the day when the corporate criminals who caused this much misery are let out of prison so that We can help re-acclimate them to plain old ordinary, civilian life -- a life with ONE nice home and ONE gas-free car invented with help from the People's Bank.
P.S. Call your Senators NOW !!! ---> www.visi.com/juan/congress/
Since they voted against passing the extension of unemployment benefits and skipped out to "campaign" to us to be re-elected...call them and tell them you will vote for the other "guy" if they don't get their act together!
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UPDATE: THE PEOPLE HAVE VOTED! A HISTORIC MOMENT: NOVEMBER 4th 2008!
------> THE Historic ELECTION <------
"A work in PROGRESS."
Nov. 4th, 2008.
A great American leader once said, "As individual fingers We can be easily broken. But TOGETHER We make a mighty fist." These words too were spoken by a minority leader. He was the venerable Chief Sitting Bull. No, Barack Obama's not the first American minority to speak eloquently and he most certainly won't be the last. Though, in the end, this election wasn't even close !!! The world watched as, "YES WE CAN!" turned into, "YES WE DID!" as it now ushers in, "YES WE MUST!" time is NOW!
What WE do with this moment shall define US, forthright. America has now elected a man with a background of partial African - American descent as President elect. A new leader with roots from Kenya to Kansas (with a step-father from Indonesia), will be working in conjunction with a vice-Presidential of Anglo-European roots. This is something in which citizens of ALL races - both here and the world 'round – have loudly REJOICED. Why talk about race? Is race important? You bet! Because - like it or not - race has dominated and governed Our daily lives for thousands of years. After all: "To know where We're going, We must first know where We've been".
We've come a LONG Way baby! What was once "acceptable" in 1965 is no longer in 2008 and THANKFULLY.
This is a changing of the guard. Especially since forty-percent of America's population is considered to be a "minority". Only four generations removed, the repression of African slaves by Anglo Saxons caused hundreds of thousands of brothers to kill brothers in a viscous and bloody battle that changed the fundamental principals of this Constitutional Republic from rhetoric to reality. This too was a significant changing of the guard.
For the first time in the history of the country, the ancestors of these very same people who so passionately fought for slavery have now OVERWHELMINGLY voted for a minority leader. This too ushers in a new chapter in the history of America. This is a tremendous nod to those great American leaders before Us who risked everything so that We find ourselves at this precise moment in time. We must give thanks to these men and women who both tirelessly and unselfishly gave their lives to cross and to help shatter the racial, sexual and social boundaries imbued in the history of the United States of America.
It has now taken place. There's a palpable renewed sense of HOPE for a better tomorrow – a HOPE that these same crippling boundaries shall finally once and for all be erased. Yet it is wise to also remember the adage, "Actions speak louder than words" and Our rhetoric must now be turned into action. The ability to truly rise above differences and to not just speak of doing so, tells much of Our long and continuous journey. If We remember the old North American Indian saying, "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." We might just have a fighting chance.
The People have spoken! A record-setting 130 million Americans' turned out to vote in Tuesday's election, in which Barack Obama made history on a Democratic tidal wave of victory. Polling suggests voters came out in record numbers because of growing concerns over the economy, jobs, health care, energy, and the war in Iraq.
Clearly, the Obama administration and the new Democratic majority in Washington have a chance to make profound changes in Our lives - stretching from Wall Street to Main Street. Yes, this moment shows decency about human possibility and let's face it, We could use just a little decency RIGHT NOW.
Perhaps more importantly, this moment speaks volumes as it's an utter rejection of the right's politics of fear and greed? It will now be decades before there's another Republican majority in Congress. Never have the words, "Ask not what Your country can do for You, but what You can do for Your country," seemed more true for SO MANY. For, We-Are-Our-country. And We're at a MAJOR crossroads. Where, oh where to begin?
OBAMA / BIDEN Campaign.
Here in New York, Working Families voters, members, affiliates, supporters and chapter leaders poured everything they had into critical campaigns that proved successful. Many are now understandably exhausted - though more than a little proud of what was accomplished. And, the results were terrific ~ if not downright Historic. For the first time since the mid-1930, the State Senate will NO LONGER be controlled by Republicans. It's now in the hands of a Democratic Working Families majority! Just-take-one-moment-and-soak-this-in. MASSIVE Democratic majorities in BOTH the HOUSE and the SENATE!
Together, the W.F.P built a solid partnership with Senate Democrats, knocking on more than half a million doors for progressive CHANGE. And, in the end, "We the People" overwhelmingly responded. This is a MILESTONE. There's now a renewed sense of real HOPE resonating from Washington, indeed, around the world. This is powerful. Because, without HOPE, there's simply nothing to gain.
However, We must be careful not to fall prey to disillusionment. If illusions tear People asunder, then disillusion outright kills the human spirit. In other words, divided THEY conquer, united, WE stand. That this historic moment was ushered in during Native American Indian month is apropos. Because, We must not forget the very real foundations of this idealistic country and pay homage to the 500 plus year struggle of Our First Peoples' for the basic rights afforded them in Our own Constitution. Obama's victory is indeed a victory representing the multitudes. It is precisely because his success mirrors the masses, rather than a few wealthy, power-elite that this is so electrifying. A VERY palpable, "Finally!" was the expression heard 'round the world.
The world woke up WEDNESDAY with the real possibility of a very RARE OPPORTUNITY - the best in most Our lifetimes. This is a chance to truly transform America.
But, We mustn't forget the VERY hard realities existing in this country. Just ask any woman…any "person of color"…or, any First Peoples living in this "great" land. For, as long as Native American Indians in Our country still live in policies of containment on reservations without the very basics, such as running water, electricity, or heat… as long as more than 75% of the prison population includes African-Americans, First and Taino Peoples …as long as We continue to allow Our tax dollars spent to be three times more for each of these prisoners per head than on Our own school childrens' education…as long as American women continue to earn less than men for the SAME work…as long as We allow privately held corporations to exist without extreme MAJOR reform…as long as We continue to allow Our children to trample on foreign soil to kill and to be killed in "Our" names…as long as We sit idly by expecting or content to let others to "Do the right thing," for us… as long as We DON'T ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE TOGETHER in challenging and fighting for OUR OWN WELL-BEING for the betterment of future generations… as long as We choose to remain ignorant and in denial to Our faults…TRUE CHANGE can, and will NEVER HAPPEN.
Though, like anything rare and unique, We must first take proper time to Honor…to give thanks to those before us who, without their dedication and sacrifice, made this moment possible. We must come together. Immediate formulation and a real plan to guard and to protect this moment with fierce determination is required. New leaders are needed and will emerge so We ensure moments like this become the norm, rather than a mere token fluke. If We HOPE to transform Tuesday's results into a real break from the shipwreck of the most immediate last thirty years - We MUST start by realizing this election represents just that – a START. It's Round One of Our LONG and CONTINUOUS struggle.
And, Round Two will be just as tough, if not more so. Staying the course can easily be forgotten when People are dying from inadequate health care; when they've found themselves on the streets for lack of shelter and as they grow ever more desperate due to lack of job opportunities. Just ask people of Native or African American descent. Or, one of Our homeless veterans living on America's streets of plenty.
Yes, the house of cards has fallen HARD and FAST. And, President / V.P. elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden have inherited many seemingly insurmountable challenges. REAL CHANGE - not rhetoric - is what's needed. And to get it, We MUST demand it. We MUST march and be watchdogs for the sake of the coming generations. Communication with Our politicians is a MUST. MOST importantly, We MUST stand TOGETHER and be willing to fight to protect what is right and what is good for the MANY, NOT the FEW.
UNITED We STAND, DIVIDED, We FALL.
A President Obama will need to be simultaneously supported AND pushed. His training as a community organizer gives one confidence that he'll not only understand, but should also expect this dynamic. It's imperative for us to mind the trusty, "Follow the money" strategy. Don't forget, President elect Obama dually made history by raising the most unprecedented amount of campaign dollars in the HISTORY of U.S. Presidential elections. According to CNN, if annualized, the Obama campaign's ad spending on the post-primary Presidential campaign would come to US$750 million. This amount is only exceeded amongst large corporations such as Verizon and AT&T - both heavy sponsors of the Republican AND the Democratic national party conventions.
At the start of October, the Democratic National Committee announced it raised US$49.9 million with US$27.5 million sitting in the bank. The party raised money through joint fund-raising events with Obama and was able to use that money to assist his candidacy. These numbers were only possible because he opted out of the public financing system for the fall campaign. John McCain chose to participate in the system, which limited him to US$84 million for the September / October stretch prior to the election. After initially promising to accept public financing if McCain did, Obama changed his mind after setting primary fund-raising records. In fact, by the time the primaries hit, Obama was raising as much as US$5 million each and every day. The Obama / Biden campaign raised more than US$150 million in September alone - a stunning and unprecedented eruption of political giving. This extraordinary fund-raising is bound to set a new standard in politics that could doom the current taxpayer-paid system set up in the 1970's.
HOPEfully NOT.
The party presidential nominees – Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain – together spent more than US$1 BILLION, also an unprecedented figure. According to White House for Sale, a nonpartisan group that tracks political giving, Obama had 605 bundlers, or donors who collect money from friends and associates and bundle them together. Four years ago, Democrat John F. Kerry had 588 bundlers and, in 2000, Al Gore had none. McCain had 851 bundlers working for his campaign, compared to 557 who raised money for the Bush-Cheney re-election committee in 2004. George W. Bush is largely credited with institutionalizing the role of bundlers in 2000, when he recruited a then unprecedented 555 surrogate fundraisers.
