I am at a park on Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei, watching a game of xiangqi ("Elephant Game"), or Chinese chess, in progress.

 

While all variants of chess trace back to the original game that used to be played in India, the Chinese chess is very different from Western chess now. Some concepts, such as the palace, the river, and the cannon, do not have Western equivalents.

 

A game of Chinese chess is always fun to watch, play, or even kibitz (though my nonexistent Cantonese skills would prevent me from doing the latter two).

This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!

 

I took these photos in December 2019.

THE VALUE OF PIGEONS

 

Pigeons are fascinating to watch. Their courting behavior is quite entertaining. Their affectionate attention to their mate is sweet and romantic.

 

Pigeons bring life to cities. Often, pigeons are the only form of life in otherwise bleak urban landscapes.

 

Pigeons provide stress relief. Feeding pigeons is well recognized by the medical community as a good means of relaxation.

 

Pigeons provide good company. Many senior citizens enjoy spending time with pigeons. Children are often enamored with these friendly birds.

 

Pigeons are companion animals. Anyone who has pigeons as pets will attest to their loyalty and affection. They make excellent friends.

 

Pigeons clean up our waste. Pigeons eat food we dispose of as litter.

 

Pigeons eat weed seeds. Pigeons primarily eat seeds, and some of their favorites are weed seeds.

 

Pigeons provide a good role model for society. The traditional doves of love and peace, pigeons mate for life and set a good example for people by the way they care for their mate and their young, share feeding areas, and live peacefully with each other.

 

Pigeons provide ambiance. What would Trafalgar Square, Venice, Vatican Square, or Paris be like without pigeons?

 

Pigeons provide nourishment. Endangered Peregrine Falcons, for example, would not be staging a comeback without the pigeon as their prey base.

 

Pigeons are benign residents. They do not compete with indigenous animals for food or shelter. And, contrary to popular belief, cases of pigeon diseases spread to humans are extremely rare and, in most areas, like Arizona, are nonexistent.

 

Pigeons have religious significance. Common city pigeons are actually European Rock Doves. They are the biblical dove of love and peace. They helped honor the birth of Christ. They are the same birds as the pigeon that Noah released, which returned with the olive branch to signify the end of the Great Flood. Nearly all religions revere pigeons as holy birds.

 

Pigeons are mans oldest domesticated bird. New evidence shows that pigeons have been domesticated for more than twelve millennium.

 

Pigeons save lives. To this day, pigeons deliver lifesaving medications and provide valuable messenger service in remote areas, as they have for thousands of years.

© D.L. Roth, 4/96

 

Taken from this page

  

© All rights reserved. Please do not use this image without my permission.

still from a nonexistent film

Operation “Salt City" resulted in the arrest of 248 individuals from May through September 2015. Of those arrested, 124 were active gang members. During the operation 22 firearms, more than $237,000 in U.S. currency, 70 grams of heroin, 266 grams of cocaine, and 723 grams of marijuana with a total estimated street value of almost $44,000 was taken off Syracuse streets by participating agencies.

Operation Salt City is part of the U.S. Marshals nation-wide “Triple Beam” gang reduction initiative. Triple Beam partners federal, state, and local law enforcement to reduce violent crime and take dangerous offenders off the streets. The goal of the U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program is to seek out and disrupt illegal gang activity in areas of the country with smaller or nonexistent gang enforcement units by providing manpower, funding and the Marshals’ renowned fugitive tracking abilities.

 

Photo by Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals

Sort of a homage to Richard Prince - probably most famous for taking shots of Marlboro ads/billboards containing photos of cowboys in picturesque vistas. I think one of them may still hold the record for highest price ever paid for a photograph at auction. They're nice shots of someone else's shot recontextualized, or maybe decontextualized. I never really understood why his cowboys were so significant. Something about commenting on the American Myth of the Wild West and the Frontier or some "inside art baseball" stuff like that. Not to denigrate his work, just never pinned my needles at a gut level (I like his Hollywood Nurses a lot better).

 

Maybe a hundred and fifty years later the frontier has collapsed into something smaller and personal. Maybe it's push up bras and diet shakes and Viagra. I don't know.

 

And maybe this owes more to Dali's paranoid critical perspective anyway in the sense that I can see him taking the original shot and rotating it and seeing how the satin sheet can be wrapping a nonexistent head, the legs can turn into arms, panties into a bra, etc.

 

I blew the tones though. Oh well.

 

H&M billboard, 21st&Chestnut (? above the PhillyCarShare lot), rotated

The transitional sites are difficult to define, simply by nature of being areas of transition between different habitat types. They are best described as interspersed patches of several different vegetative communities, including pine rockland, upland mixed woodland, rockland hammock, maritime hammock, and mangrove swamp. Herbaceous species were virtually nonexistent in the interior portions of the transitional zones. Where these areas graded into the freshwater wetlands, we encountered giant leather fern, Jamaica swamp sawgrass, and sand cordgrass. Buttonwood was by far the most common woody species on these grids. Other frequently encountered woody species were white indigoberry (Randia aculeata), cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto), and Florida swampprivet (Forestiera segregata). Brazilian pepper was also common on some of the transitional sites. Also of note was the occurrence of joewood (Jacquinia keyensis), a State-Threatened species that we found on three of the transitional sites.

I'm gobsmacked by several things here. First, the light was nonexistent. Yet the Sony A7RII performed extremely well at incredibly high ISO. Second, using knowledge developed around a digital Zone System, I knew precisely where I wanted the tonal values and was able to place them accordingly. Third, I am happy to confirm the dynamic range of the sensor extends usefully to below Zone 0 (Zone -2!), even at such high ISO settings. Fourth, 1950s German optics can do the trick. These images were made using a triplet wide angle. Who would design such a thing and make it work? Micro-contrast is something to be seen, otherwise you wouldn't believe it.

yeah right, happy april fool's day everyone.

 

1. 6/365 in which Grumpy Informs Us That He Likes His Disaronno On The Rocks, 2. Haven't You Ever Seen Fried Green Tomatoes?, 3. 5/365 in which Grumpy Lounges On Some Twizzlers, 4. And The Memories Keep Being Torn Down, 5. Sarah Tailgate Style, 6. You Decide, 7. 4/365 in which Grumpy Shows Off His Fortune, 8. I Am Giving Up On Half Empty Glasses,

 

9. 17/365 in which Grumpy Embraces The Irish Spirit, 10. I Shall Have No Sorrow To Die, 11. Zantedeschia, 12. Drinking Tiger, Nonexistent Lion, 13. 1/365 in which Grumpy Shows Off Where He Got To Eat Dinner, 14. Boy I'm Glad You're Not A Saint Bernard, 15. 28/365 in which Grumpy Has No Clue Homer Is Sneaking Up Behind Him, 16. Pure of Heart,

 

17. Neanderthals Developed Tools, 18. That's Not How I Roll, 19. This Is Unacceptable, 20. A Wonderful Way To Celebrate Aging, 21. Sexy With A Star Studded Cast, 22. I Did Not Choose The One Less Traveled, I Didn't Trust The Look In That Squirrel's Eye, 23. The Tulip Sea, 24. 31/365 in which Grumpy Is Irritated By Our Commute,

 

25. 29/365 in which Grumpy Relaxes In A Tree With Some Cherry Blossoms, 26. 3/365 in which Grumpy Relates His Feelings For Verizon, 27. I Can't Believe I'm Speaking Greek, 28. 30/365 in which Grumpy Has An Upset Tummy, 29. 2/365 in which Grumpy Gears Up For Baseball Season, 30. Starving For Truth, 31. Don't Sign That Paper Tonight, 32. He Cuts A Rather Dashing Figure On Horseback,

 

33. Are You Ever Going To Stop Talking To Laura? We're On Vacation...., 34. 23/365 in which Grumpy Celebrates Easter, 35. 15/365 (part 1) in which Grumpy Climbs A Giant Apple (to save the girl), 36. Cheweez Are Delicious, 37. 6 of 365: You Should Not Drive Or Operate Machinery, 38. Butt to Butt, 39. I'm Sorry About All The Things I Said To You, 40. My Shoes Look Really Cute Sitting Over There On The Chair,

 

41. Blood Beans, 42. 5/365 Kisses Long Distance, 43. And I Think To Myself....., 44. O Say Can You See, 45. 26/365 in which Grumpy Takes A Dip, 46. 12 of 365: Are You Going To Miss Me? A Tremendous Amount?, 47. Letting Go Of All I've Held Onto, 48. But I Won't Feel Blue Like I Always Do,

 

49. 25/365 in which Grumpy Teaches His Flickr Friends Something, 50. 20/365 in which Grumpy Shows Some Team Spirit, 51. 18/365 in which Grumpy Has His Name Spelled Out In.... Jelly Beans, 52. 16/365 in which Grumpy Takes A Bubble Bath, 53. A Thousand Angels Dance Around You, 54. I Wish I Could Bubble Wrap My Heart, 55. Abe, Honest Or Otherwise, 56. I Woke Up This Morning With A Funny Taste In My Head,

 

57. 14/365 in which Grumpy Hangs Out In The Egg, 58. 22/365 in which Grumpy Is NOT Pleased With The Cold Spring Weather, 59. Bread Line, 60. Described As Not Very Sophisticated, 61. Sweet Caroline, Good Times Never Seem So Good, 62. Go All Bride Of Frankenstein, 63. 13/365 in which Grumpy Gets Into The Advil, 64. Some Hearts Just Get Lucky Sometimes,

 

65. Candy Love, 66. 10/365 in which Grumpy Decided To Join Me In The Shower After The Whole Donut Incident, 67. Top O' The Mornin To You, 68. Jupiter Spoke To Him In A Dream, 69. Oh, Beans!, 70. Water Hibiscus, 71. 24 of 365: We're Living In A Laundry Room, 72. 21/365 in which Grumpy Has To Visit With Some Relatives

 

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

The city of Eger is noted in the history books for managing to stop the expansion of the Ottoman empire in a siege. Eger, which was defended by about 2100 people, was faced with the Ottoman army of about 150000 men - and still came out on top... Even though it later fell and was about the most north/western position the Ottomans managed to settle in it is still seen as a symbol of national heroism.

 

There are several nice things to see in the city for instance the city's cathedral shown here. The cathedral has both a nice exterior but above all - a very ornamental interior with painted murals covering the walls and ceiling.

 

I think the text writing inside the dome is a bible quote but my Hungarian is close to nonexistent so I am assuming that there are others more qualified for an identification.

 

I have to give an extra thanks to my friends for being kind enough to wait for me while I shot this.

 

You should really watch this Large On Black since that brings out more details. My pictures aren't balanced for a white background and a lot of the finer details are lost in this small format.

So far, the only issue I have with video on Flickr is the current inability to choose the frame that is shown as the thumbnail for the video. Otherwise, streaming playback is a blast, even in HD!

 

Theme:

Lunch Time. I noticed that I was putting off producing videos because I felt like I never had time. I was talking to some friends and when we went to lunch, I brought my camera and shot a little bit.

 

PROJECT:

I am a storyteller and filmmaker, a little green behind the ears, but ripening every day. That is the purpose of this process. To ripen into a mature storyteller and filmmaker.

 

CHALLENGES:

For me, the biggest challenge was getting started. Taking the camera out of my car, mounting it onto my monopod and shooting.

 

DISAPPOINTMENTS:

I was feeling very uninspired as I shot this. I felt like I was just going through the motions. Since I didn't have a shot list, I was really just winging it. I was trying to mix my shots, but I felt like my movement could have been better.

 

Successes:

I always enjoy my work after I finish. When I finished this piece, I thought it was very respectable.

 

This is the fastest turnaround I have produced a video production. It is only 40 seconds, but I shot less than 6 minutes of footage, edited it and found music in what feels like less than an hour. It would not surprise me if I turned this around in less than 3 hours from pre-production (which was nonexistent) to delivery.