Ask Yourselves: Who really benefits most from having donated to the Obama / Biden campaign?
President - elect Barack Obama & John McCain's U.S. Presidential campaign funds details:
OBAMA:
Total:US$750,767,963
Bundlers:605
LobbyistBundlers:17
MCCAIN:
Total: US$372,525,058
Bundlers: 851
Lobbyist Bundlers: 77
See the Center for Responsive Politics Presidential campaign monies for a better perspective:
2008: Obama AND McCain - US$5.3 BILLION
(Obama: US$750,767,963 million / McCain: US$372,525,058 million)
2004: Bush AND Kerry - US$4.2 BILLION
2000: Gore AND Bush - US$67.56 MILLION
1996: Dole AND Clinton - US$61.82 MILLION
1992: Clinton AND Bush - US$55.24 MILLION
* TO SEARCH FOR MEGA-DONERS, CLICK here: www.whitehouseforsale.org/searchDonor.cfm?CandidateSelect... McCain&StateSelect=&SortOrder=Last_Name, First_Name, Middle_Name, Suffix.*
Democrats in Washington and will be under enormous pressure to "play it safe", even as everyone knows We need bold action and some kind of new, New Deal. And, if We allow the "play-it-safe" crowd to dominate, then Obama (and We) will not succeed. Make NO mistake: the corporate big-wigs and free-market fundamentalists see this for exactly what it is: THE FIGHT OF A LIFETIME. They want nothing more than for the Democrats to disappoint, because then the HOPEfulness that Obama represents can be stuffed back in the bottle and cynicism can once again regain its place in Our national political culture.
WE Can't Let This Happen!
Whether it's revamping our health care system…implementing a new fair-based trade policy…creating a sound, realistic and well thought-out immigration plan…jobs programs…organizing rights in Washington, or campaign election reform, family leave or fair taxes, this election has set the stage for an ENTIRELY NEW social contract between the government and the People. This election opens up a real possibility – small, but real - that We could make genuine progress as a society, in terms of equality and freedom and true sustainability. In other words, the democracy We preach, but don't teach. What comes next is up to US. And, We need to seriously ready OURSELVES.
In short, the real meaning of this election hasn't yet been decided.
Overall, there's a lot of work to do. It's imperative that EVERYONE do his share - whether this means attending a neighborhood or union meeting, signing a petition, organizing or riding a bus to a demonstration, going on a lobby visit, making a financial contribution, or just talking to a stranger about the need and desirability of the common good.
Thanks for all you do!
Live your values. Love your country.
And, remember: TOGETHER, We can make a D-I-F-F-E-R-E-N-C-E !
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Eibsee
Eibsee is a lake in Bavaria, Germany, 9km southwest of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and roughly 100km southwest of Munich. At an elevation of 973.28 m, its surface area is 177.4 ha. Eibsee lies at the base of the Zugspitze (2950 meters above sea level), Germany's highest mountain.
As of May 2010, trains from Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen leave roughly once an hour and the trip takes about an hour and a half[1]. Buses travel regularly from the train station in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Eibsee[2]. A valid train ticket can often be used to ride the bus
Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eibsee
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a mountain resort town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region, and the district is on the border with Austria. Nearby is Germany's highest mountain, Zugspitze, at 2961 m (9714 ft.).
Origin
Garmisch-Partinkirken was at first two separate cities (Garmisch and Partinkirken).Until the Olympics were held right in between the two cities and often faught over simple things. So, as a compromise, they merged together to create Garmisch-Partinkirken and make the process much easier.
[edit]History
Garmisch (in the west) and Partenkirchen (in the east) were separate towns for many centuries, and still maintain quite separate identities.
Partenkirchen originated as the Roman town of Partanum on the trade route from Venice to Augsburg and is first mentioned in the year A.D. 15. Its main street, Ludwigsstrasse, follows the original Roman road.
Garmisch is first mentioned some 800 years later as Germaneskau ("German District"), suggesting that at some point a Teutonic tribe took up settlement in the western end of the valley.
The valley came under the rule of the Bishop of Freising and was governed by a bishop's representative known as a Pfleger (caretaker or warden) from Werdenfels Castle on a cliff north of Garmisch.
The discovery of America at the turn of the 16th century led to a boom in shipping and a sharp decline in overland trade, which plunged the region into a centuries-long economic depression. The valley floor was swampy and difficult to farm. Bears, wolves and lynxes were a constant threat to livestock. The population suffered from periodic epidemics, including several serious outbreaks of bubonic plague. Adverse fortunes from disease and crop failure occasionally led to witch hysteria. Most notable of these were the notorious trials and executions of 1589-1596, in which 63 victims — more than 10 percent of the population at the time — were burned at the stake or garroted.
Werdenfels Castle, where the accused were held, tried and executed, became an object of superstitious horror and was abandoned in the 17th century. It was largely torn down in the 1750s and its stones used to build the baroque Neue Kirche (New Church) on Marienplatz, which was completed in 1752. It replaced the nearby Gothic Alte Kirche (Old Church), parts of which predated Christianity and may originally have been a pagan temple. Used as a storehouse, armory and haybarn for many years, it has since been re-consecrated. Some of its medieval frescoes are still visible.
Garmisch and Partenkirchen remained separate until their respective mayors were forced by Adolf Hitler to combine the two market towns in 1935 in anticipation of the 1936 Winter Olympic games. Today, the united town is casually (but incorrectly) referred to as Garmisch, much to the dismay of Partenkirchen's residents. Most visitors will notice the slightly more modern feel of Garmisch while the fresco-filled, cobblestoned streets of Partenkirchen offer a glimpse into times past. Early mornings and late afternoons in pleasant weather often find local traffic stopped while the dairy cows are herded to and from the nearby mountain meadows.
[edit]Transportation
Garmisch-Partenkirchen,
painting by Anton Doll
The town is served by Federal Highway 2 as a continuation of the A95 Autobahn (motorway), which ends at Eschenlohe 16 km north of the city.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is on the Munich–Garmisch-Partenkirchen line and the Mittenwald Railway (Garmisch–Mittenwald–Innsbruck). It is the terminus of the Außerfern Railway to Reutte in Tirol / Kempten im Allgäu and the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway (with sections of rack railway) to the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany. Regional services run every hour to München Hauptbahnhof and Mittenwald and every two hours to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof and Reutte. In addition there are special seasonal long-distance services, including ICEs, to Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Bremen and Innsbruck.
Several accessible hiking trails from the town are especially spectacular and cover both the lower and higher elevations.
[edit]Sports
Aerial view of
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
In 1936 it was the site of the Winter Olympic Games, the first to feature alpine skiing. A variety of Nordic and alpine World Cup ski races are held here, usually on the Kandahar Track outside town. Traditionally, a ski jumping contest is held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on New Year's Day, as a part of the Four Hills Tournament (Vierschanzen-Tournee). The World Alpine Ski Championships were held in Garmisch in 1978 and 2011.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is also a favored holiday spot for skiing, snowboarding, and hiking, having some of the best skiing areas (Garmisch Classic and Zugspitze) in Germany.
It was announced on December 7, 2007, that Garmisch-Partenkirchen is part of a Bavarian bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, with partner candidates Munich and Schönau am Königsee (near Berchtesgaden). The Winter Olympics were last held in the German-speaking Alps in 1976 in nearby Innsbruck, Austria.
[edit]Public institutions
The George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies[2] is also located in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The Marshall Center is an internationally funded and mostly U.S.-staffed learning and conference center for governments from around the world, but primarily from the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. It was established in June 1993, replacing the U.S. Army Russian Institute. Near the Marshall Center is the American Armed Forces Recreation Centers (Edelweiss Lodge and Resort) in Garmisch that serves U.S. and NATO military and their families. A number of U.S. troops and civilians are stationed in the town to provide logistical support to the Marshall Center and Edelweiss Recreation Center.
Zugspitze
Zugspitze
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zugspitze
The Zugspitze massif from the west (left: the summit)
Elevation2,962 m (9,718 ft) [1]
Prominence1,746 m (5,728 ft) [2]
↓ Fern Pass → Parseierspitze
Parent peakFinsteraarhorna / Mont Blancb
Isolation = 24.6 km → Acherkogel
ListingCountry high point (Germany)
Ultra
Location
Zugspitze
Germany
Location on Austria/Germany border
LocationTyrol, Austria
Bavaria, Germany
RangeWettersteingebirge, Eastern Alps
Coordinates47°25′16″N 10°59′07″ECoordinates: 47°25′16″N 10°59′07″E[2]
Geology
TypeWetterstein limestone[3]
Age of rockTriassic
Climbing
First ascent27 August 1820 by Josef Naus, Johann Georg Tauschl and survey assistant, Maier
Easiest routeReintal Route
Geography
Map showing the Zugspitze's location
The Zugspitze belongs to the Wetterstein range of the Northern Limestone Alps.
The border between Germany and Austria goes right over the mountain. There used to be a border checkpoint at the summit. But since Germany and Austria are now both part of the Schengen zone, the border crossing is no longer manned.
The exact height of the Zugspitze was a matter of debate for quite a while. Given figures ranged from 2,690–2,970 metres (8,830–9,740 ft), but it is now generally accepted that the peak is 2,962 m (9,718 ft) above sea level as a result of a survey carried out by the Bavarian State Survey Office. The lounge at the new café is named "2962" for this reason.
[edit]Location and surrounding area
Aerial photograph
View from the Alpspitze of the Zugspitze summit and the Höllentalferner glacier in 2007
Annotated aerial photograph of the Zugspitze massif
At 2,962 metres (9,718 ft) (eastern peak) the Zugspitze is the highest mountain of the Zugspitze massif. This height is referenced to the Amsterdam Gauge and is given by the Bavarian State Office for Survey and Geoinformation.[4] The same height is recorded against the Trieste Gauge used in Austria, which is 27 cm lower. Originally the Zugspitze had three peaks: the east, middle and west summits (Ost-, Mittel- and Westgipfel). The only one that has remained in its original form is the east summit, which is also the only one that lies entirely on German territory. The middle summit fell victim to one of the cable car summit stations in 1930. In 1938 the west summit was blown up to create a building site for a planned flight control room for the Wehrmacht. This was never built however. Originally the height of the west summit was given as 2,964 m (9,724 ft).[5]
The Zugspitze rises eleven kilometres southwest of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and just under six kilometres east of Ehrwald. The border between Germany and Austria runs over the west summit; thus the Zugspitze massif belongs to the German state of Bavaria and the Austrian state of Tyrol. The municipalities responsible for it are Grainau and Ehrwald. To the west the Zugspitze massif drops into the valley of the River Loisach, which flows around the massif towards the northeast in a curve whilst, in the east, the streams of Hammersbach and Partnach have their source. To the south the Gaistal valley and its river, the Leutascher Ache, separate the Wetterstein Mountains from the Mieming Chain. To the north at the foot of the Zugspitze is the lake of Eibsee. The next highest mountain in the area is the Acherkogel (3,008 m or 9,869 ft) in the Stubai Alps, which gives the Zugspitze an topographic isolation value of 24.6 kilometres. The reference point for the prominence is the Parseierspitze (3,036 m or 9,961 ft). In order to climb it from the Zugspitze, a descent to the Fern Pass (1,216 m or 3,990 ft) is required, so that the prominence is 1,746 m (5,728 ft).[6]
[edit]Zugspitze Massif
The massif of the Zugspitze has several other peaks. To the south the Zugspitzplatt is surrounded in an arc by the Zugspitzeck (2,820 m or 9,250 ft) and Schneefernerkopf (2,874 m or 9,429 ft), the Wetterspitzen (2,747 m or 9,012 ft), the Wetterwandeck (2,698 m or 8,852 ft), the Plattspitzen (2,679 m or 8,789 ft) and the Gatterlköpfen (2,490 m or 8,170 ft). The massif ends int the Gatterl (2,024 m or 6,640 ft), a wind gap between it and the Hochwanner. Running eastwards away from the Zugspitze is the famous Jubilee Ridge or Jubiläumsgrat over the Höllentalspitzen towards the Alpspitze and Hochblassen. The short crest of the Riffelwandkamm runs northeast over the summits of the Riffelwandspitzen (2,626 m or 8,615 ft) and the Riffelköpfe (2,459 m or 8,068 ft), to the Riffel wind gap (Riffelscharte, 2,161 m or 7,090 ft). From here the ridge of the Waxensteinkamm stretches away over the Riffelspitzen to the Waxenstein.[7]
[edit]Zugspitzplatt
The Zugspitzplatt above the Reintal valley in 2006
The Platt or Zugspitzplatt is a plateau below the summit of the Zugspitze to the south and southeast which lies at a height of between 2,000 and 2,650 m (6,600 and 8,690 ft). It forms the head of the Reintal valley and has been shaped by a combination of weathering, karstification and glaciation. The area contains roches moutonnées, dolines and limestone pavements as a consequence of the ice ages. In addition moraines have been left behind by various glacial periods. The Platt was completely covered by a glacier for the last time at the beginning of the 19th century. Today 52% of it consists of scree, 32% of bedrock and 16% of vegetation-covered soils, especially in the middle and lower areas.[8]
[edit]Climate
Climatic diagram for the Zugspitze: normal periods 1961-1990
From a climatic perspective the Zugspitze lies in the temperate zone and its prevailing winds are Westerlies. As the first high orographic obstacle to these Westerlies in the Alps, the Zugspitze is particular exposed to the weather. It is effectively the north barrier of the Alps (Nordstau der Alpen), against which moist air masses pile up and release heavy precipitation. At the same time the Zugspitze acts as protective barrier for parts of the Alps to the south. By contrast, Föhn weather conditions push in the other direction against the massif, affecting the region for about 60 days per year. These warm, dry air masses stream from south to north and can result in unusually high temperatures in winter. Nevertheless frost dominates the picture on the Zugspitze with an average of 310 days per year. The nearest place with comparable values is the island of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Ocean.
For the decades from 1961 to 1990 - designated by the World Meteorological Organization as the "normal period" - the average annual precipitation on the Zugspitze was 2,003.1 mm; the wettest month being April with 199 mm, and the driest, October with 108.8 mm.[9] By comparison the values for 2009 were 2,070.8 mm, the wettest month being March with 326.2 mm and the driest, January, with 56.4 mm.[10] The average temperature in the normal period was -4.8 Celsius, with July and August being the warmest at 2.2 °C and February, the coldest, with -11.4 °C.[9] By comparison the average temperature in 2009 was -4.2 °C, the warmest month was August at 5.3 °C and the coldest was February at -13.5 °C.[10] The average sunshine during the normal period was 1,846.3 hours per year, the sunniest month being October with 188.8 hours and the darkest being December with 116.1 hours.[9] In 2009 there were 1,836.3 hours of sunshine, the least occurring in February with just 95.4 hours and the most in April with 219 hours.[10] In 2009, according to the weather survey by the German Met Office, the Zugspitze was the coldest place in Germany with a mean annual temperature of -4.2 °C.[11]
The lowest measured temperature on the Zugspitze was -35.6 °C in 14 February 1940. The highest temperature occurred on 5 July 1957 when the thermometer reached 17.9 °C. A squall on 12 June 1985 registered 335 km/h, the highest measured wind speed on the Zugspitze. In April 1944 meteorologists recorded a snow depth of 8.3 metres.[12][13]
[edit]Geology
The north face of the Zugspitze seen from the Eibsee lake
All mountain-building strata consists of sedimentary rocks of the Mesozoic era, that were originally laid down on the seabed. The base of the mountain comprises muschelkalk beds; its upper layers are made of Wetterstein limestone. With steep rock walls up to 800 metres high, it is this Wetterstein limestone from the Upper Triassic that is mainly responsible for the rock faces, arêtes, pinnacles and the summit rocks of the mountain. Due to the frequent occurrence of marine coralline algea in the Wetterstein limestone it can be deduced that this rock was at one time formed in a lagoon. The colour of the rock varies between grey-while and light grey to speckled. In several places it contains lead and zinc ore. These minerals were mined between 1827 and 1918 in the Höllental valley. The dark grey, almost horizontal and partly grass-covered layers of muschelkalk run from the foot of the Great Riffelwandspitze to the Ehrwalder Köpfe. From the appearance of the north face of the Zugspitze it can be seen that this massif originally consisted of two mountain ranges that were piled on top of one another.[14]
[edit]Flora
The Eibsee in front of the Zugspitze: woods on the northern shore
The flora on the Zugspitze is not particularly diverse due to the soil conditions, nevertheless the vegetation, especially in the meadows of Schachen, the Tieferen Wies near Ehrwald, and in the valleys of Höllental, Gaistal and Leutaschtal is especially colourful.
The shaded and moist northern slopes of the massif like, for example, the Wettersteinwald, are some of the most species-rich environments on the Zugspitze. The Mountain Pine grows at elevations of up to 1,800 metres. The woods lower down consist mainly of Spruce and Fir, but Honeysuckle, Woodruff, poisonous Herb Paris, Meadow-rue and Speedwell[disambiguation needed ] also occur here. Dark Columbine, Alpine Clematis, Blue and Yellow Monkshood, Stemless carline thistle, False aster, Golden cinquefoil, Round-leaved saxifrage, Wall hawkweed, Alpine calamint and Alpine Forget-me-not flower in the less densely wooded places, whilst Cinquefoil, Sticky Sage, Butterbur, Alpenrose, Turk's cap lily and Fly Orchid thrive on the rocky soils of the mountain forests. Lily of the Valley and Daphne also occur, especially in the Höllental, in Grainau and by the Eibsee.[15]
To the south the scene changes to Larch (mainly in the meadow of Ehrwalder Alm and the valleys of Gaistal and Leutaschtal) and pine forests and into mixed woods of Beech and Sycamore. Here too, Mountain Pine grows at the higher elevations of over 2,000 metres.
Relatively rare in the entire Zugspitze area are trees like the Lime, Birch, Rowan, Juniper and Yew. The most varied species of moss, that often completely cover limestone rocks in the open, occur in great numbers.
Bilberry, Cranberry and Cowberry are restricted to dry places and Lady's Slipper Orchid occurs in sheltered spots. Below the Waxenstein are fields with raspberries and occasionally wild strawberries too. The Alpine poppy and Purple mountain saxifrage both thrive up to a very great height. On the scree slops there are Penny-cress and Mouse-ear chickweed as well as Mountain avens, Alpine toadflax, Mint and Musky Saxifrage or Cloth of Gold. Following snowmelt Dark stonecrop and Snow gentian are the first to appear, their seeds beginning to germinate as early as August. And well-known Alpine flowers like the Edelweiss, Gentians and, more rarely, Cyclamen flower on the Zugspitze.
[edit]Fauna
Alpine choughs on the Zugspitzeck
The rocks around the Zugspitze are a habitat for Chamois and Marmots are widespread on the southern side of the massif. At the summit there are frequently Alpine Choughs, drawn there by people feeding them. Somewhat lower down the mountain there are Mountain Hare and the Hazel Dormouse. Alpine birds occurring on the Zugspitze include the Golden Eagle, Rock Ptarmigan, Snow Finch, Alpine Accentor and Brambling. The Crag Martin which has given its name to the Schwalbenwand ("Swallows' Wall") at Kreuzeck is frequently encountered. The basins of Mittenwald and Seefeld, as well as the Fern Pass are on bird migration routes.