 

EQUIPMENT:

Nikon D5100

Manfrotto 561BHDV-1 Monopod

 

MUSIC:

"Off to Osaka" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

INFO from WIKI:-

The Cotton Pygmy Goose or the Cotton Teal, Nettapus coromandelianus is a small perching duck which breeds in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, southeast Asia and south to northern Australia.

 

Small examples are the smallest waterfowl on earth, at as little as 160 g (5.5 oz) and 26 cm (10.5 in). White predominates in this bird's plumage. Bill short, deep at base, and goose-like.

Male in breeding plumage is glossy blackish green crown, with white head, neck, and underparts; a prominent black collar and white wing-bar. Rounded head and short legs. In flight, the wings are green with a white band, making the male conspicuous even amongst the huge flying flocks of the Lesser Whistling Duck, which share the habitat. Female paler, without either black collar and only a narrow or nonexistent strip of white wing-bar. In non-breeding plumage (eclipse) male resembles female except for his white wing-bar. Flocks on water bodies (jheels), etc.

Call: A peculiar clucking, uttered in flight..

 

It is largely resident, apart from dispersion in the wet season, but Chinese birds winter further south. It nests in tree holes, laying 8-15 eggs.

This is an abundant species in Asia, although the slightly larger Australian race appears to be declining in numbers.

Found on all still freshwater lakes (jheels), rain-filled ditches, inundated paddy fields, irrigation tanks, etc. Becomes very tame on village tanks wherever it is unmolested and has become inured to human proximity. Swift on the wing, and can dive creditably on occasion.

 

Its food is chiefly seeds and vegetable matter, especially water lilies; also insects, crustaceans, etc.

The nesting season is July to September (SW. monsoon). Its nest is a natural hollow in a tree-trunk standing in or near water, sometimes lined with grass, rubbish and feathers. It lays 6 to 12 eggs, which are ivory white.

Rare surviving Ford from 1959.

Ford Prefect 1000E Deluxe.

Equipped with a three speed gearbox and 1172 sidevalve engine, performance was sluggish.

Little League’s roots extend as far as baseball’s history itself – even into the 18th century.

 

Soldiers of the Continental Army played ball at Valley Forge during the American Revolution. U.S. citizens played more modern versions of the British games of cricket and rounders through the early 19th century, often called "town ball." In the 1840s, New Yorker Alexander Joy Cartwright and his acquaintances played a game they called "base ball" that was very similar to the game we know today. (Stories later arose saying Abner Doubleday invented the game, but historians generally regard the stories as myths.)

 

On June 19, 1846, in a contest many historians consider the first scheduled baseball game, Cartwright’s New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club was defeated by the New York Baseball Club, 23-1, in four innings.

 

During the American Civil War, soldiers on both sides played baseball to pass the time between battles. In 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first openly professional baseball team. By the end of the 19th century, baseball was known as "America’s Pastime."

 

As early as the 1880s, leagues were formed for pre-teen children in New York, but they were affiliated with adult "club" teams and did not flourish. Children often played "pickup" baseball in streets or sandlots instead, and with substandard equipment. Cast-off bats and balls were taped and re-taped, and catcher’s equipment in children’s sizes was almost nonexistent.

 

In the 1920s, the American Legion formed a baseball program for teen-age boys that exists today. American schools also started baseball programs. But there was still a void for pre-teen boys who wanted to play in organized games. Other smaller programs cropped up from time to time, but did not catch on beyond local areas.

 

In 1938, a man named Carl Stotz hit upon the idea for an organized baseball league for the boys in his hometown of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Carl had no sons of his own, but he often played ball with his young nephews, Jimmy and Major Gehron, and wanted a way to provide an organized program for them.

 

Carl gathered several of the neighborhood children and experimented with different types of equipment and different field dimensions during that summer. The program still did not have a name, and no games were played.

 

In 1939, Carl and his wife Grayce took the experiment a step further, enlisting the help of brothers George and Bert Bebble and their wives, Annabelle and Eloise, respectively. Carl, George and Bert were the managers of the first three teams: Lycoming Dairy, Lundy Lumber and Jumbo Pretzel. John and Peggy Lindemuth soon joined the group, with the eight volunteers making up the very first Little League board of directors.

 

Carl also talked to his friends in the community and came up with the name: Little League. His idea was to provide a wholesome program of baseball for the boys of Williamsport, as a way to teach them the ideals of sportsmanship, fair play and teamwork.

 

The sponsorships (the fee was $30) helped to pay for equipment and uniforms for 30 players. Since then, sponsorship of Little League both at the local league level and at the Headquarters level have helped to keep costs to parents to a minimum.

 

www.littleleague.org

www.vacationpa.com

 

Photo courtesy of Kalin Miller

Tôi có một cái kẹp bằng cây tầm vông (kẹp để hái trái trên cây) do lâu dùng đến nên có 2 con ong bầu đục lổ và ở trong đó.

Ong bầu không có đàn, nó sống đơn lẻ, nó thường khoét gỗ và ở trong đó.

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

 

Carpenter bees (the genus Xylocopa in the subfamily Xylocopinae) are large, hairy bees distributed worldwide. There are some 500 species of carpenter bee in 31 subgenera. Their name comes from the fact that nearly all species build their nests in burrows in dead wood, bamboo, or structural timbers (except those in the subgenus Proxylocopa, which nest in the ground). Members of the related tribe Ceratinini are sometimes referred to as "small carpenter bees".

  

Taxonomy The genus was described by French entomologist Pierre André Latreille in 1802. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek xylokopos/ξῦλοκὀπος "wood-cutter". Bumble bees live for a maximum of 5 days.

 

Characteristics

Carpenter bees have large compound eyes In several species, the females live alongside their own daughters or sisters, creating a sort of social group. They use wood bits to form partitions between the cells in the nest. A few species bore holes in wood dwellings. Since the tunnels are near the surface, structural damage is generally minor or nonexistent.

 

Carpenter bees can be important pollinators on open-faced flowers, even obligate pollinators on some, such as the Maypop (Passiflora incarnata), though many species are also known to "rob" nectar by slitting the sides of flowers with deep corollas.

 

In the United States, there are two eastern species, Xylocopa virginica, and Xylocopa micans, and three other species that are primarily western in distribution, Xylocopa varipuncta, Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex and Xylocopa californica. X. virginica is by far the more widely distributed species. Some are often mistaken for a bumblebee species, as they can be similar in size and coloration, though most carpenter bees have a shiny abdomen, while in bumblebees the abdomen is completely clothed with dense hair. Males of some species have a white or yellow face, where the females do not; males also often have much larger eyes than the females, which relates to their mating behavior. Male bees are often seen hovering near nests, and will approach nearby animals. However, males are harmless since they do not have a stinger. Female carpenter bees are capable of stinging, but they are docile and rarely sting unless caught in the hand or otherwise directly provoked.

 

Many Old World carpenter bees have a special pouch-like structure on the inside of their first metasomal tergite called the acarinarium where certain species of mites (Dinogamasus spp.) reside as commensals. The exact nature of the relationship is not fully understood, though in other bees that carry mites, the mites are beneficial, feeding either on fungi in the nest, or on other, harmful mites.

 

Behavior

Carpenter bee nest in a tree trunk

Carpenter bee gallery in a split piece of 2X4 woodCarpenter bees are traditionally considered solitary bees, though some species have simple social nests in which mothers and daughters may cohabit. However, even solitary species tend to be gregarious, and often several will nest near each other. It has been occasionally reported that when females cohabit, there may be a division of labor between them, where one female may spend most of her time as a guard within the nest, motionless and near the entrance, while another female spends most of her time foraging for provisions.

 

Carpenter bees make nests by tunneling into wood, vibrating their bodies as they rasp their mandibles against the wood, each nest having a single entrance which may have many adjacent tunnels. The entrance is often a perfectly circular hole measuring about 16 millimetres (0.63 in) on the underside of a beam, bench, or tree limb. Carpenter bees do not eat wood. They discard the bits of wood, or re-use particles to build partitions between cells. The tunnel functions as a nursery for brood and storage for the pollen/nectar upon which the brood subsists. The provision masses of some species are among the most complex in shape of any group of bees; whereas most bees fill their brood cells with a soupy mass, and others form simple spheroidal pollen masses, Xylocopa form elongate and carefully sculpted masses that have several projections which keep the bulk of the mass from coming into contact with the cell walls, sometimes resembling an irregular caltrop. The eggs are very large relative to the size of the female, and are some of the largest eggs among all insects.

 

There are two very different mating systems that appear to be common in carpenter bees, and often this can be determined simply by examining specimens of the males of any given species. Species in which the males have large eyes are characterized by a mating system where the males either search for females by patrolling, or by hovering and waiting for passing females, whom they then pursue. In the other type of mating system, the males often have very small heads, but there is a large, hypertrophied glandular reservoir in the mesosoma, which releases pheromones into the airstream behind the male while it flies or hovers. The pheromone advertises the presence of the male to females

  

James got in trouble for taking this photo. I had a feeling cameras weren't allowed in casinos. They were a weird scene. Almost virtually no Westerners (we got stared at a bit) and no one was drinking anything except hot tea. Heavy smoking a la Vegas but the alcohol I associate with gambling was nonexistent and definitely not free. We were the only ones sitting at the bar from which this photo was taken. As it was the middle of the afternoon, the curtains were closed on the stage facing the bar. At night, girly singing and dancing shows are conducted mostly by Eastern Europeans.

This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!

 

I took these photos in December 2019.

The Luandan skyline, as seen from across the harbor, reveals a city undergoing a period of tremendous growth. Luanda, the capital city of Angola. It is estimated that due to the long civil war that forced people to flee smaller towns and villages throughout the country, 5 million people-- around 1/3 of Angola's entire population-- live in Luanda. The result of this is an overburdened infrastructure, inconsistent or nonexistent essential utilities, and a terrible traffic problem. In the face of these obstacles, it is also a city that is undergoing a construction boom, as investors in the oil and other industries continue to show an interest in the country's future.

Lunchbox for the HBO series Six Feet Under, or its sadly nonexistent Hanna Barbera style cartoon.

 

Published by Bart Gold under Creative Commons license: Attribution 3.0 US (CC-BY)

Capitol Reef National Park is an American national park in south-central Utah. The park is approximately 60 miles (97 km) long on its north–south axis and just 6 miles (9.7 km) wide on average. The park was established in 1971 to preserve 241,904 acres (377.98 sq mi; 97,895.08 ha; 978.95 km2) of desert landscape and is open all year, with May through September being the highest visitation months.

 

Partially in Wayne County, Utah, the area was originally named "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman. Capitol Reef National Park was designated a national monument on August 2, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to protect the area's colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths; however, it was not until 1950 that the area officially opened to the public. Road access was improved in 1962 with the construction of State Route 24 through the Fremont River Canyon.

 

The majority of the nearly 100 mi (160 km) long up-thrust formation called the Waterpocket Fold—a rocky spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell—is preserved within the park. Capitol Reef is an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold by the Fremont River. The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.

 

Capitol Reef encompasses the Waterpocket Fold, a warp in the earth's crust that is 65 million years old. It is the largest exposed monocline in North America. In this fold, newer and older layers of earth folded over each other in an S-shape. This warp, probably caused by the same colliding continental plates that created the Rocky Mountains, has weathered and eroded over millennia to expose layers of rock and fossils. The park is filled with brilliantly colored sandstone cliffs, gleaming white domes, and contrasting layers of stone and earth.

 

The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold.

 

The fold forms a north-to-south barrier that has barely been breached by roads. Early settlers referred to parallel impassable ridges as "reefs", from which the park gets the second half of its name. The first paved road was constructed through the area in 1962. State Route 24 cuts through the park traveling east and west between Canyonlands National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park, but few other paved roads invade the rugged landscape.

 

The park is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches. The Fremont River has cut canyons through parts of the Waterpocket Fold, but most of the park is arid desert. A scenic drive shows park visitors some highlights, but it runs only a few miles from the main highway. Hundreds of miles of trails and unpaved roads lead into the equally scenic backcountry.