The Viviparous lizard inhabits rocky terrain, as does the black Alpine Salamander known locally as the Bergmandl, which can be seen after rain showers as one is climbing. Butterflies like Apollo, Alpine Perlmutter, Gossamer-winged butterfly, Geometer moth, Ringlet and Skipper may be seen on the west and south sides of the Zugspitze massif, especially in July and August.[16] The woods around the Zugspitze are home to Red Deer, Red Squirrel, Weasel, Capercaillie, Hazel Grouse and Black Grouse. On the glaciers live glacier fleas (Desoria saltans) and water bears.[17]
[edit]Glaciers
Three of the five German glaciers are found on the Zugspitze massif: the Höllentalferner the Southern and Northern Schneeferner.
[edit]Höllentalferner
The Höllentalferner in 2009
The Höllentalferner lies northeast of the Zugspitze in a cirque below the Jubilee Ridge (Jubiläumsgrat) to the south and the Riffelwandspitzen peaks to the west and north. It has a northeast aspect. Its accumulation zone is formed by a depression, in which large quantities of avalanche snow collect. To the south the Jubiläumsgrat shields the glacier from direct sunshine. These conditions meant that the glacier only lost a relatively small area between 1981 and 2006.[18] In recent times the Höllentalferner reached its greatest around 1820 with an area of 47 hectares. Thereafter its area reduced continually until the period between 1950 and 1981 when it grew again, by 3.1 hectares to 30.2 hectares. Since then the glacier has lost (as at 2006) an area of 5.5 hectares and now has an area of 24.7 hectares. In 2006 the glacier head was at 2,569 m and its lowest point at 2,203 metres.[19]
[edit]Schneeferner
The Northern Schneeferner and winter sport infrastructure in 2009
[edit]Northern Schneeferner
Southwest of the Zugspitze, between the Zugspitzeck and Schneefernerkopf, is the Northern Schneeferner which has an eastern aspect. With an area of 30.7 hectares (2006) it is the largest German glacier. Around 1820 the entire Zugspitzplatt was glaciated, but of this Platt Glacier (Plattgletscher) only the Northern and Southern Schneeferner remain. The reason for the relatively constant area of the Northern Schneeferner in recent years, despite the lack of shade, is the favourable terrain that results in the glacier tending to grow or shrink in depth rather than area. In the recent past the glacier has also been artificially fed by the ski region operators, using piste tractors to heap large quantities of snow onto the glacier in order to extend the skiing season. At the beginning of the 1990s, ski slope operators began to cover the Northern Schneeferner in summer with artificial sheets in order to protect it from sunshine.[20][21] The Northern Schneeferner reached its last high point in 1979, when its area grew to 40.9 hectares. By 2006 it had shrunk to 30.7 hectares. The glacier head then lay at 2,789 m and the foot at 2,558 metres.[22]
[edit]Southern Schneeferner
The Southern Schneeferner is surrounded by the peaks of the Wetterspitzen and the Wetterwandeck. It is also a remnant of the once great Platt Glacier. Today, the Southern Schneeferner extends up as far as the arête and therefore has no protection from direct sunshine. It has also been divided into two basins by a ridge of rock that has appeared as the snow has receded. It is a matter of debate whether the Southern Schneeferner should still be classified as a glacier.[23] The Southern Schneeferner also reached its last high point in 1979, when it covered an area of 31.7 hectares. This had shrunk by 2006 to just 8.4 hectares however. The highest point of the glacier lies at an elevation of 2,665 metres and the lowest at 2,520 metres.[24]
[edit]Caves
Below the Zugspitzplatt chemical weathering processes have created a large number of caves and abîmes in the Wetterstein limestone. In the 1930s the number of caves was estimated at 300. By 1955 62 caves were known to exist and by 1960 another 47 had been discovered. The first cave explorations here took place in 1931. Other, largest exploratory expeditions took place in 1935 and 1936 as well as between 1955 and 1968. During one expedition, in 1958, the Finch Shaft (Finkenschacht) was discovered. It is 131 metres deep, 260 metres long and has a watercourse. There is a theory that this watercourse could be a link to the source of the River Partnach.[Note 1][25][26]
[edit]Name
From the early 14th century, geographic names from the Wetterstein Mountains began to be recorded in treaties and on maps, and this trend intensified in the 15th century. In 1536 a border treaty dating to 1500 was refined in that its course was specified as running over a Schartten ("wind gap" or "col").[27] In the 17th century the reference to this landmark in the treaty was further clarified as "now known as the Zugspüz" (jetzt Zugspüz genant).[27] The landmark referred to was a wind gap on the summit of the Zugspitze and is used time and again in other sources. During the Middle Ages Scharte was a common name for the Zugspitze.[27]
The Zugspitze was first mentioned by name in 1590. In a description of the border between the County of Werdenfels and Austria, it states that the same border runs "from the Zugspitz and over the Derle" (von dem Zugspitz und über den Derle")[28] and continues to a bridge over the River Loisach. Another border treaty in 1656 states: "The highest Wetterstein or Zugspitz" ("Der höchste Wetterstain oder Zugspitz").[28] There is also a map dating to the second half of the 18th century that shows "the Reintal in the County of Werdenfels". It covers the Reintal valley from the Reintaler Hof to the Zugspitzplatt and shows prominent points in the surrounding area, details of tracks and roads and the use pasture use. This includes a track over the then much larger Schneeferner glacier to the summit region of the Zugspitze. However the map does not show any obvious route to the summit itself.[29]
The name of the Zugspitze is probably derived from its Zugbahnen or avalanche paths. In winter avalanches sweep down from the upper slopes of the massif into the valley and leave behind characteristic avalanche remnants in the shape of rocks and scree. Near the Eibsee lake there are several plots of land with the same root: Zug, Zuggasse, Zugstick, Zugmösel or Zugwankel.[28] Until the 19th century the name der Zugspitz was commonplace. It was described as die Zugspitze for the first time on a map printed in 1836.[30]
[edit]Summit cross
Summit cross on the Zugspitze
Since 1851 there has been a summit cross on the top of Zugspitze. The driving force behind the erection of a cross on the summit was the priest, Christoph Ott. He was a keen meteorologist and whilst observing conditions from the Hoher Peißenberg mountain he saw the Zugspitze in the distance and was exercised by the fact that "the greatest prince of the Bavarian mountains raised its head into the blue air towards heaven, bare and unadorned, waiting for the moment when patriotic fervour and courageous determination would see that his head too was crowned with dignity."[31] As a result he organised an expedition from 11 to 13 August 1851 with the goal of erecting a summit cross on the Zugspitze. Twenty eight bearers were led through the gorge of the Partnachklamm and the Reintal valley under the direction of forester, Karl Kiendl, up to the Zugspitze. The undertaking, which cost 610 Gulden and 37 Kreuzer, was a success. As a result, a 28-piece, 14 foot high, gilded iron cross now stood on the West Summit. Ott himself did not climb the Zugspitze until 1854. After 37 years the cross had to be taken down after suffering numerous lightning strikes; its support brackets were also badly damaged. In the winter of 1881–1882 it was therefore brought down into the valley and repaired. On 25 August 1882 seven mountain guides and 15 bearers took the cross back to the top. Because an accommodation shed had been built on the West Summit, the team placed the cross on the East Summit. There is remained for about 111 years, until it was removed again on 18 August 1993. This time the damage was not only caused by the weather, but also by an ill-disciplined American soldier who had shot at the cross in 1945, at the end of the Second World War. Because the summit cross could no longer be repaired, a replica was made that was true to the original cross. After two months the rack railway carried the new cross on 12 October to the Zugspitzplatt, from where it was flown to the summit by helicopter. The new cross has a height of 4.88 metres.[32] It was renovated and regilded in 2009 for 15,000 euros and, since 22 April 2009, has stood once again on the East Summit.[33]
These are reduced sized pictures.Orignal pictures shot in 5,616 × 3,744 (21.1 megapixels) using Canon EOS 5D Mark II FULL FRAME DSLR CAMERA or 3872 x 2592 (10.2 million effective pixels) using NIKON D60 DSLR or 4,288 × 2,848 (12.3 effective megapixels) USING NIKON D90 DSLR's.
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EIBSEE LAKE GARMICH PARTENKIRCHEN BAVARIA OBERBAYERN ZUGSPITZE SOUTHERN GERMANY MUNICH GERMANY's HIGHEST MOUNTAIN
"Quito, formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city of Ecuador, and at an elevation of 9,350 feet (2,800 meters above sea level), it is the highest capital city in the world housing the administrative, legislative and judicial functions. [...]
The Historic Center of Quito has one of the largest, least-altered and best-preserved historic centers in the Americas. Quito, along with Kraków, were the first World Cultural Heritage Sites declared by UNESCO in 1978. The central square of Quito is located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of the equator; the city itself extends to within about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) of zero latitude." Wikipedia
If you live at an altitude of merely 50 metres, walking through Quito puts you 56 times higher than you're used to and my body certainly aknowledged that. Even getting to the second floor at the hotel was exhausting.
I tried to name the things you see, but I forgot the name ot at least one church (there's one at about every 200 meters, so I got a bit confused).
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"Quito (San Francisco de Quito) ist die Hauptstadt von Ecuador und liegt 20 Kilometer südlich des Äquators in einem 2.850 m hohen Becken der Anden und ist somit noch vor der bolivianischen Hauptstadt Sucre die höchstgelegene Hauptstadt der Welt. [...]
Die koloniale Altstadt reicht im Wesentlichen vom Panecillo im Süden bis zum Alameda-Park im Norden, an den sich ein Mischviertel anschließt, das bis zum Ejido-Park reicht und an das sich wiederum nördlich das moderne Stadt- und Finanzzentrum zwischen Ejido- und Carolina-Park anschließt („Mariscal Sucre“-Viertel und Viertel nördlich der Avenida Colón). Sie hat eine Ausdehnung von etwa 8 Kilometer in Nord-Süd-Richtung und 500–2000 m in Ost-West-Richtung. Im kolonialen Zentrum befinden sich der Präsidentenpalast, die Kathedrale und die Basilika sowie die Kirchen, Konvente und Profanbauten, die den Status der Stadt als Weltkulturerbe ausmachen." Wikipedia
Wenn man in einer "Höhe" von 50 Metern über NN lebt, dann ist man in Quito so ziemlich genau 56 mal höher, als man es gewohnt ist. Mein Körper hat das sofort gemerkt und erst mal gestreikt. Atemnot, Schlafprobleme, was man sich so vorstellen kann. Sehr nervig.
Ich habe versucht, die Sachen die Ihr seht zu benamsen, aber ich bin mit den Kirchen ein wenig durcheinander gekommen. Es war mal das Ziel, alle 200 Meter eine stehen zu haben...
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Highest Explore Position #466 ~ On June 15th 2012.
Duckling ~ Dedham ~ Essex ~ England ~ Monday June 4th 2012.
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Ben Nevis taken from the South Glen Shiel Ridge.
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10 of the tallest peak in the Philippines:
9.Mt. Singakalca (Mt. Timbak)
Mount Timbak (8950 fasl), the third highest mountain in Luzon, is also known as Mt Singacalsa (an Ibaloi term which refers to a musical instrument similar to gangsa or the local gong). The veracity of this information is yet to be verified. Mountaineers have learned to call it Mt Timbak just like how it is popularly called by the locals. The main attractions of the mountain are the marvelous sea of clouds at sunset, the mummies and the kind locals that inhabit the slopes of the mountain. The western vista also affords a breath-taking view of the Atok vegetable terrace complex which could rival the rice terraces of Banaue. - nickey
THE AGE OF FLOWERING PLANTS
ANGIOSPERM means "seed borne in vessel," while GYMNOSPERM means "naked seed," a reference to the lack of protective structure enveloping the seed. One reason that flowering plants were able to diversify so dramatically and spread during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic, or MODERN, the era was the evolution of new structures and tissues such as the carpel, a womb-like vessel that encloses angiosperm seeds and endosperm, a placenta-like tissue that nourishes the young plant as it develop within the seed, Today, angiosperm dominate terrestrial life on the planet. At an estimated 422,000 species, they compose by far the largest group of plants. They grow in greater range of environments, exhibits a wider range of growth habits, and display more variation in form than any living group of plants. In size, angiosperm range from tiny duckweed to eucaplytuses more than 330 ft (100 m) tall.
The explosion of angiosperm diversity has gone hand in hand with the proliferation of INSECTS, BIRDS, and OTHER ANIMALS that pollinate their flowers, disperse their fruits and seeds, and eat their leaves.
THE ULTIMATE VISUAL REFERENCE TO PLANTS AND FLOWERS OF THE WORLD - Janet Marinelli, Ed-in-Chief
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BEAUTIFUL PHILIPPINES 10 of the tallest peak in the Philippines
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A pano attempt for World's Highest Motorable Road - Khardung La, Ladakh, India. A larger view is better.
The pano is not perfect - the stitch mark is visible - but still posting as I loved the vast expanse. Can you see the road on top right? at the end of it (as soon as you take the turn) - you are at Khardung La top - 5,682 m (18,640 feet)
The height of the nave is about 45 metres (148 ft), the highest Gothic vaults of a complete church
THE CATHEDRAL
The massive Cathedral of Santa Maria Nascente, which the Milanese call just "Il Duomo" is among the world's largest (it holds up to 40,000 people) and most magnificent churches, the ultimate example of the Flamboyant Gothic style. It was begun in the 14th century, but its façade was not completed until the early 1800s, under Napoleon.
The roof is topped by 135 delicately carved stone pinnacles and the exterior is decorated with 2,245 marble statues. The dim interior, in striking contrast to the brilliant and richly patterned exterior, makes a powerful impression with its 52 gigantic pillars. The stained-glass windows in the nave (mostly 15th-16th centuries) are the largest in the world; the earliest of them are in the south aisle.
Highlights include the seven-branched bronze candelabrum by Nicholas of Verdun (c. 1200) in the north transept, the 16th-century tomb of Gian Giacomo Medici, and the jeweled gold reliquary of San Carlo Borromeo in the octagonal Borromeo Chapel leading off the crypt. Behind the high altar, the choir has deeply carved panels, and misericords under the seats.
In the south sacristy is the treasury with gold and silver work dating from the fourth to the 17th century. A walk on the roof of the cathedral is an impressive experience, offering views across the city and extending on clear days to the snow-covered Alps. (An elevator ascends all but the last 73 steps to the platform of the dome).
At the front of the Duomo, near the central doorway, you can descend under Piazza del Duomo into the foundations of the Basilica di Santa Tecla (fourth-fifth and seventh century) and the fourth-century baptistery, Battistero di San Giovanni alle Fonti, which were discovered during the construction of the Milan Metro system [planetware.com]
IT TOOK THOUSANDS OF WORKERS, A NEW CANAL SYSTEM AND OVER SIX CENTURIES TO COMPLETE
The construction of the Duomo officially started in 1386 by Bishop Antonio da Saluzzo and was supported by the ruler of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti who had grand visions of the cathedral. Though originally started in terracotta stone, once the grandeur of the project was realized Condoglian marble from Lake Maggiore was chosen. The entire building is made up of this pink-hued white marble. To bring it from the quarries of Candoglia, canals were dug leading to the construction site, evidence of which is still visible along the famous navigli, the canals left over from the network built in southern Milan specifically for that purpose! Thousands of artists, sculptors and specialized workers were involved in the construction of the Cathedral of Milan. Architects from across Europe were invited to work on the project (at least 78 different architects total) and as it grew and grew, its construction dragged on over the years. It was consecrated in 1418 but only the nave was really finished at that time. Heavy construction continued for another 200 years [walksofitaly.com]
Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona, is the 15th site in the United States to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park, which covers 1,217,262 acres (1,901.972 sq mi; 4,926.08 km2) of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties, received more than six million recreational visitors in 2017, which is the second highest count of all American national parks after Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated its 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019.
The Grand Canyon became well known to Americans in the 1880s after railroads were built and pioneers developed infrastructure and early tourism. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the site and said,
The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison—beyond description; absolutely unparalleled through-out the wide world ... Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But you can keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.
Despite Roosevelt's enthusiasm and strong interest in preserving land for public use, the Grand Canyon was not immediately designated as a national park. The first bill to establish Grand Canyon National Park was introduced in 1882 by then-Senator Benjamin Harrison, which would have established Grand Canyon as the third national park in the United States, after Yellowstone and Mackinac. Harrison unsuccessfully reintroduced his bill in 1883 and 1886; after his election to the presidency, he established the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893. Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon Game Preserve by proclamation on November 28, 1906, and the Grand Canyon National Monument on January 11, 1908. Further Senate bills to establish the site as a national park were introduced and defeated in 1910 and 1911, before the Grand Canyon National Park Act was finally signed by President Woodrow Wilson on February 26, 1919. The National Park Service, established in 1916, assumed administration of the park.
The creation of the park was an early success of the conservation movement. Its national park status may have helped thwart proposals to dam the Colorado River within its boundaries. (Later, the Glen Canyon Dam would be built upriver.) A second Grand Canyon National Monument to the west was proclaimed in 1932. In 1975, that monument and Marble Canyon National Monument, which was established in 1969 and followed the Colorado River northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lees Ferry, were made part of Grand Canyon National Park. In 1979, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site. The 1987 the National Parks Overflights Act found that "Noise associated with aircraft overflights at the Grand Canyon National Park is causing a significant adverse effect on the natural quiet and experience of the park and current aircraft operations at the Grand Canyon National Park have raised serious concerns regarding public safety, including concerns regarding the safety of park users."
In 2010, Grand Canyon National Park was honored with its own coin under the America the Beautiful Quarters program. On February 26, 2019, the Grand Canyon National Park commemorated 100 years since its designation as a national park.
The Grand Canyon had been part of the National Park Service's Intermountain Region until 2018.[citation needed] Today, the Grand Canyon is a part of Region 8, also known as the Lower Colorado Basin.
The Grand Canyon, including its extensive system of tributary canyons, is valued for its combination of size, depth, and exposed layers of colorful rocks dating back to Precambrian times. The canyon itself was created by the incision of the Colorado River and its tributaries after the Colorado Plateau was uplifted, causing the Colorado River system to develop along its present path.
The primary public areas of the park are the South and North Rims, and adjacent areas of the canyon itself. The rest of the park is extremely rugged and remote, although many places are accessible by pack trail and backcountry roads. The South Rim is more accessible than the North Rim and accounts for 90% of park visitation.
The park headquarters are at Grand Canyon Village, not far from the South Entrance to the park, near one of the most popular viewpoints.
Most visitors to the park come to the South Rim, arriving on Arizona State Route 64. The highway enters the park through the South Entrance, near Tusayan, Arizona, and heads eastward, leaving the park through the East Entrance. Interstate 40 provides access to the area from the south. From the north, U.S. Route 89 connects Utah, Colorado, and the North Rim to the South Rim. Overall, some 30 miles of the South Rim are accessible by road.