 

Fremont-culture Native Americans lived near the perennial Fremont River in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold around the year 1000. They irrigated crops of maize and squash and stored their grain in stone granaries (in part made from the numerous black basalt boulders that litter the area). In the 13th century, all of the Native American cultures in this area underwent sudden change, likely due to a long drought. The Fremont settlements and fields were abandoned.

 

Many years after the Fremont left, Paiutes moved into the area. These Numic-speaking people named the Fremont granaries moki huts and thought they were the homes of a race of tiny people or moki.

 

In 1872 Almon H. Thompson, a geographer attached to United States Army Major John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. None of these expeditions explored the Waterpocket Fold to any great extent.

 

Following the American Civil War, officials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City sought to establish missions in the remotest niches of the Intermountain West. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of natives penetrated the high valleys to the west. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing Loa, Fremont, Lyman, Bicknell, and Torrey.

 

Mormons settled the Fremont River valley in the 1880s and established Junction (later renamed Fruita), Caineville, and Aldridge. Fruita prospered, Caineville barely survived, and Aldridge died. In addition to farming, lime was extracted from local limestone, and uranium was extracted early in the 20th century. In 1904 the first claim to a uranium mine in the area was staked. The resulting Oyler Mine in Grand Wash produced uranium ore.

 

By 1920 no more than ten families at one time were sustained by the fertile flood plain of the Fremont River and the land changed ownership over the years. The area remained isolated. The community was later abandoned and later still some buildings were restored by the National Park Service. Kilns once used to produce lime are still in Sulphur Creek and near the campgrounds on Scenic Drive.

 

Local Ephraim Portman Pectol organized a "booster club" in Torrey in 1921. Pectol pressed a promotional campaign, furnishing stories to be sent to periodicals and newspapers. In his efforts, he was increasingly aided by his brother-in-law, Joseph S. Hickman, who was the Wayne County High School principal. In 1924, Hickman extended community involvement in the promotional effort by organizing a Wayne County-wide Wayne Wonderland Club. That same year, Hickman was elected to the Utah State Legislature.

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wayne Wonderland Club. The club raised U.S. $150 (equivalent to $3,391 in 2022) to interest a Salt Lake City photographer in taking a series of promotional photographs. For several years, the photographer, J. E. Broaddus, traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland".

 

In 1933, Pectol was elected to the legislature and almost immediately contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked for the creation of "Wayne Wonderland National Monument" out of the federal lands comprising the bulk of the Capitol Reef area. Federal agencies began a feasibility study and boundary assessment. Meanwhile, Pectol guided the government investigators on numerous trips and escorted an increasing number of visitors. The lectures of Broaddus were having an effect.

 

Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating Capitol Reef National Monument on August 2, 1937. In Proclamation 2246, President Roosevelt set aside 37,711 acres (15,261 ha) of the Capitol Reef area. This comprised an area extending about two miles (3 km) north of present State Route 24 and about 10 mi (16 km) south, just past Capitol Gorge. The Great Depression years were lean ones for the National Park Service (NPS), the new administering agency. Funds for the administration of Capitol Reef were nonexistent; it would be a long time before the first rangers would arrive.

 

Administration of the new monument was placed under the control of Zion National Park. A stone ranger cabin and the Sulphur Creek bridge were built and some road work was performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. Historian and printer Charles Kelly came to know NPS officials at Zion well and volunteered to watchdog the park for the NPS. Kelly was officially appointed custodian-without-pay in 1943. He worked as a volunteer until 1950, when the NPS offered him a civil-service appointment as the first superintendent.

 

During the 1950s Kelly was deeply troubled by NPS management acceding to demands of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that Capitol Reef National Monument be opened to uranium prospecting. He felt that the decision had been a mistake and destructive of the long-term national interest. It turned out that there was not enough ore in the monument to be worth mining.

 

In 1958 Kelly got additional permanent help in protecting the monument and enforcing regulations; Park Ranger Grant Clark transferred from Zion. The year Clark arrived, fifty-six thousand visitors came to the park, and Charlie Kelly retired for the last time.

 

During the 1960s (under the program name Mission 66), NPS areas nationwide received new facilities to meet the demand of mushrooming park visitation. At Capitol Reef, a 53-site campground at Fruita, staff rental housing, and a new visitor center were built, the latter opening in 1966.

 

Visitation climbed dramatically after the paved, all-weather State Route 24 was built in 1962 through the Fremont River canyon near Fruita. State Route 24 replaced the narrow Capitol Gorge wagon road about 10 mi (16 km) to the south that frequently washed out. The old road has since been open only to foot traffic. In 1967, 146,598 persons visited the park. The staff was also growing.

 

During the 1960s, the NPS purchased private land parcels at Fruita and Pleasant Creek. Almost all private property passed into public ownership on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis.

 

Preservationists convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to set aside an enormous area of public lands in 1968, just before he left office. In Presidential Proclamation 3888 an additional 215,056 acres (87,030 ha) were placed under NPS control. By 1970, Capitol Reef National Monument comprised 254,251 acres (102,892 ha) and sprawled southeast from Thousand Lake Mountain almost to the Colorado River. The action was controversial locally, and NPS staffing at the monument was inadequate to properly manage the additional land.

 

The vast enlargement of the monument and diversification of the scenic resources soon raised another issue: whether Capitol Reef should be a national park, rather than a monument. Two bills were introduced into the United States Congress.

 

A House bill (H.R. 17152) introduced by Utah Congressman Laurence J. Burton called for a 180,000-acre (72,800 ha) national park and an adjunct 48,000-acre (19,400 ha) national recreation area where multiple use (including grazing) could continue indefinitely. In the United States Senate, meanwhile, Senate bill S. 531 had already passed on July 1, 1970, and provided for a 230,000-acre (93,100 ha) national park alone. The bill called for a 25-year phase-out of grazing.

 

In September 1970, United States Department of Interior officials told a house subcommittee session that they preferred about 254,000 acres (103,000 ha) be set aside as a national park. They also recommended that the grazing phase-out period be 10 years, rather than 25. They did not favor the adjunct recreation area.

 

It was not until late 1971 that Congressional action was completed. By then, the 92nd United States Congress was in session and S. 531 had languished. A new bill, S. 29, was introduced in the Senate by Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah and was essentially the same as the defunct S. 531 except that it called for an additional 10,834 acres (4,384 ha) of public lands for a Capitol Reef National Park. In the House, Utah Representative K. Gunn McKay (with Representative Lloyd) had introduced H.R. 9053 to replace the dead H.R. 17152. This time, the House bill dropped the concept of an adjunct Capitol Reef National Recreation Area and adopted the Senate concept of a 25-year limit on continued grazing. The Department of Interior was still recommending a national park of 254,368 acres (102,939 ha) and a 10-year limit for grazing phase-out.

 

S. 29 passed the Senate in June and was sent to the House, which dropped its own bill and passed the Senate version with an amendment. Because the Senate was not in agreement with the House amendment, differences were worked out in Conference Committee. The Conference Committee issued its report on November 30, 1971, and the bill passed both houses of Congress. The legislation—'An Act to Establish The Capitol Reef National Park in the State of Utah'—became Public Law 92-207 when it was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971.

 

The area including the park was once the edge of a shallow sea that invaded the land in the Permian, creating the Cutler Formation. Only the sandstone of the youngest member of the Cutler Formation, the White Rim, is exposed in the park. The deepening sea left carbonate deposits, forming the limestone of the Kaibab Limestone, the same formation that rims the Grand Canyon to the southwest.

 

During the Triassic, streams deposited reddish-brown silt that later became the siltstone of the Moenkopi Formation. Uplift and erosion followed. Conglomerate, followed by logs, sand, mud, and wind-transported volcanic ash, then formed the uranium-containing Chinle Formation.

 

The members of the Glen Canyon Group were all laid down in the middle- to late-Triassic during a time of increasing aridity. They include:

 

Wingate Sandstone: sand dunes on the shore of an ancient sea

Kayenta Formation: thin-bedded layers of sand deposited by slow-moving streams in channels and across low plains

Navajo Sandstone: huge fossilized sand dunes from a massive Sahara-like desert.

 

The Golden Throne. Though Capitol Reef is famous for white domes of Navajo Sandstone, this dome's color is a result of a lingering section of yellow Carmel Formation carbonate, which has stained the underlying rock.

The San Rafael Group consists of four Jurassic-period formations, from oldest to youngest:

 

Carmel Formation: gypsum, sand, and limey silt laid down in what may have been a graben that was periodically flooded by sea water

Entrada Sandstone: sandstone from barrier islands/sand bars in a near-shore environment

Curtis Formation: made from conglomerate, sandstone, and shale

Summerville Formation: reddish-brown mud and white sand deposited in tidal flats.

Streams once again laid down mud and sand in their channels, on lakebeds, and in swampy plains, creating the Morrison Formation. Early in the Cretaceous, similar nonmarine sediments were laid down and became the Dakota Sandstone. Eventually, the Cretaceous Seaway covered the Dakota, depositing the Mancos Shale.

 

Only small remnants of the Mesaverde Group are found, capping a few mesas in the park's eastern section.

 

Near the end of the Cretaceous period, a mountain-building event called the Laramide orogeny started to compact and uplift the region, forming the Rocky Mountains and creating monoclines such as the Waterpocket Fold in the park. Ten to fifteen million years ago, the entire region was uplifted much further by the creation of the Colorado Plateau. This uplift was very even. Igneous activity in the form of volcanism and dike and sill intrusion also occurred during this time.

 

The drainage system in the area was rearranged and steepened, causing streams to downcut faster and sometimes change course. Wetter times during the ice ages of the Pleistocene increased the rate of erosion.

 

There are more than 840 species of plants that are found in the park and over 40 of those species are classified as rare and endemic.

 

The closest town to Capitol Reef is Torrey, about 11 mi (18 km) west of the visitor center on Highway 24, slightly west of its intersection with Highway 12. Its 2020 population is less than 300. Torrey has a few motels and restaurants and functions as a gateway town to Capitol Reef National Park. Highway 12, as well as a partially unpaved scenic backway named the Burr Trail, provide access from the west through the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and the town of Boulder.

 

A variety of activities are available to tourists, both ranger-led and self-guided, including auto touring, hiking, backpacking, camping, bicycling (on paved and unpaved roads only; no trails), horseback riding, canyoneering, and rock climbing. The orchards planted by Mormon pioneers are maintained by the National Park Service. From early March to mid-October, various fruit—cherries, apricots, peaches, pears, or apples—can be harvested by visitors for a fee.

 

A hiking trail guide is available at the visitor center for both day hikes and backcountry hiking. Backcountry access requires a free permit.

 

Numerous trails are available for hiking and backpacking in the park, with fifteen in the Fruita District alone. The following trails are some of the most popular in the park:

 

Cassidy Arch Trail: a very steep, strenuous 3.5 mi (5.6 km) round trip that leads into the Grand Wash to an overlook of the Cassidy Arch.

Hickman Bridge Trail: a 2 mi (3.2 km) round trip leading to the natural bridge.

Frying Pan Trail: an 8.8 mi (14.2 km) round trip that passes the Cassidy Arch, Grand Wash, and Cohab Canyon.

Brimhall Natural Bridge: a popular, though strenuous, 4.5 mi (7.2 km) round trip with views of Brimhall Canyon, the Waterpocket Fold, and Brimhall Natural Bridge.

Halls Creek Narrows: 22 mi (35 km) long and considered strenuous, with many side canyons and creeks; typically hiked as a 2-3 day camping trip.

 

Visitors may explore several of the main areas of the park by private vehicle:

 

Scenic Drive: winds through the middle of the park, passing the major points of interest; the road is accessible from the visitor center to approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) into the Capitol Gorge.

Notom-Bullfrog Road: traverses the eastern side of the Waterpocket Fold, along 10 mi (16 km) of paved road, with the remainder unpaved.