The North Rim area of the park is located on the Kaibab Plateau and Walhalla Plateau, directly across the Grand Canyon from the principal visitor areas on the South Rim. The North Rim's principal visitor areas are centered around Bright Angel Point. The North Rim is higher in elevation than the South Rim, at over 8,000 feet (2,400 m) of elevation. Because it is so much higher than the South Rim, it is closed from December 1 through May 15 each year, due to the enhanced snowfall at elevation. Visitor services are closed or limited in scope after October 15. Driving time from the South Rim to the North Rim is about 4.5 hours, over 220 miles (350 km).
There are few roads on the North Rim, but there are some notable vehicle-accessible lookout points, including Point Imperial, Roosevelt Point, and Cape Royal. Mule rides are also available to a variety of places, including several thousand feet down into the canyon.
Many visitors to the North Rim choose to make use of the variety of hiking trails including the Widforss Trail, Uncle Jim's Trail, the Transept Trail, and the North Kaibab Trail. The North Kaibab Trail can be followed all the way down to the Colorado River, connecting across the river to the South Kaibab Trail and the Bright Angel Trail, which continue up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The Toroweap Overlook is located in the western part of the park on the North Rim. Access is via unpaved roads off Route 389 west of Fredonia, Arizona. The roads lead through Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument and to the overlook.
A variety of activities at the South Rim cater to park visitors. A driving tour (35 miles (56 km)) along the South Rim is split into two segments. The western drive to Hermit's Point is eight miles (13 km) with several overlooks along the way, including Mohave Point, Hopi Point, and the Powell Memorial. From March to December, access to Hermit's Rest is restricted to the free shuttle provided by the Park Service. The eastern portion to Desert View is 25 miles (40 km), and is open to private vehicles year round.
Walking tours include the Rim Trail, which runs west from the Pipe Creek viewpoint for about eight miles (13 km) of paved road, followed by seven miles (11 km) unpaved to Hermit's Rest. Hikes can begin almost anywhere along this trail, and a shuttle can return hikers to their point of origin. Mather Point, the first view most people reach when entering from the south entrance, is a popular place to begin.
Private canyon flyovers are provided by helicopters and small airplanes out of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Grand Canyon National Park Airport. Due to a crash in the 1990s, scenic flights are no longer allowed to fly within 1,500 feet (460 m) of the rim within the Grand Canyon National Park. Flights within the canyon are still available outside of park boundaries.
Arizona is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States. Arizona is part of the Four Corners region with Utah to the north, Colorado to the northeast, and New Mexico to the east; its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest, California to the west and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest. It is the 6th-largest and the 14th-most-populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix.
Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of Alta California and Nuevo México in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848, where the area became part of the territory of New Mexico. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase.
Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. Northern Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the Colorado Plateau; mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as large, deep canyons, with much more moderate summer temperatures and significant winter snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Sunrise, and Tucson. In addition to the internationally known Grand Canyon National Park, which is one of the world's seven natural wonders, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments.
Arizona's population and economy have grown dramatically since the 1950s because of inward migration, and the state is now a major hub of the Sun Belt. Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson have developed large, sprawling suburban areas. Many large companies, such as PetSmart and Circle K, have headquarters in the state, and Arizona is home to major universities, including the University of Arizona and Arizona State University. The state is known for a history of conservative politicians such as Barry Goldwater and John McCain, though it has become a swing state since the 1990s.
Arizona is home to a diverse population. About one-quarter of the state is made up of Indian reservations that serve as the home of 27 federally recognized Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the largest in the state and the United States, with more than 300,000 citizens. Since the 1980s, the proportion of Hispanics in the state's population has grown significantly owing to migration from Mexico. A substantial portion of the population are followers of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The history of Arizona encompasses the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Post-Archaic, Spanish, Mexican, and American periods. About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians settled in what is now Arizona. A few thousand years ago, the Ancestral Puebloan, the Hohokam, the Mogollon and the Sinagua cultures inhabited the state. However, all of these civilizations mysteriously disappeared from the region in the 15th and 16th centuries. Today, countless ancient ruins can be found in Arizona. Arizona was part of the state of Sonora, Mexico from 1822, but the settled population was small. In 1848, under the terms of the Mexican Cession the United States took possession of Arizona above the Gila River after the Mexican War, and became part of the Territory of New Mexico. By means of the Gadsden Purchase, the United States secured the northern part of the state of Sonora, which is now Arizona south of the Gila River in 1854.
In 1863, Arizona was split off from the Territory of New Mexico to form the Arizona Territory. The remoteness of the region was eased by the arrival of railroads in 1880. Arizona became a state in 1912 but was primarily rural with an economy based on cattle, cotton, citrus, and copper. Dramatic growth came after 1945, as retirees and young families who appreciated the warm weather and low costs emigrated from the Northeast and Midwest.
In the Mexican–American War, the garrison commander avoided conflict with Lieutenant Colonel Cooke and the Mormon Battalion, withdrawing while the Americans marched through the town on their way to California. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Mexico ceded to the U.S. the northern 70% of modern-day Arizona above the Sonora border along the Gila River. During the California Gold Rush, an upwards of 50,000 people traveled through on the Southern Emigrant Trail pioneered by Cooke, to reach the gold fields in 1849. The Pima Villages often sold fresh food and provided relief to distressed travelers among this throng and to others in subsequent years.
Paleo-Indians settled what is now Arizona around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. According to most archaeologists, the Paleo-Indians initially followed herds of big game—megafauna such as mammoths, mastodons, and bison—into North America. The traveling groups also collected and utilized a wide variety of smaller game animals, fish, and a wide variety of plants. These people were likely characterized by highly mobile bands of approximately 20 or 50 members of an extended family, moving from place to place as resources were depleted and additional supplies needed. Paleoindian groups were efficient hunters and created and carried a variety of tools, some highly specialized, for hunting, butchering and hide processing. These paleolithic people utilized the environment that they lived in near water sources, including rivers, swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, and drew birds and game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. At the latest by 9500 BCE, bands of hunters wandered as far south as Arizona, where they found a desert grassland and hunted mule deer, antelope and other small mammals.
As populations of larger game began to diminish, possibly as a result of intense hunting and rapid environmental changes, Late Paleoindian groups would come to rely more on other facets of their subsistence pattern, including increased hunting of bison, mule deer and antelope. Nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Hunting was especially important in winter and spring months when plant foods were scarce.
The Archaic time frame is defined culturally as a transition from a hunting/gathering lifestyle to one involving agriculture and permanent, if only seasonally occupied, settlements. In the Southwest, the Archaic is generally dated from 8000 years ago to approximately 1800 to 2000 years ago. During this time the people of the southwest developed a variety of subsistence strategies, all using their own specific techniques. The nutritive value of weed and grass seeds was discovered and flat rocks were used to grind flour to produce gruels and breads. This use of grinding slabs in about 7500 BCE marks the beginning of the Archaic tradition. Small bands of people traveled throughout the area, gathering plants such as cactus fruits, mesquite beans, acorns, and pine nuts and annually establishing camps at collection points.
Late in the Archaic Period, corn, probably introduced into the region from central Mexico, was planted near camps with permanent water access. Distinct types of corn have been identified in the more well-watered highlands and the desert areas, which may imply local mutation or successive introduction of differing species. Emerging domesticated crops also included beans and squash.
About 3,500 years ago, climate change led to changing patterns in water sources, leading to a dramatically decreased population. However, family-based groups took shelter in south facing caves and rock overhangs within canyon walls. Occasionally, these people lived in small semisedentary hamlets in open areas. Evidence of significant occupation has been found in the northern part of Arizona.
In the Post-Archaic period, the Ancestral Puebloan, the Hohokam, the Mogollon and Sinagua cultures inhabited what is now Arizona. These cultures built structures made out of stone. Some of the structures that these cultures built are called pueblos. Pueblos are monumental structures that housed dozens to thousands of people. In some Ancestral Puebloan towns and villages, Hohokam towns and villages, Mogollon towns and villages, and Sinagua towns and villages, the pueblo housed the entire town. Surrounding the pueblos were often farms where farmers would plant and harvest crops to feed the community. Sometimes, pueblos and other buildings were built in caves in cliffs.
The Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Pre-Columbian Native American civilization that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. The Ancestral Puebloans are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara tradition, who developed from the Picosa culture.
They lived in a range of structures that included small family pit houses, larger structures to house clans, grand pueblos, and cliff-sited dwellings for defense. The Ancestral Puebloans possessed a complex network that stretched across the Colorado Plateau linking hundreds of communities and population centers. They held a distinct knowledge of celestial sciences that found form in their architecture. The kiva, a congregational space that was used chiefly for ceremonial purposes, was an integral part of this ancient people's community structure. Some of their most impressive structures were built in what is now Arizona.
Hohokam was a Pre-Columbian culture in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. Hohokam practiced a specific culture, sometimes referred to as Hohokam culture, which has been distinguished by archeologists. People who practiced the culture can be called Hohokam as well, but more often, they are distinguished as Hohokam people to avoid confusion.
Most archaeologists agree that the Hohokam culture existed between c. 300 and c. 1450 CE, but cultural precursors may have been in the area as early as 300 BC. Whether Hohokam culture was unified politically remains under controversy. Hohokam culture may have just given unrelated neighboring communities common ground to help them to work together to survive their harsh desert environment.