Cathedral Road: an unpaved road through the northern areas of the park, that traverses Cathedral Valley, passing the Temples of the Sun and Moon.

 

The primary camping location is the Fruita campground, with 71 campsites (no water, electrical, or sewer hookups), and restrooms without bathing facilities. The campground also has group sites with picnic areas and restrooms. Two primitive free camping areas are also available.

 

Canyoneering is growing in popularity in the park. It is a recreational sport that takes one through slot canyons. It involves rappelling and may require swimming and other technical rope work. Day-pass permits are required for canyoneering in the park, and can be obtained for free from the visitor's center or through email. It's key to know that each route requires its own permit. If one is planning on canyoneering for multiple days, passes are required for each day. Overnight camping as part of the canyoneering trip is permitted, but one must request a free backcountry pass from the visitor center.

 

It is imperative to plan canyoneering trips around the weather. The Colorado Plateau is susceptible to flash flooding during prime rainy months. Because canyoneering takes place through slot canyons, getting caught in a flash flood could be lethal. Take care to consult reliable weather sources. The Weather Atlas shows charts with the monthly average rainfall in inches.

 

Another risk to be aware of during the summer months is extreme heat. Visitors can find weather warnings on the National Weather Service website. The heat levels are detailed by a color and numerical scale (0-4).

 

One of the most popular canyoneering routes in Capitol Reef National Park is Cassidy Arch Canyon. A paper by George Huddart, details the park's commitment to working with citizens to maintain the route as well as the vegetation and rocks. The canyon route is approximately 2.3 miles long (0.4 miles of technical work), consisting of 8 different rappels, and takes between 2.5 and 4.5 hours to complete. The first rappel is 140 ft and descends below the famous Cassidy Arch.

 

Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

 

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.

 

People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.

 

Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.

 

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

 

Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.

 

The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:

 

use of the bow and arrow while hunting,

building pithouse shelters,

growing maize and probably beans and squash,

building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,

creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,

producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.

 

The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.

 

These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

 

In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.

 

In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.

 

Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.

 

At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.

 

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.

 

A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.

 

Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.

 

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.

 

Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.

 

Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.

 

Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.

 

The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.

 

Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.

 

Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.

 

In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.

 

The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.

 

Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.

 

After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.

 

As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.

 

Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.

 

Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.

 

Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.

 

Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.

 

On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.

 

Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.

 

The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.

 

Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:

 

William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859

Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866

3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868

A Black man in Uintah, 1869

Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873

Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874

Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880

William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883

John Murphy in Park City, 1883

George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884

Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886

Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925

Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).

 

Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.

 

Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.

 

During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.

 

In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.

 

Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.

 

Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.

 

As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.

 

One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.

 

It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.

Something I Do *NOT* Need

 

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FGR theme o' the day: Ads for Nonexistent Products

And to give THIS one a run for her money.

 

Twentieth century philosopher Isaiah Berlin was born in this elaborate Art Nouveau building in Riga shortly after it was built in 1906 and lived here for the first six years of his life.

 

His life story (from Wikipedia):

 

Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA (6 June 1909 – 5 November 1997) was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and as the dominant liberal scholar of his generation. He excelled as an essayist, conversationalist and raconteur; and as a brilliant lecturer who improvised, rapidly and spontaneously, richly allusive and coherently structured material. He translated works by Ivan Turgenev from Russian into English and, during the war, worked for the British Diplomatic Service. The Independent stated that "Isaiah Berlin was often described, especially in his old age, by means of superlatives: the world's greatest talker, the century's most inspired reader, one of the finest minds of our time ... there is no doubt that he showed in more than one direction the unexpectedly large possibilities open to us at the top end of the range of human potential."

 

Berlin was the only surviving child of a wealthy Jewish family, the son of Mendel Berlin, a timber industrialist and direct descendant of Shneur Zalman (founder of Chabad Hasidism), and his wife Marie, née Volshonok. He spent his childhood in Riga (then part of the Russian Empire; now capital of Latvia), and later lived in Andreapol´ (a small timber town near Pskov, effectively owned by the family business) and Petrograd, (formerly Saint Petersburg), witnessing both the February and October Revolutions of 1917.

 

Feeling increasingly oppressed by life under Bolshevik rule, the family left Petrograd, on 5 October 1920, for Riga, but encounters with anti-Semitism and difficulties with the Latvian authorities convinced them to leave, and they moved to Britain in early 1921 (Mendel in January, Isaiah and Marie at the beginning of February), when Berlin was eleven. In London, the family first stayed in Surbiton, then within the year they bought a house in Holland Park, and six years later in Hampstead. Berlin's English was virtually nonexistent at first, but he became fluent within a year.

 

Berlin was educated at St Paul's School (London), then at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he studied Greats (Classics). In his final examinations, he took a First, winning The John Locke Prize for his performance in the philosophy papers, in which he outscored even A. J. Ayer.

 

He subsequently took another degree at Oxford in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), winning another First after less than a year on the course. He was appointed a tutor in philosophy at New College, Oxford, and soon afterwards was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford.

 

While still a student, he befriended A. J. Ayer (with whom he was to share a friendly rivalry for the rest of his life), Stuart Hampshire, Richard Wollheim, Maurice Bowra, Stephen Spender, J. L. Austin and Nicolas Nabokov. In 1940 he presented a philosophical paper on other minds to a meeting attended by Ludwig Wittgenstein at Cambridge University. Wittgenstein rejected his paper in discussion but praised Berlin for his intellectual honesty and integrity.

 

Berlin was to remain at Oxford for the rest of his life, apart from a period working for British Information Services in New York from 1940 to 1942, and for the British embassies in Washington, DC, and Moscow from then until 1946.

 

Berlin was fluent in Russian and English, spoke French, German and Italian, and knew Latin and Ancient Greek. Meetings with Anna Akhmatova in Leningrad in November 1945 and January 1946 had a powerful effect on both of them, and serious repercussions for Akhmatova (who immortalised the meetings in her poetry). He befriended Boris Pasternak, and was responsible for smuggling a typescript of Doctor Zhivago out of Russia to England. In 1956, he married Aline Halban, née de Gunzbourg, who was from an exiled half Russian-aristocratic and half ennobled-Jewish banking and petroleum family (her mother was Yvonne Deutsch de la Muerthe, grand-daughter of Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe) based in Paris.

 

He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959. Berlin died in Oxford in 1997, aged 88. He is buried there in Wolvercote Cemetery. On his death, the obituarist of The Independent wrote: "he was a man of formidable intellectual power with a rare gift for understanding a wide range of human motives, hopes and fears, and a prodigiously energetic capacity for enjoyment – of life, of people in all their variety, of their ideas and idiosyncrasies, of literature, of music, of art." The front page of The New York Times concluded: "His was an exuberant life crowded with joys – the joy of thought, the joy of music, the joy of good friends ... The theme that runs throughout his work is his concern with liberty and the dignity of human beings ... Sir Isaiah radiated well-being."

 

Picture taken 1987 during my 5-month-trip around the world - digitally captured from paper print. Sorry for the bad quality.

 

I have uploaded a lot of my digitally captured photos, which I took since 2004. But the most interesting journeys I did between 1979 and 2004! Those photos are on slide.

__________________________________________

 

Bora Bora (French: Bora-Bora, Tahitian: Pora Pora) is a 30.55 km2 island group in the Leeward group in the western part of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the Pacific Ocean. The main island, located about 230 kilometres northwest of Papeete, is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef. In the center of the island are the remnants of an extinct volcano rising to two peaks, Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu, the highest point at 727 metres.

 

Bora Bora is a major international tourist destination, famous for its aqua-centric luxury resorts. The major settlement, Vaitape, is on the western side of the main island, opposite the main channel into the lagoon. Produce of the island is mostly limited to what can be obtained from the sea and the plentiful coconut trees, which were historically of economic importance for copra.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of 2017, the Bora Bora group has a permanent population of 10,605.

 

NAME

In ancient times the island was called "Pora pora mai te pora", meaning "created by the gods" in the local Tahitian dialect. This was often abbreviated Pora Pora meaning simply "first born". Because of ambiguities in the phonemes of the Tahitian language, this could also be pronounced Bola Bola or Bora Bora. When explorer Jacob Roggeveen first landed on the island, he and his crew adopted the name Bora Bora which has stood ever since.

 

HISTORY

The island was inhabited by Polynesian settlers around the 4th century C.E.[citation needed] The first European sighting was made by Jakob Roggeveen in 1722.

 

James Cook sighted the island on 29 July 1769, using a Tahitian navigator, Tupaia. The London Missionary Society arrived in 1820 and founded a Protestant church in 1890. Bora Bora was an independent kingdom until 1888 when its last queen Teriimaevarua III was forced to abdicate by the French who annexed the island as a colony.

 

WORLD WAR II

In World War II the United States chose Bora Bora as a South Pacific military supply base, and an oil depot, airstrip, seaplane base, and defensive fortifications were constructed. Known as "Operation Bobcat", it maintained a supply force of nine ships, 20,000 tons of equipment and nearly 7,000 men.

 

At least eight 7"/44 caliber guns, operated by elements of the 13th Coast Artillery Regiment (later the 276th Coast Artillery Battalion), were set up at strategic points around the island to protect it against potential military attack. Eight of these guns remain in the area.

 

However, the island saw no combat as the American presence on Bora Bora went uncontested over the course of the war. The base was officially closed on 2 June 1946. The World War II airstrip was never able to accommodate large aircraft, but it nonetheless was French Polynesia's only international airport until Faa'a International Airport opened next to Papeete, Tahiti, in 1960.

 

ADMINISTRATION

The commune of Bora-Bora is made up of the island of Bora Bora proper with its surrounding islets emerging from the coral reef, 29.3 km2 in total. The surrounding islets include Motu Tapu, Motu Ahuna, Tevairoa, Motu Tane, Motu Mute, Motu Tufari, Motu Tehotu, Motu Pitiaau, Sofitel Motu, Motu Toopua, and Toopuaiti. The commune also includes the Tūpai atoll. (11 km2), located 20 kilometres north of Bora Bora. The atoll of Tūpai has no permanent population apart from about 50 workers in the coconut plantations.

 

The commune is an administrative subdivision of the Leeward Islands and consists of three associated communes: Anau, Faanui and Vaitape. The administrative centre of the commune is the settlement of Vaitape, on the island of Bora Bora proper. Gaston Tong Sang is the Mayor of the commune of Bora-Bora, serving since 1989.

 

TOURISM

The island's economy is driven almost solely by tourism. Several resorts have been built on motu (small islands, from Tahitian) surrounding the lagoon. Hotel Bora Bora opened in 1961, and nine years later built the first over-the-water bungalows on stilts over the lagoon. Today, over-water bungalows are a standard feature of most Bora Bora resorts. The quality of those bungalows ranges from comparably cheap, basic accommodations to very luxurious and expensive places to stay.

 

Most of the tourist destinations are aqua-centric; however it is possible to visit attractions on land such as WWII cannons. Air Tahiti has five or six flights daily to the Bora Bora Airport on Motu Mute from Tahiti (as well as from other islands). Public transport on the island is nonexistent so rental cars and bicycles are the recommended methods of transport. There are also small, two-seater buggies for hire in Vaitape. It is possible to rent a motorboat to explore the lagoon.

 

Snorkeling and scuba diving in and around the lagoon of Bora Bora are popular activities. Many species of sharks and rays inhabit the surrounding body of water. There are a few dive operators on the island offering manta ray dives and also shark-feeding dives. Sharks living in the island's lagoon are not considered to be dangerous to people.[citation needed]

 

In addition to the existing islands of Bora Bora, the new manmade motu of Motu Marfo has been added in the northeastern corner of the lagoon on the property of the St. Regis Resort.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Though personalized art appeared during World War I, and occasionally grew to incorporate the entire aircraft, most pilots carried a saying or a slogan, or a family crest, or squadron symbol. Some were named, but nose art was not common. During World War II, nose art not only saw its true beginnings, but its heyday.