The Mogollon culture was an ancient Pre-Columbian culture of Native American peoples from Southern New Mexico and Arizona, Northern Sonora and Chihuahua, and Western Texas. The northern part of this region is Oasisamerica, while the southern span of the Mogollon culture is known as Aridoamerica.
The Mogollon culture was one of the major prehistoric Southwestern cultural divisions of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. The culture flourished from c. 200 CE, to c. 1450 CE or 1540 CE, when the Spanish arrived.
The Sinagua culture was a Pre-Columbian culture that occupied a large area in central Arizona from the Little Colorado River, near Flagstaff, to the Verde River, near Sedona, including the Verde Valley, area around San Francisco Mountain, and significant portions of the Mogollon Rim country, between approximately 500 CE and 1425 CE. Besides ceremonial kivas, their pueblos had large "community rooms" and some featured ballcourts and walled courtyards, similar to those of the Hohokam culture. Since fully developed Sinagua sites emerged in central Arizona around 500 CE, it is believed they migrated from east-central Arizona, possibly emerging from the Mogollon culture.
The history of Arizona as recorded by Europeans began in 1539 with the first documented exploration of the area by Marcos de Niza, early work expanded the following year when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado entered the area as well.
The Spanish established a few missions in southern Arizona in the 1680s by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino along the Santa Cruz River, in what was then the Pimería Alta region of Sonora. The Spanish also established presidios in Tubac and Tucson in 1752 and 1775. The area north of the Gila River was governed by the Province of Las California under the Spanish until 1804, when the Californian portion of Arizona became part of Alta California under the Spanish and Mexican governments.
In 1849, the California Gold Rush led as many as 50,000 miners to travel across the region, leading to a boom in Arizona's population. In 1850, Arizona and New Mexico formed the New Mexico Territory.
In 1853, President Franklin Pierce sent James Gadsden to Mexico City to negotiate with Santa Anna, and the United States bought the remaining southern strip area of Arizona and New Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. A treaty was signed in Mexico in December 1853, and then, with modifications, approved by the US Senate in June 1854, setting the southern boundary of Arizona and of New Mexico.
Before 1846 the Apache raiders expelled most Mexican ranchers. One result was that large herds of wild cattle roamed southeastern Arizona. By 1850, the herds were gone, killed by Apaches, American sportsmen, contract hunting for the towns of Fronteras and Santa Cruz, and roundups to sell to hungry Mexican War soldiers, and forty-niners en route to California.
During the Civil War, on March 16, 1861, citizens in southern New Mexico Territory around Mesilla (now in New Mexico) and Tucson invited take-over by the Confederacy. They especially wanted restoration of mail service. These secessionists hoped that a Confederate Territory of Arizona (CSA) would take control, but in March 1862, Union troops from California captured the Confederate Territory of Arizona and returned it to the New Mexico Territory.
The Battle of Picacho Pass, April 15, 1862, was a battle of the Civil War fought in the CSA and one of many battles to occur in Arizona during the war among three sides—Apaches, Confederates and Union forces. In 1863, the U.S. split up New Mexico along a north–south line to create the Arizona Territory. The first government officials to arrive established the territory capital in Prescott in 1864. The capital was later moved to Tucson, back to Prescott, and then to its final location in Phoenix in a series of controversial moves as different regions of the territory gained and lost political influence with the growth and development of the territory.
In the late 19th century the Army built a series of forts to encourage the Natives to stay in their territory and to act as a buffer from the settlers. The first was Fort Defiance. It was established on September 18, 1851, by Col. Edwin V. Sumner to create a military presence in Diné bikéyah (Navajo territory). Sumner broke up the fort at Santa Fe for this purpose, creating the first military post in what is now Arizona. He left Major Electus Backus in charge. Small skirmishes were common between raiding Navajo and counter raiding citizens. In April 1860 one thousand Navajo warriors under Manuelito attacked the fort and were beaten off.
The fort was abandoned at the start of the Civil War but was reoccupied in 1863 by Colonel Kit Carson and the 1st New Mexico Infantry. Carson was tasked by Brigadier-General James H. Carleton, Commander of the Federal District of New Mexico, to kill Navajo men, destroy crops, wells, houses and livestock. These tactics forced 9000 Navajos to take the Long Walk to a reservation at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. The Bosque was a complete failure. In 1868 the Navajo signed another treaty and were allowed to go back to part of their former territory. The returning Navajo were restocked with sheep and other livestock. Fort Defiance was the agency for the new Navajo reservation until 1936; today it provides medical services to the region.
Fort Apache was built on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation by soldiers from the 1st Cavalry and 21st Infantry in 1870. Only one small battle took place, in September 1881, with three soldiers wounded. When the reservation Indians were granted U.S. citizenship in 1924, the fort was permanently closed down. Fort Huachuca, east of Tucson, was founded in 1877 as the base for operations against Apaches and raiders from Mexico. From 1913 to 1933 the fort was the base for the "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. During World War II, the fort expanded to 25,000 soldiers, mostly in segregated all-black units. Today the fort remains in operation and houses the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and the U.S. Army Network.
The Pueblos in Arizona were relatively peaceful through the Navajo and Apache Wars. However, in June 1891, the army had to bring in troops to stop Oraibi from preventing a school from being built on their mesa.
After the Civil War, Texans brought large-scale ranching to southern Arizona. They introduced their proven range methods to the new grass country. Texas rustlers also came, and brought lawlessness. Inexperienced ranchers brought poor management, resulting in overstocking, and introduced destructive diseases. Local cattleman organizations were formed to handle these problems. The Territory experienced a cattle boom in 1873–91, as the herds were expanded from 40,000 to 1.5 million head. However, the drought of 1891–93 killed off over half the cattle and produced severe overgrazing. Efforts to restore the rangeland between 1905 and 1934 had limited success, but ranching continued on a smaller scale.
Arizona's last major drought occurred during Dust Bowl years of 1933–34. This time Washington stepped in as the Agricultural Adjustment Administration spent $100 million to buy up the starving cattle. The Taylor Grazing Act placed federal and state agencies in control of livestock numbers on public lands. Most of the land in Arizona is owned by the federal government which leased grazing land to ranchers at low cost. Ranchers invested heavily in blooded stock and equipment. James Wilson states that after 1950, higher fees and restrictions in the name of land conservation caused a sizable reduction in available grazing land. The ranchers had installed three-fifths of the fences, dikes, diversion dams, cattleguards, and other improvements, but the new rules reduced the value of that investment. In the end, Wilson believes, sportsmen and environmentalists maintained a political advantage by denouncing the ranchers as political corrupted land-grabbers who exploited the publicly owned natural resources.
On February 23, 1883, United Verde Copper Company was incorporated under New York law. The small mining camp next to the mine was given a proper name, 'Jerome.' The town was named after the family which had invested a large amount of capital. In 1885 Lewis Williams opened a copper smelter in Bisbee and the copper boom began, as the nation turned to copper wires for electricity. The arrival of railroads in the 1880s made mining even more profitable, and national corporations bought control of the mines and invested in new equipment. Mining operations flourished in numerous boom towns, such as Bisbee, Jerome, Douglas, Ajo and Miami.
Arizona's "wild west" reputation was well deserved. Tombstone was a notorious mining town that flourished longer than most, from 1877 to 1929. Silver was discovered in 1877, and by 1881 the town had a population of over 10,000. Western story tellers and Hollywood film makers made as much money in Tombstone as anyone, thanks to the arrival of Wyatt Earp and his brothers in 1879. They bought shares in the Vizina mine, water rights, and gambling concessions, but Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt were soon appointed as federal and local marshals. They killed three outlaws in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the most famous gunfight of the Old West.
In the aftermath, Virgil Earp was maimed in an ambush and Morgan Earp was assassinated while playing billiards. Walter Noble Burns's novel Tombstone (1927) made Earp famous. Hollywood celebrated Earp's Tombstone days with John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946), John Sturges's Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Hour of the Gun (1967), Frank Perry's Doc (1971), George Cosmatos's Tombstone (1993), and Lawrence Kasdan's Wyatt Earp (1994). They solidified Earp's modern reputation as the Old West's deadliest gunman.
Jennie Bauters (1862–1905) operated brothels in the Territory from 1896 to 1905. She was an astute businesswoman with an eye for real estate appreciation, and a way with the town fathers of Jerome regarding taxes and restrictive ordinances. She was not always sitting pretty; her brothels were burned in a series of major fires that swept the business district; her girls were often drug addicts. As respectability closed in on her, in 1903 she relocated to the mining camp of Acme. In 1905, she was murdered by a man who had posed as her husband.
By 1869 Americans were reading John Wesley Powell's reports of his explorations of the Colorado River. In 1901, the Santa Fe Railroad reached Grand Canyon's South Rim. With railroad, restaurant and hotel entrepreneur Fred Harvey leading the way, large-scale tourism began that has never abated. The Grand Canyon has become an iconic symbol of the West and the nation as a whole.
The Chinese came to Arizona with the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880. Tucson was the main railroad center and soon had a Chinatown with laundries for the general population and a rich mix of restaurants, groceries, and services for the residents. Chinese and Mexican merchants and farmers transcended racial differences to form 'guanxi,' which were relations of friendship and trust. Chinese leased land from Mexicans, operated grocery stores, and aided compatriots attempting to enter the United States from Mexico after the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Chinese merchants helped supply General John Pershing's army in its expedition against Pancho Villa. Successful Chinese in Tucson led a viable community based on social integration, friendship, and kinship.
In February 1903, U.S. Senator Hamilton Kean spoke against Arizona's statehood. He said Mormons who fled from Idaho to Mexico would return to the U.S. and mix in the politics of Arizona.