 

No one knows exactly who started nose art first--it appeared with both the British and the Germans around the first time, with RAF pilots painting Hitler being kicked or skulls and crossbones on their aircraft, while German nose art was usually a personal symbol, named for a girlfriend or adopting a mascot (such as Adolf Galland using Mickey Mouse, something Walt Disney likely didn't approve of). It would be with the Americans, and a lesser extent the Canadians, that nose art truly became common--and started including its most famous forms, which was usually half-naked or completely naked women. This was not always true, but it often was.

 

The quality of nose art depended on the squadron or wing artist. Some of it was rather crude, while others were equal to the finest pinup artists in the United States, such as Alberto Vargas. For men thousands of miles away from home and lonely, a curvaceous blonde on a B-17 or a P-51 made that loneliness a bit easier. Others thought naked women were a little crude, and just limited themselves to names, or depicted animals, cartoon characters, or patriotic emblems, or caricatures of the Axis dictators they were fighting.

 

Generally speaking, there was little censorship, with squadron and group commanders rarely intervening on names or pictures; the pilots themselves practiced self-censorship, with profanity almost unknown, and full-frontal nudity nearly nonexistent. After the loss of a B-17 named "Murder Inc.," which the Germans captured and used to make propaganda, the 8th Air Force, at least, set up a nose art committee that reviewed the nose art of aircraft--but even it rarely wielded its veto. For the most part, nose art was limited only by the crew's imagination and the artist's ability. The British tended to stay away from the lurid nudes of the Americans, though the Canadians adopted them as well. (The Axis also did not use nose art in this fashion, and neither did the Soviets, who usually confined themselves to patriotic slogans on their aircraft, such as "For Stalin!" or "In the Spirit of the Motherland!")

 

When World War II ended, so did nose art, for the most part. In the peacetime, postwar armed forces, the idea of having naked women were wives and children could see it was not something the postwar USAF or Navy wanted, and when it wasn't scrapped, it was painted over. A few units (especially those away from home and family) still allowed it, but it would take Korea to begin a renaissance of nose art.

 

"What's Up, Doc?" is C-47B 44-76423, which ironically spent very little of its over 30 year career with the USAAF--most of it was spent as an RC-47 reconnaissance aircraft with the Israeli Air Force. When it was sold to the Palm Springs Air Museum in 2003, it was repainted as an aircraft of the 438th Troop Carrier Group at RAF Langar, as it would have appeared during the D-Day landings. Museum artist Stan Stokes painted Bugs Bunny on the nose, with his catchphrase. "Doc" is very much flyable. I hadn't had a chance to get a picture of this nose art when I first saw "Doc" in 2021, but I was able to get this shot in 2023.

colinhuggins.bandcamp.com/track/claude-debussy-clair-de-lune

 

NY Times, Dec. 4 2011

Colin Huggins was there with his baby grand, the one he wheels into Washington Square Park for his al fresco concerts. So were Tic and Tac, a street-performing duo, who held court in the fountain — dry for the winter. And Joe Mangrum was pouring his elaborate sand paintings on the ground near the Washington Arch.

 

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Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Kareem Barnes of Tic and Tac collected donations on Sunday.

Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Joe Mangrum showed his sand paintings on Sunday.

In other words, it was a typical Sunday afternoon in the Greenwich Village park, where generations of visitors have mingled with musicians, artists, activists, poets and buskers.

 

Yet this fall, that urban harmony has grown dissonant as the city’s parks department has slapped summonses on the four men and other performers who put out hats or buckets, for vending in an unauthorized location — specifically, within 50 feet of a monument.

 

The department’s rule, one of many put in place a year ago, was intended to control commerce in the busiest parks. Under the city’s definition, vending covers not only those peddling photographs and ankle bracelets, but also performers who solicit donations.

 

The rule attracted little notice at first. But the enforcement in Washington Square Park in the past two months has generated summonses ranging from $250 to $1,000. And it has started a debate about the rights of parkgoers seeking refuge from the bustle of the streets versus those looking for entertainment.

 

At a news conference in the park on Sunday organized by NYC Park Advocates, the artists waved fistfuls of pink summonses while their advocates, including civil rights lawyers, called on the city to stop what they called harassment of the performers.

 

“This is a heavy-handed solution to a nonexistent problem,” said Ronald L. Kuby, one of the lawyers.

 

The rule is especially problematic in Washington Square Park, performers say, because there are few locations across its 10 acres that are beyond 50 feet from a memorial or fountain — whether the bust of Alexander Lyman Holley, who introduced the Bessemer steel process to this country, or the statue of the Italian liberator Giuseppe Garibaldi.

 

Then there is the park’s international reputation as a gathering place for folk music pioneers and the Beats.

 

“Washington Square is the live-music park of New York City, and it would be close to impossible for any one of us to follow these regulations,” said Mr. Huggins, who has received nine summonses with fines totaling $2,250.

 

But Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, argues that there is ample room for performers away from the monuments. And, he added, a musician who is not putting out a tin cup is welcome to sit on the edge of the fountain or under a monument.

 

“It’s the whole issue of the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ ” he said. “If you allow all the performers and all the vendors to do whatever they want to do, pretty soon there’s no park left for people who want to use them for quiet enjoyment. This is a way of having some control and not 18 hours of carnival-like atmosphere.”

 

Gary Behrens, an amateur photographer visiting from New Jersey, applauded the city’s efforts to rein in the performers. “I’m O.K. with the guitar, but the loud instruments have taken over the park,” he said.

 

The lawyers and advocates, however, challenged the idea that street performers were selling a product as a vendor does. And threatening a lawsuit, they faulted the city for creating what they called “First Amendment zones” through the rules.

 

“Is this place zany?” asked Norman Siegel, the former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “You bet. Public parks are quintessential public forums. Zaniness is something we should cherish and protect.”

 

Park visitation has soared along with the rise of tourism in the last 15 years, and with it vendors and artists interested in a lucrative market.

 

Mr. Benepe insisted that the rules would not scare off future music legends.

 

“If Bob Dylan wanted to come play there tomorrow, he could,” he said, “although he might have to move away from the fountain.”

 

Oddly, the dispute coincided with the 50th anniversary of the so-called Folk Riot in Washington Square Park, when the parks commissioner tried to squelch Sunday folk performances. Hundreds of musicians gathered in protest, the police were called in and a melee ensued.

 

In April, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wrote a letter commemorating the Folk Riot, saying he applauded “the folk performers who changed music, our city and our world beginning half a century ago.”

Doubtful Sound is a very large and naturally imposing fjord (despite its name) in Fiordland, in the far south west of New Zealand. It is located in the same region as the smaller but more famous and accessible Milford Sound.

Doubtful Sound was named 'Doubtful Harbour' in 1770 by Captain Cook, who did not enter the inlet as he was uncertain whether it was navigable under sail. It was later renamed Doubtful Sound by whalers and sealers.

A Spanish scientific expedition commanded by Alessandro Malaspina visited Doubtful Sound in February 1793 to conduct experiments measuring the force of gravity using a pendulum, a part of the effort to establish a new metric system. The officers of the expedition, which included Felipe Bauzá y Cañas, a cartographer, also made the first chart of the entrance and lower parts of the Sound, naming features of it. Today these form a unique cluster of the only Spanish names on the map of New Zealand: Febrero Point, Bauza Island and the Nee Islets, Pendulo Reach and Malaspina Reach.

There are three distinct arms to the sound, which is the site of several large waterfalls, notably Helena Falls at Deep Cove, and the Browne Falls which have a fall of over 600 metres. The steep hills are known for their hundreds of waterfalls during the rainy season.

Access to the sound is either by sea, or by the Wilmot Pass road from the Manapouri Power Station. Most areas of the sound itself are only accessible by sea however, as the road network in this area of New Zealand is sparse or nonexistent, as is the human population.

Charles John Lyttelton, 10th Viscount Cobham, Governor-General of New Zealand (1957-1962) wrote about this part of Fiordland:

"There are just a few areas left in the world where no human has ever set foot. That one of them should be in a country so civilized and so advanced as New Zealand may seem incredible, unless one has visited the south-west corner of the South Island. Jagged razor backed mountains rear their heads into the sky. More than 200 days of rain a year ensure not a tree branch is left bare and brown, moss and epiphytes drape every nook. The forest is intensely green. This is big country... one day peaceful, a study in green and blue, the next melancholy and misty, with low cloud veiling the tops... an awesome place, with its granite precipices, its hanging valleys, its earthquake faults and its thundering cascades."

Doubtful Sound is unusual in that it contains two distinct layers of water that scarcely mix. The top few meters is fresh water, fed from the high inflows from the surrounding mountains, and stained brown with tannins from the forest. Below this is a layer of cold, heavy, saline water from the sea. The dark tannins in the fresh water layer makes it difficult for light to penetrate. Thus, many deep-sea species will grow in the comparatively shallow depths of the Sound.

This fiord is home to one of the southernmost population of bottlenose dolphins. The Doubtful Sound bottlenoses have formed a very insular sub-group of only about 70 individuals, with none having been observed to leave or enter the Sound during a multi-year monitoring regime. Their social grouping is thus extremely close, which is also partly attributed to the difficult and unusual features of their habitat, which is much colder than for other bottlenose groups and is also overlaid by the freshwater layer.

Other wildlife to be found in Doubtful Sound includes fur seals and penguins (Fiordland crested and blue), or even rare large whales (Southern Right Whale, Humpback Whale, Minke Whale, Sperm Whale and some Giant Beaked Whales. Orca, the Killer Whales and Long-Finned Pilot Whales can be found also. The waters of Doubtful Sound are also home to an abundance of sea creatures, including many species of fish, starfish, sea anemones and corals. It is perhaps best known for its black coral trees which occur in unusually shallow water for what is normally a deep water species.

The catchment basin of Doubtful Sound is generally steep terrain that is heavily forested except for locations where surface rock exposures are extensive. Nothofagus trees are dominant in many locations. In the understory there are a wide variety of shrubs and ferns.

Operation “Salt City" resulted in the arrest of 248 individuals from May through September 2015. Of those arrested, 124 were active gang members. During the operation 22 firearms, more than $237,000 in U.S. currency, 70 grams of heroin, 266 grams of cocaine, and 723 grams of marijuana with a total estimated street value of almost $44,000 was taken off Syracuse streets by participating agencies.

Operation Salt City is part of the U.S. Marshals nation-wide “Triple Beam” gang reduction initiative. Triple Beam partners federal, state, and local law enforcement to reduce violent crime and take dangerous offenders off the streets. The goal of the U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program is to seek out and disrupt illegal gang activity in areas of the country with smaller or nonexistent gang enforcement units by providing manpower, funding and the Marshals’ renowned fugitive tracking abilities.

 

Photo by Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals

Phottix recently came out with a new remote that uses 2.4GHz wireless. The Phottix Plato. It's a little pricier (~$45) but from first glance, I can see a couple of advantages over the Cleon.

 

[0] Digital encoding gives you a more discrete signal and helps to avoid misfires.

 

[1] Smart codes rolls the codes automatically to avoid contention with other remotes or RF signals.

 

[2] Two-way communications between receiver and transmitter confirms you are within range or not. It also seems to have a longer range.

 

[3] Interchangeable end-cords allows you to use the same remote on various cameras simply by replacing the connecting cord. For instance, use the N8 cord for the D300 and the N6 cord for the D80.

 

[4] Uses more common batteries rather than the expensive "exotic" ones the Cleon uses.

 

[5] Slicker looking construction.

 

So... I decided to get one. Tonight I came home from a business trip and found my Plato sitting in my mailbox. There were three items in the package... well five if you count the two double-packs of AAA batteries.

 

[0] Transmitter

[1[ Receiver

[3] Cable

 

Both the transmitter and receiver take common AAA batteries. This is a great improvement over some of the older Phottix and Cactus wireless remotes that took a combination of CR2 and type-N... both of which are rather expensive. There was also a single instruction sheet which was as expected written in Engrish although admittedly it's not as bad as some other products I've seen. There was however one glaring error which I will go into about later.

 

After installing the batteries, both the transmitter and receivers immediately power up. Shutting each of them down requires a push of their power/select button for about 3 seconds. Both have an auto-poweroff feature that shuts them off after an hour of inactivity.

 

Unlike previous Phottix RF remotes, this one uses rolling codes instead of choosing from amongst preset frequencies. So instead of flipping DIP switches on each device to match one another, the transmitter and receivers must be paired like bluetooth devices. The set comes pre-synced to one another from the factory but you can reset the code by resyncing them. This is accomplished by first turning on the receiver and transmitter. The transmitters picks a code. Then on the receiver, you set it to learning mode by tapping the power button five times. On the transmitter, you push the shutter release button and the two are now synced. You can sync as many as 16 million receivers to the same transmitter. The remote uses the 2.4GHz band which can get congested so in certain environments, it may take a while for the pair to negotiate with one another. But once paired the likelihood of misfires or inadvertent triggers is nearly nonexistent. There are two status LEDs on the transmitter. Half-pressing the shutter release button will confirm that you're in range by lighting them both green as well as passing a half-press action to the camera which should respond in kind (ie. activate AF and VR) depending on how the camera is configured.

 

The transmitter and receiver are make and model agnostic. The vendor specific interface is handled by the cable. In my case, I am using the N8 cable for the D200 and D300. One end of the cable plugs into the camera and the other end is a simple three-contact 3.5mm "headphone" style plug which can be plugged into the receiver or the transmitter. When plugged into the receiver, the transmitter is in wireless mode. If however you wish to trigger things via a wired remote, you can plug the cable into the transmitter directly. All functions are the same in either mode. Note that the instruction sheet says that it is the receiver that can be used for wired triggering operations but this is in fact incorrect.

 

The transmitter has two buttons. The big button is the shutter release. The smaller button is the mode select and power button. Holding down this button for about 3 seconds powers the transmitter on or off. There is a series of LEDs that indicate which type of triggering mode you've selected. The following modes are supported:

 

[] Single - Pressing the shutter release acts like a single press of your camera's shutter release.

 

[] 2s Delay - Pressing the shutter release button invokes a 2-second delay before a single release signal is sent.

 

[] Continuous - Pressing the shutter release button once will cause the remote to trigger five individual releases. Holding down the button will act like holding down the shutter release on your camera. The camera's behaviour will be governed by the drive-mode in such a case.

 

[] Bulb - Pressing the button once is the same as holding down the shutter release on the camera. Press it again to release. This is intended to be used with the bulb shutter-speed setting but if combined with any other shutter speed will act like a press once to activate and press again to release so for instance, if you are in AF-C and don't have bulb set for the shutter-speed, your camera will continue shooting until you tap the button again.

 

Again, half-press operation is supported and in wireless mode, the two status LEDs at the top will turn green to confirm transmitter-to-receiver signal reception. A full press will turn the two LEDs red. In wired mode only LED #1 will show status.

 

The receiver has a single button for on/off and learning mode selection. There are also two LEDs. In normal operation, the left most LED will repeatedly flash red to indicate that the unit is on and ready. The right LED will turn green when it receives a trigger signal from the transmitter. Putting the receiver into learning mode causes the right LED to flash rapidly. The receiver also has a hot-shoe mount so it can be conveniently secured to the flash shoe.

 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this remote. It's certainly a nice improvement over the older Cleon and would highly recommend it over the Cleon line even though it's about $10 more expensive.

Chuck E. Cheese #545 (closed) [10,578 square feet]

1280 Central Park Boulevard, Central Park, Fredericksburg, VA

Opened September 4th, 1999, closed May 29th, 2020, reopened in July 2021

 

The Super Bonus machine seemed to be the only trace of Avenger-era Chuck E. left in the building. Any renditions of Chuck E. before the 2012 makeover are nonexistent here otherwise. They scrubbed the place pretty clean of all the older elements!

Nonexistent Threats.

Konformitäts Outlaws phantasie Angelegenheiten Radikalismus romantischen Augen,

αναταραχές ψυχολογία αντίθεση πασιφισμό προκλητική πολιτική κορυφές,

fascinatio rerum gestarum scriptor est accommodans variis poseurs collirio omnium oculos singulorum errantium dicta,

formas indiscriminadamente nômades phonies aproximando portas educacionais desastrosas lições inferiores,

arvoituksellinen kumulatiivisesti vuosikymmeniä kudottu yksimielisyys palvelus ilmaisuja itsekäs,

aristocrates attaque arrosage humanitaire de réalisations idéalistes contribution décrit,

abswrdiaeth aberthu athrylith amddifadrwydd annhebygol penodau tlawd marw addysgu melodramatic,

stimulerende opplevelser Unutterable prototyper sulter samtalen er overtake,

عملية مخيفة المرتبطة شيدت السكتات الدماغية العدوانية يتفاعل تقليدي فارغ,

drsnosti postoje syrovost chutná implicitní disliking doporučuje předkládající věci nesprávné,

decenii abundente grile figurative condiții flexibile culminând direcții de improvizație vag,

コミット心力学境界の詩学デザイナー時代.

Steve.D.Hammond.

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

 

The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.

 

Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!

 

Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D

 

Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana

Another shot with Eugenie, this time in downtown Los Angeles in an alley we found. Ambient light is almost nonexistent in this image. Her manager was pressed into service as my lighting assistant, and he's holding the Norman 200B in a 43" shoot through umbrella, camera left. To remain portable, that was the only light I used while we roamed around LA. Strobe was triggered with Cybersyncs.

 

You can see more image from this monster shoot (10 hours, two cities) on my blog post here.

024

Fortune Global Forum 2018

October 16th, 2018

Toronto, Canada

 

3:30 PM

THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY

The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.

Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim

Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay

Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase

Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune

 

Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune

(c) Rebecca Tun | May 2015

model: Jake Chatterton - www.purpleport.com/portfolio/jakechatterton

Manchester, UK

Outside the development was a busy Boulevard with access to EDSA, SLEX, and the nearby condominiums and malls. The traffic was so disorganized, they had to place concrete blocks (painted black and white stripes) to prevent illegal u-turns and left and right turns that would block traffic for hours. And like all Asian cities, tropical greens mixed with concrete jungles. Flyovers (as they flew over the old streets to avoid cross-city traffic) interrupted old neighborhoods as environmental impact studies and neighborhood inputs were nonexistent. Homes and commercial buildings from the 1960s fronted new condominiums and malls recently built to copy western countries. It was always a sight to behold.

 

Shooting Date/Time1/12/2011 10:23:30 PM

Tv( Shutter Speed )1/800

Av( Aperture Value )4.0

Metering ModeEvaluative Metering

ISO Speed160

Auto ISO SpeedOFF

LensEF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

Focal Length24.0mm

IMG_7798cx2011

Connected a now-nonexistent glass palace to a now-nonexistent station

joe mangrum

washington square park

 

NY Times, Dec. 4 2011

Colin Huggins was there with his baby grand, the one he wheels into Washington Square Park for his al fresco concerts. So were Tic and Tac, a street-performing duo, who held court in the fountain — dry for the winter. And Joe Mangrum was pouring his elaborate sand paintings on the ground near the Washington Arch.

 

Follow @NYTMetro

Connect with @NYTMetro on Twitter for New York breaking news and headlines.

Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Kareem Barnes of Tic and Tac collected donations on Sunday.

Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Joe Mangrum showed his sand paintings on Sunday.

In other words, it was a typical Sunday afternoon in the Greenwich Village park, where generations of visitors have mingled with musicians, artists, activists, poets and buskers.

 

Yet this fall, that urban harmony has grown dissonant as the city’s parks department has slapped summonses on the four men and other performers who put out hats or buckets, for vending in an unauthorized location — specifically, within 50 feet of a monument.

 

The department’s rule, one of many put in place a year ago, was intended to control commerce in the busiest parks. Under the city’s definition, vending covers not only those peddling photographs and ankle bracelets, but also performers who solicit donations.

 

The rule attracted little notice at first. But the enforcement in Washington Square Park in the past two months has generated summonses ranging from $250 to $1,000. And it has started a debate about the rights of parkgoers seeking refuge from the bustle of the streets versus those looking for entertainment.

 

At a news conference in the park on Sunday organized by NYC Park Advocates, the artists waved fistfuls of pink summonses while their advocates, including civil rights lawyers, called on the city to stop what they called harassment of the performers.

 

“This is a heavy-handed solution to a nonexistent problem,” said Ronald L. Kuby, one of the lawyers.

 

The rule is especially problematic in Washington Square Park, performers say, because there are few locations across its 10 acres that are beyond 50 feet from a memorial or fountain — whether the bust of Alexander Lyman Holley, who introduced the Bessemer steel process to this country, or the statue of the Italian liberator Giuseppe Garibaldi.

 

Then there is the park’s international reputation as a gathering place for folk music pioneers and the Beats.

 

“Washington Square is the live-music park of New York City, and it would be close to impossible for any one of us to follow these regulations,” said Mr. Huggins, who has received nine summonses with fines totaling $2,250.

 

But Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, argues that there is ample room for performers away from the monuments. And, he added, a musician who is not putting out a tin cup is welcome to sit on the edge of the fountain or under a monument.

 

“It’s the whole issue of the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ ” he said. “If you allow all the performers and all the vendors to do whatever they want to do, pretty soon there’s no park left for people who want to use them for quiet enjoyment. This is a way of having some control and not 18 hours of carnival-like atmosphere.”

 

Gary Behrens, an amateur photographer visiting from New Jersey, applauded the city’s efforts to rein in the performers. “I’m O.K. with the guitar, but the loud instruments have taken over the park,” he said.

 

The lawyers and advocates, however, challenged the idea that street performers were selling a product as a vendor does. And threatening a lawsuit, they faulted the city for creating what they called “First Amendment zones” through the rules.

 

“Is this place zany?” asked Norman Siegel, the former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “You bet. Public parks are quintessential public forums. Zaniness is something we should cherish and protect.”

 

Park visitation has soared along with the rise of tourism in the last 15 years, and with it vendors and artists interested in a lucrative market.

 

Mr. Benepe insisted that the rules would not scare off future music legends.

 

“If Bob Dylan wanted to come play there tomorrow, he could,” he said, “although he might have to move away from the fountain.”

 

Oddly, the dispute coincided with the 50th anniversary of the so-called Folk Riot in Washington Square Park, when the parks commissioner tried to squelch Sunday folk performances. Hundreds of musicians gathered in protest, the police were called in and a melee ensued.

 

In April, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wrote a letter commemorating the Folk Riot, saying he applauded “the folk performers who changed music, our city and our world beginning half a century ago.”

Qingdao is China’s premier “beer” city, as the country’s most famous brew – Tsingtao – was founded and continues to be brewed here. (For those who do come to the city, Tsingtao makes a decent dark beer – Yuan Jiang – that is quite hard to get outside of the city.) I guess the easiest comparison I can make would be to say that Qingdao is the same to beer culture here as St. Louis and Milwaukee are in the United States; a town famous for a mass-produced beer.

 

The Tsingtao brewery and museum (slightly underwhelming, according to my Lonely Planet guidebook) is located on Dengzhou Lu a bit north of Zhongshan Park. Dengzhou Lu is also famously known as Pijiu Jie (Beer Street). During the day, it’s easy to see the nightlife potential. At night, almost every establishment along this stretch of Dengzhou Lu (probably about a half kilometer to a one kilometer long) is a restaurant that opens up with the focus on drinking beer – almost always Tsingtao. (Curiously, in coming by here at night, the taxi took me past Hongjiu Jie – Red Wine Street. It looked quite a bit less subdued as wine culture here is, well, nonexistent. I didn’t have a chance to get back and look around there. Having drunk Chinese wine before…I don’t think I’m missing too much.)