In 1912, Arizona almost entered the Union as part of New Mexico in a Republican plan to keep control of the U.S. Senate. The plan, while accepted by most in New Mexico, was rejected by most Arizonans. Progressives in Arizona favored inclusion in the state constitution of the initiative, referendum, recall, direct election of senators, woman suffrage, and other reforms. Most of these proposals were included in the constitution that was rejected by Congress.
A new constitution was offered with the problematic provisions removed. Congress then voted to approve statehood, and President Taft signed the statehood bill on February 14, 1912. State residents promptly put the provisions back in. Hispanics had little voice or power. Only one of the 53 delegates at the constitutional convention was Hispanic, and he refused to sign. In 1912 women gained suffrage in the state, eight years before the country as a whole.
Arizona's first Congressman was Carl Hayden (1877–1972). He was the son of a Yankee merchant who had moved to Tempe because he needed dry heat for his bad lungs. Carl attended Stanford University and moved up the political ladder as town councilman, county treasurer, and Maricopa County sheriff, where he nabbed Arizona's last train robbers. He also started building a coalition to develop the state's water resources, a lifelong interest. A liberal Democrat his entire career, Hayden was elected to Congress in 1912 and moved to the Senate in 1926.
Reelection followed every six years as he advanced toward the chairmanship of the powerful Appropriations Committee, which he reached in 1955. His only difficult campaign came in 1962, at age 85, when he defeated a young conservative. He retired in 1968 after a record 56 years in Congress. His great achievement was his 41-year battle to enact the Central Arizona Project that would provide water for future growth.
The Great Depression of 1929–39 hit Arizona hard. At first local, state and private relief efforts focused on charity, especially by the Community Chest and Organized Charities programs. Federal money started arriving with the Federal Emergency Relief Committee in 1930. Different agencies promoted aid to the unemployed, tuberculosis patients, transients, and illegal immigrants. The money ran out by 1931 or 1932, and conditions were bad until New Deal relief operations began on a large scale in 1933.
Construction programs were important, especially the Hoover Dam (originally called Boulder Dam), begun by President Herbert Hoover. It is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border with Nevada. It was constructed by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation between 1931 and 1936. It operationalized a schedule of water use set by the Colorado River Compact of 1922 that gave Arizona 19% of the river's water, with 25% to Nevada and the rest to California.
Construction of military bases in Arizona was a national priority because of the state's excellent flying weather and clear skies, large amounts of unoccupied land, good railroads, cheap labor, low taxes, and its proximity to California's aviation industry. Arizona was attractive to both the military and private firms and they stayed after the war.
Fort Huachuca became one of the largest nearly-all-black Army forts, with quarters for 1,300 officers and 24,000 enlisted soldiers. The 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions, composed of African-American troops, trained there.
During the war, Mexican-American community organizations were very active in patriotic efforts to support American troops abroad, and made efforts to support the war effort materially and to provide moral support for the American servicemen fighting the war, especially the Mexican-American servicemen from local communities. Some of the community projects were cooperative ventures in which members of both the Mexican-American and Anglo communities participated. Most efforts made in the Mexican-American community represented localized American home front activities that were separate from the activities of the Anglo community.
Mexican-American women organized to assist their servicemen and the war effort. An underlying goal of the Spanish-American Mothers and Wives Association was the reinforcement of the woman's role in Spanish-Mexican culture. The organization raised thousands of dollars, wrote letters, and joined in numerous celebrations of their culture and their support for Mexican-American servicemen. Membership reached over 300 during the war and eventually ended its existence in 1976.
Heavy government spending during World War II revitalized the Arizona economy, which was still based on copper mining, citrus and cotton crops and cattle ranching, with a growing tourist business.
Military installations peppered the state, such as Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, the main training center for air force bomber pilots. Two relocation camps opened for Japanese and Japanese Americans brought in from the West Coast.
After World War II the population grew rapidly, increasing sevenfold between 1950 and 2000, from 700,000 to over 5 million. Most of the growth was in the Phoenix area, with Tucson a distant second. Urban growth doomed the state's citrus industry, as the groves were turned into housing developments.
The cost of water made growing cotton less profitable, and Arizona's production steadily declined. Manufacturing employment jumped from 49,000 in 1960 to 183,000 by 1985, with half the workers in well-paid positions. High-tech firms such as Motorola, Hughes Aircraft, Goodyear Aircraft, Honeywell, and IBM had offices in the Phoenix area. By 1959, Hughes Aircraft had built advanced missiles with 5,000 workers in Tucson.
Despite being a small state, Arizona produced several national leaders for both the Republican and Democratic parties. Two Republican Senators were presidential nominees: Barry Goldwater in 1964 and John McCain in 2008; both carried Arizona but lost the national election. Senator Ernest McFarland, a Democrat, was the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate from 1951 to 1952, and Congressman John Rhodes was the Republican Minority Leader in the House from 1973 to 1981. Democrats Bruce Babbitt (Governor 1978–87) and Morris Udall (Congressman 1961–90) were contenders for their party's presidential nominations. In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court; she served until 2006.
Retirement communities
Warm winters and low cost of living attracted retirees from the so-called snowbelt, who moved permanently to Arizona after 1945, bringing their pensions, Social Security, and savings with them. Real estate entrepreneurs catered to them with new communities with amenities pitched to older people, and with few facilities for children. Typically they were gated communities with controlled access and had pools, recreation centers, and golf courses.
In 1954, two developers bought 320 acres (1.3 km2) of farmland near Phoenix and opened the nation's first planned community dedicated exclusively to retirees at Youngtown. In 1960, developer Del Webb, inspired by the amenities in Florida's trailer parks, added facilities for "active adults" in his new Sun City planned community near Phoenix. In 1962 Ross Cortese opened the first of his gated Leisure Worlds. Other developers copied the popular model, and by 2000 18% of the retirees in the state lived in such "lifestyle" communities.
The issues of the fragile natural environment, compounded by questions of water shortage and distribution, led to numerous debates. The debate crossed traditional lines, so that the leading conservative, Senator Barry Goldwater, was also keenly concerned. For example, Goldwater supported the controversial Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP). He wrote:
I feel very definitely that the [Nixon] administration is absolutely correct in cracking down on companies and corporations and municipalities that continue to pollute the nation's air and water. While I am a great believer in the free competitive enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. To this end, it is my belief that when pollution is found, it should be halted at the source, even if this requires stringent government action against important segments of our national economy.
Water issues were central. Agriculture consumed 89% of the state's strictly limited water supply while generating only 3% of the state's income. The Groundwater Management Act of 1980, sponsored by Governor Bruce Babbitt, raised the price of water to farmers, while cities had to reach a "safe yield" so that the groundwater usage did not exceed natural replenishment. New housing developments had to prove they had enough water for the next hundred years. Desert foliage suitable for a dry region soon replaced grass.
Cotton acreage declined dramatically, freeing up land for suburban sprawl as well as releasing large amounts of water and ending the need for expensive specialized machinery. Cotton acreage plunged from 120,000 acres in 1997 to only 40,000 acres in 2005, even as the federal treasury gave the state's farmers over $678 million in cotton subsidies. Many farmers collect the subsidies but no longer grow cotton. About 80% of the state's cotton is exported to textile factories in China and (since the passage of NAFTA) to Mexico.
Super Bowl XXX was played in Tempe in 1996 and Super Bowl XLII was held in Glendale in 2008. Super Bowl XLIX was also held in Glendale in 2015.
Illegal immigration continued to be a prime concern within the state, and in April 2010, Arizona SB1070 was passed and signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer. The measure attracted national attention as the most thorough anti-illegal immigration measure in decades within the United States.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head during a political event in Tucson on January 8, 2011. The shooting resulted in six deaths and several injuries. Giffords survived the attack and became an advocate for gun control.
On June 30, 2013, nineteen members of the Prescott Fire Department were killed fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire. The fatalities were members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a hotshot crew, of whom only one survived as he was working in another location.
Border crisis: by 2019 Arizona was one of the states most affected by the border crisis, with a high number of migrant crossings and detentions.
Malika-e-Parbat (Queen of the mountains in English) is highest crest in Kaghan valley (elevation: 5291m or 17359ft above sea level). View of the Malika-e-Parbat and creation of picturesque reflections in water are the beauty of Saif-ul-Malook Lake, which is about 4 miles downstream.
Wikipedia mentions its first ascent in 1957 but who made it, isn't mentioned. I am unable to find any record of later ascents and a history of climbing on this mountain. Despite of relatively lower height, Malika-e-Parbat is considered a tricky climb. Locals quote presence of extremely perilous winds at elevation and do not share any history of recent ascent attempts.
In fable of “Saif-ul-Mulook and Badr-ul- Jamal”, Malika-e-Parbat is mentioned as home of White Giant (Deuo Safaid). This is where the soul of fairy was abducted.
A common trekking route in surrounding is to Ansu Lake (Tear Lake in English) view, right in front of Malika-e-Parbat.
Above is sight of mountain while descending from Ansu Lake. I have stitched four images to get this wider view.
Zürich recently reached the series ZH 9XX'XXX, this one is the highest plate I've seen from this canton!
Distance from home: 205 km.
Poem.
Slate grey basalt and black gabbro, precipitous igneous rocks.
The highest ridges of the Black Cuillins.
An ancient rocky rim, remnant of a blown super-volcano.
Now shattered by global cooling, in the deep ice ages.
Two thousand feet of ice-riven rock, provides a rough track in or out.
Grand, brutal, stark, awesome.
A lift to the body, soul, spirit and mind.
Distant views of mountainous islands, headlands, ocean and mainland can distract from the precarious ridge.
At your peril !!!