 

I’ve lived in China for almost three years now; about two years in Shanghai and one year in Tianjin. Shandong province is the province that’s on the sea between the two cities. (From Shanghai to Tianjin by train is around 5 hours; by plane, 2 hours.) Qingdao, probably the most well-known city in Shandong, is a charming city, to say the least. In my opinion, it’s exceptionally photogenic – with very nice beaches, great architecture, good geography/topography, and terrific food.

 

Qingdao also happens to be known for the most famous of Chinese beers (Tsingtao), which is actually a company started by the Germans. (For what it’s worth, Chinese beers are quite watery and Tsingtao is somewhat like the Budweiser of Chinese beers. That being said, I’m happy to drink an ice cold Tsingtao on a hot summer day whereas I wouldn’t say the same thing about a Budweiser.

 

So what to make of Qingdao then? Before colonial powers swept in and started chopping up China piecemeal, Qingdao was basically a sleepy fishing village. During the Ming dynasty, a battery was built here. In 1898, the Germans seized control of Qingdao when two missionaries were killed. (Personally, it seems alarming to me that a country could lose a city because two foreigners happened to be killed – and China sure lost a lot that way during the 19th century. I guess that’s the downside to outmoded military technology; the Europeans and Americans basically plundered China…) At any rate, Qingdao was ceded to the Germans for 99 years, but that didn’t last long, thanks to World War I.

 

During the 15-20 years that the Germans did have control of the town, they managed to build a handful of churches (still standing) and missionaries, in addition to the aforementioned Qingdao brewery. Because of that, a lot of the European architecture has a heavy German influence and there are still a few random signs of German heritage around town.

 

From the Germans, Qingdao didn’t land directly with the Chinese. It spent 8 years under Japanese control (1914-1922) before being returned to the Kuomintang (aka General Chiang Kai-Shek’s clan). The Japanese took control once again in 1938 (as they swept through northeast China and across half the country) before losing it for the last time in 1945 at the end of World War II. Since then, it’s been in Chinese hands. (Brief history courtesy of Lonely Planet.)

 

Contemporary Qingdao certainly makes its way as a tourist destination – and it’s a fine one at that. The population (per my LP from 2011) lists it at 1.73 million. The city has a few areas that are quite appealing to tourists: the Old Town (the heart of the city) off the beach and just east of the railway station downtown, Badaguan (which means “eight passes”) is a hilly area with a lot of nice residential architecture to the east of the Old Town. Other than that, there are a lot of parks, a beer street, churches, and a 40 km. scenic walk (which, obviously, most people do not cover from end to end) along the shore which goes by all of the beaches in the area.

 

All in all, Qingdao is the type of town that, if you get the chance to visit, I think you would find yourself thinking it would be great to return again and again.

 

About an hour and 15 minutes' worth of startrails at Lake Sabrina, west of Bishop in the High Sierra. Pointing southwest - you can actually see the smear of the Milky Way cloud at the left of the image - see the previous single-shot image I posted earlier, which is just one of the frames for this image stack. I actually like the garish green from the tackle/snack shop light but I decided to replace the foreground with another image taken about 45 minutes before I started the startrail sequence.

 

Which brings up a point - that most people in the world will not see a Milky Way or a bazillion stars like this because of light pollution. Even here, in the High Sierra, a bastion of dark sky, someone somewhere finds it important to light up the lake which is practically nonexistent because of serious drought condition. Not a soul around except me and my two crazy friends. Pshew, I feel better.

 

If you click on the map view, you can see I'm set up in front of the island, virtually on the lake bottom because the water level is so low.

Ernest Maxwell looks at the clock on the wall and sees that the time between wars is now almost nonexistent—

 

He’s been teased and taunted into opening his valise of undiscovered gods, secret equations, abrupt breakups, inspiring beginnings, comical refusals, counterfeit data, manufactured emotions and predictable reprisals—

 

His humid green eyes ignore mistakes on the courthouse lawn as iron grey clouds gather and smoke from burning vineyards looks like mountains on the horizon like ladybugs crawling over split wood—

 

He kicks a diseased tree and pronounces: I am the Seamless Man, the Frontierless Man, the Peerless Man, the Reckless Man, the Guileless Man, the Handless Man, the Bookless Man, the Loveless Man, the Nationless Man, the Shadowless Man, the Doomsday Man, the Cashless Man, the Shoeless Man, the Hatless Man, the Feckless Man, the Theoryless Man, the Timeless Man, the Artless Man, the Moonless Man—

 

© branko

www.a2b1.com

youtube channel: www.youtube.com/a2b1

 

NY Times, Dec. 4 2011

Colin Huggins was there with his baby grand, the one he wheels into Washington Square Park for his al fresco concerts. So were Tic and Tac, a street-performing duo, who held court in the fountain — dry for the winter. And Joe Mangrum was pouring his elaborate sand paintings on the ground near the Washington Arch.

 

Follow @NYTMetro

Connect with @NYTMetro on Twitter for New York breaking news and headlines.

Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Kareem Barnes of Tic and Tac collected donations on Sunday.

Enlarge This Image

 

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Joe Mangrum showed his sand paintings on Sunday.

In other words, it was a typical Sunday afternoon in the Greenwich Village park, where generations of visitors have mingled with musicians, artists, activists, poets and buskers.

 

Yet this fall, that urban harmony has grown dissonant as the city’s parks department has slapped summonses on the four men and other performers who put out hats or buckets, for vending in an unauthorized location — specifically, within 50 feet of a monument.

 

The department’s rule, one of many put in place a year ago, was intended to control commerce in the busiest parks. Under the city’s definition, vending covers not only those peddling photographs and ankle bracelets, but also performers who solicit donations.

 

The rule attracted little notice at first. But the enforcement in Washington Square Park in the past two months has generated summonses ranging from $250 to $1,000. And it has started a debate about the rights of parkgoers seeking refuge from the bustle of the streets versus those looking for entertainment.

 

At a news conference in the park on Sunday organized by NYC Park Advocates, the artists waved fistfuls of pink summonses while their advocates, including civil rights lawyers, called on the city to stop what they called harassment of the performers.

 

“This is a heavy-handed solution to a nonexistent problem,” said Ronald L. Kuby, one of the lawyers.

 

The rule is especially problematic in Washington Square Park, performers say, because there are few locations across its 10 acres that are beyond 50 feet from a memorial or fountain — whether the bust of Alexander Lyman Holley, who introduced the Bessemer steel process to this country, or the statue of the Italian liberator Giuseppe Garibaldi.

 

Then there is the park’s international reputation as a gathering place for folk music pioneers and the Beats.

 

“Washington Square is the live-music park of New York City, and it would be close to impossible for any one of us to follow these regulations,” said Mr. Huggins, who has received nine summonses with fines totaling $2,250.

 

But Adrian Benepe, the parks commissioner, argues that there is ample room for performers away from the monuments. And, he added, a musician who is not putting out a tin cup is welcome to sit on the edge of the fountain or under a monument.

 

“It’s the whole issue of the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ ” he said. “If you allow all the performers and all the vendors to do whatever they want to do, pretty soon there’s no park left for people who want to use them for quiet enjoyment. This is a way of having some control and not 18 hours of carnival-like atmosphere.”

 

Gary Behrens, an amateur photographer visiting from New Jersey, applauded the city’s efforts to rein in the performers. “I’m O.K. with the guitar, but the loud instruments have taken over the park,” he said.

 

The lawyers and advocates, however, challenged the idea that street performers were selling a product as a vendor does. And threatening a lawsuit, they faulted the city for creating what they called “First Amendment zones” through the rules.

 

“Is this place zany?” asked Norman Siegel, the former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “You bet. Public parks are quintessential public forums. Zaniness is something we should cherish and protect.”

 

Park visitation has soared along with the rise of tourism in the last 15 years, and with it vendors and artists interested in a lucrative market.

 

Mr. Benepe insisted that the rules would not scare off future music legends.

 

“If Bob Dylan wanted to come play there tomorrow, he could,” he said, “although he might have to move away from the fountain.”

 

Oddly, the dispute coincided with the 50th anniversary of the so-called Folk Riot in Washington Square Park, when the parks commissioner tried to squelch Sunday folk performances. Hundreds of musicians gathered in protest, the police were called in and a melee ensued.

 

In April, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wrote a letter commemorating the Folk Riot, saying he applauded “the folk performers who changed music, our city and our world beginning half a century ago.”

Tracy's hair actually looks significantly shinier in person. The flash from my camera washed this out a bit, which is unusual, since most of the time, my flash creates nonexistent shine. This Tracy's doll's hair isn't quite as beautiful and new looking as my first doll's. However, I'm very pleased with the final result. Her curls are much more manageable, since the boil wash softened them. I was afraid that her hair wouldn't lie flat against her head, being that it had been in a ponytail for so long, and considering that she has saran hair, which is notoriously more stubborn. But fortunately, the boil wash water must have been hot enough, because it only took one session to tame the beast. Tracy's head was alarmingly loose though, which was odd considering her head was still on her body (unlike her decapitated friends). I decided to pop her head off in the hot water and tighten her neck joint while I was beautifying Miss Tracy. Now her head is much tighter, and can actually hold a pose--unlike before, when her head would loll back without any provocation.

 

Tutorial: How I Clean Dolly Bodies & Faces

www.flickr.com/photos/athousandsplendiddolls/17144774969/...

 

Tutorial: How I Boil Wash Doll Hair

www.flickr.com/photos/athousandsplendiddolls/17310388751/...

meeting at Jeder el Mohguene

 

-.-

 

Travel the world means to pass by from a province to another, everyone of which is a solitary star. For the greater part of the persons who live in the real world ends on the home’s threshold, at the limit of the village, at the extreme - to the border of the valley.

The world that is beyond is nonexistent and quite useless, while the one around them and all what their eye succeeds to embrace, rises to the dimensions of the great cosmos that darken all the rest.

Often the inhabitants of a place and who come from outside have difficulty to find a common language, since everyone of them watches the place from a various optical: who comes from outside uses to wideangle, than make smaller the images but increases the horizon, while the person of the place has always used the telephoto lens, if not quite the telescope, than enlarge the minimums details.

Rysard Kapuscinski (Ebony)

This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!

 

I took these photos in December 2019.

 

It seems one Marvel-based film franchise isn’t enough for Josh Brolin.

 

The actor plays the supervillain Thanos in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War and in just under a month will hop across some (soon-to-be nonexistent) intellectual property lines to play Nathan Summers AKA Cable in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men film, Deadpool 2.

 

The sequel to Ryan Reynolds’s R-rated hit will be the first of four films that Brolin has signed on for.

 

Brolin has had an illustrious film career that only really hit full-speed in the mid aughts, with the actor admitting that he was put off film work for years after watching his second feature film, Thrashin’.

 

In 2018 Josh Brolin plays supervillain Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and Cable in Deadpool 2

 

‘It’s a skateboard movie, and when I went to the premiere, I was crushed. I thought my acting was horrendous,’ the actor told the New York Times while promoting his 2010 film, Jonah Hex.

 

‘It was the worst acting I’ve ever seen in my life. I moved to New York after that. And I devoted myself to the theater.’

 

Here is all you need to know about Josh Brolin including what his net worth is, his roles in The Goonies and as Thanos and Cable in Infinity War and Deadpool 2.

 

Who is Josh Brolin?

 

Josh James Brolin was born in Santa Monica, California to Jane Cameron and James Brolin.

 

Brolin’s mother was the assistant casting director on the 1960s Batman TV series and met Brolin’s father, the actor James Brolin on the show’s set.

 

Brolin’s parents divorced when he was 16 and in 1998 James Brolin married the Oscar-winner Barbra Streisand.

 

Brolin’s first big role came in 1985’s cult-classic The Goonies, acting alongside future Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin, and Corey Feldman.

 

He followed that up with Thrashin but then took a break from films until 1993’s The Road Killers, in-between missing out on a lead role in 21 Jump Street to Johnny Depp.

 

After Brolin’s mother died after a car crash in 1995, on the actor’s 27th birthday, he started drinking and using again, only getting treatment after a close friend from AA staged an intervention.

 

After getting sober, Brolin’s acting career resumed, albeit very slowly. ‘I was the last-resort guy,’ the actor told Esquire.

 

Brolin’s life and career turned around in 2006, when he landed the role in the Coen brothers’ film, No Country for Old Men. At the time, Brolin was in Robert Rodriguez’s film Grindhouse.

 

He was having breakfast with the American playwright and actor Sam Shepard, who told him about the film.

 

Despite believing he had no chance of getting a role, Brolin made an audition tape – directed by Quentin Tarantino, who was visiting the Grindhouse set that day – and landed the role of Llewelyn Moss.

 

A string of increasingly big films followed including American Gangster, George W Bush biopic W. and Milk, for which Brolin was nominated for an Oscar.

 

Brolin’s industrious approach to acting continued through to the 2010s. High-profile films such as True Grit, Men in Black 3, Guardians of the Galaxy and Sicario consolidated Brolin’s status as a Hollywood star.

 

In 2018 alone, Brolin will star in Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Sicario: Day of the Soldado and The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter.

 

Brolin has been married three times, to actress Alice Adair between 1988 and 1994 and with whom he has two children; Diane Lane between 2004 and 2013; and former assistant Kathryn Boyd in 2016.

 

What is Josh Brolin’s net worth?

 

Josh Brolin’s net worth is estimated to be $35 million (£25.3m), according to Celebrity Net Worth.

 

Most of Brolin’s net worth is bolstered by his salaries in huge films such as Marvel’s Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, and his four-film deal with 20th Century Fox to play Cable in the X-Men series.

 

via The Little Moment ift.tt/2r49e1S

This photo was taken on 20 March 2017, but I also saw and photographed these rather strange animals every day that we were staying at the Asa Wright Nature Centre on the island of Trinidad. They like to hang around the Asa Wright building, finding food, and then they seem to disappear into the forest for most of the day. Many of my photos of them came out blurry for some reason, but this one worked OK.

 

"Agoutis have five front and three hind toes; the first toe is very small. The tail is very short or nonexistent and hairless. Agoutis may grow to be up to 60 cm (24 in) in length and 4 kg (8.8 lb) in weight. Most species are brown on their backs and whitish or buff on their bellies; the fur may have a glossy appearance and then glimmers in an orange colour. Reports differ as to whether they are diurnal or nocturnal animals.... They can live for as long as 20 years, a remarkably long time for a rodent

 

In the wild, they are shy animals and flee from humans, while in captivity they may become trusting. In Trinidad, they are renowned for being very fast runners, able to keep hunting dogs occupied with chasing them for hours." From Wikipedia.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_agouti

 

This adventure was only the second holiday of any kind, anywhere, that I have had in something like 30 or 35 years! The other holiday was a wonderful, one-week trip with my dear friends from England, Linda and Tony, when we went down south to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons in September 2012. I have had maybe half a dozen weekends away, including to Waterton National Park, which have helped keep me going.

 

Six birding/photographer friends and I decided that we would take this exciting trip together (from 12-21 March 2017), spending the first two or three days on the island of Tobago and then the rest of the time at the Asa Wright Nature Centre on the nearby, much larger island of Trinidad. We decided to take a complete package, so everything was included - accommodation at both places, all our food, and the various walks and day trips that we could choose from. Two of my friends, Anne B. and Brenda, saw to all the planning of flights and accommodations, which was so very much appreciated by the rest of us. I could never have done all this myself! We were so lucky with our flights, as we were just in time to get Black Friday prices, which were 50% off!

 

What a time we had, seeing so many beautiful and interesting things - and, of course, everything was a lifer for me. Some of these friends had visited Costa Rica before, so were familiar with some of the birds. There was a lot more to see on Trinidad, so we were glad that we chose Tobago to visit first and then spend a longer time at Asa Wright. It was wonderful to be right by the sea, though, at the Blue Waters Inn on the island of Tobago. Just gorgeous.

 

The Asa Wright Nature Centre, on Trinidad, is such an amazing place! We stayed in cabins up or down hill from the main building. Really, one doesn't need to travel away from the Centre for birding, as so many different species visit the Hummingbird feeders that are right by the huge, open veranda, and the trees of the rain forest high up the mountainous road. The drive up and down this narrow, twisting, pot-holed road was an adventure in itself! Never would I ever do this drive myself - we had a guide who drove us everywhere in a minibus. I had read many accounts of this road, lol! There was enough room for two vehicles to pass each other, and the honking of horns was almost continuous - either to warn any vehicle that might be coming fast around the next bend or as a sign that drivers knew each other. The drive along this road, from the coast to Asa Wright, took just over an hour each way.

 

I still miss the great food that was provided every single day at Asa Wright and even the Rum Punch that appeared each evening. I never drink at all, so I wasn't sure if I would even try the Punch - glad I did, though, as it was delicious and refreshing. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all served buffet-style, with a great variety of dishes from which to choose. To me, pure luxury. So very, very grateful to have been invited to be part of this amazing adventure.

 

This is a video that I came across on YouTube, taken by Rigdon Currie and Trish Johnson, at many of the same places we visited on Trinidad and Tobago. Not my video, but it made me feel like I was right there still. Posting the link here again, so that I won't lose it.

 

youtu.be/BBifhf99f_M

 

I also came across the following 27-minute YouTube video of the flora and fauna of Trinidad, filmed by John Patrick Smith in February 2015.

 

youtu.be/6HHBm9MIxnk

The second stop on the way home from my college visit was in Richmond!

 

The Richmond Kmart appears to be a former Grants (and thus reminded me of the Erie Kmart that I visited last summer). It is very noticeably bigger than Anderson; it is also very nice; it has a Kmart Express gas station and it has a former Kmart Cafe (that still has the counter/displays, the full menu board and even the register! Looks like a more recent KCafe closure from what I've seen; if anybody else here has any more information I would like to know more about it!). This store appears to be doing fairly well for one of the last remaining stores in/near the Miami Valley.

 

Of course, I had to check out the Kmart Express after my main store rounds were complete, so I headed over there and looked around. This is the second Kmart Express I've seen, but the first one I have actually visited, as the other one (at the now nonexistent Brooklyn Super Kmart) had already closed. I didn't buy anything at this KExpress though, as I had spent my money in the main store. Hopefully next time I can buy some coffee or donuts from Kmart Express while going to/from Anderson (if I plan another college visit to Anderson U, which is likely)!

 

Hopefully the Richmond Kmart will still be able to remain "normal" for a good time longer...I like this store! :D

 

Kmart #7246 - 3150 National Road West - Richmond, Indiana

Last night, Jessica Lo and I met up at the airport to begin our exciting month-long journey to the East Coast :)

At around 11:15 ish, I got up to get in line to board our plane that was departing at 11:45pm only to find out I was in the line to get on the wrong plane haha. Shows you how excited I was to get going!

 

Slept pretty much the whole way through the plane ride, got to JFK at around 8:30am (Eastern Time from now on!) and met up with Lily Nunez and Nancijane Carolipio, along with two other program-mates who took the same flight. We followed Professor Halle's directions to our dorm:

Air Train $5

Subway E and 6 $2.50

(this was definitely an experience, lugging around 50lb bags + all these carry-on stuff up and down stairs to get from one subway to another... for some reason, most of the elevators or escalators were either broken or nonexistent whenever we needed one! the seven of us had a blast... and that's what Lily calls an "experience" haha)

 

It was awesome though because people here in NY are so nice - some offered to help us carry stuff when we were struggling, others gave us directions. It is definitely a different environment here!

 

We got out of the subway station, looked up and there was our dorm / apartment! Looked very nice on the outside, right next to Dunkin' Donuts, Chipotle, Subway, Trader Joe's, etc. When we got in, it wasn't as "nice" as the outside looked... but not bad enough to complain! My roommate, Thieny Nguyen (in the picture above! - btw, she's from UCSD, cool beans!), had already moved in but wasn't in the room. I met this sweet girl later on (in an hour or so) and definitely like her a lot so far :)

 

Went with Jessica to Walgreen's (around the corner) to get toiletries... came back and showered! Went to lunch at Ray's Pizza with the ladies... shopped at K-Mart for more toiletries and whatnot.

Came back, unpacked... and napped for a good two hours!

 

We had dinner plans with the professor and our program-mates at The Coffee Shop about 10 minute walk away at 7pm. Had yummy food - coconut shrimp, chicken satay, salad, rotisserie chicken, fruit plate - then walked around Union Square where I saw this guy "tagging" on NYC maps... just like the one featured in Day 5 of my project, with Company! Definitely reminded me of him... and home :)

 

We walked around some more, then went to Trader Joe's to find a nice cake for Lily's 21st birthday tomorrow! But the line was too long and cake selection was limited, so we walked back to Whole Foods to get her a nice Chocolate Cake (and some fruit tarts for NJ and me haha).

 

Now, I am sitting here in the commons of our dorm with my roomie, just taking advantage of the internet (we don't have internet YET in our room...)

 

I'm realizing how important this project is to me, that I would constantly be thinking about pictures, and blogging, and what to write about... what to catch in my photos.

 

I really like this photo - taken at K-Mart.

Thieny and her watermelon Kleenex box haha :) Really cool cause there was a subway station that went directly into K-Mart. Which brings me to the topic of what Jess and I were talking about at our terminal last night: public transportation really leads to people were are more friendly and sociable... I can see the difference here!

 

Really can't wait to explore some more :)

It's gonna be great!

I really want to try my best to be healthy here, so if you're there and you think of me, send me some love and text me to remind me to be/stay healthy (no soda, much fruits, sunblock, wash face = no acne, etc.) Thank you in advance.

 

I finished watching Autumn's Concerto last night. It was so bomb. As long as I have loved, I will leave this world satisfied :)

 

Good night for now.

Might blog some more on tumblr!

Follow me there.

 

I miss home, but this is where I am for the next month. I better enjoy it before the four weeks fly by!

 

A journey awaits!

     

unicamp.kintera.org/campathon/mwltatertots

www.lucytseng.tumblr.com

One really can never get enough of Benedict Cumberbatch... most of the planet is still waiting for Sherlock Season 5 to finally be filmed. But in the mean time, there's of course his biggest money maker, Dr. Strange.

 

Strange was most recently seen headlining the first half of the Avengers Infinity Saga - Infinity War, while coming back for the climactic battle with Thanos in Endgame. Hot Toys and Marvel Legends did their versions of this character a while ago, and now it was time for Figuarts and Mafex, with the latter being out of my price range... for now.

 

I do get bored, after all.

 

As the fancy box indicates, this is Strange from the Battle on Titan, before he made that ultimate sacrifice and disappeared for a movie. It comes decently packed, though is missing two key items - the multi armed effect, and a FREAKING STAND TO LEVITATE HIM WITH.

 

Contents do, however, include the figure, an alternate eye closed sculpt, 14 posing hands, one additional Crimson Bands of Cytorek hand, two small and medium Time Stone hand effects coupled with one "large" effect, two small, medium, and large general orange effects, his mystic sword, interchangeable Eye of Agamoto and Time Stone chest effect, and finally, a giant ass portal effect.

 

Even from the prototype pictures, it's easy to see that Tamashii Nations improved the figure aesthetically. I say that because I only own components of the first figure. Two major areas of discussion, namely the sculpt and the cape.

 

The sculpt I'm pretty sure my photos speaks for itself. Like with most of the recent Avengers release.. again.. MOST, because their Loki is made of the stuff I laugh at. Tamashii Nations have done a damn fine job of capturing the essence of the actor. The first one really isn't that great., nailing maybe the hairstyle and general facial structure.

 

The cape isn't super fancy per se, but it IS a wired cloth cape, though sadly the section that drapes over the shoulder is rigid plastic. The work on the Mafex cape admittedly destroys this, as it really does look like a scaled down Hot Toys version. This cape, however, is far superior to the Wile E Coyote steam roller accident prop that came with the first one. It's truly a sight to behold, possibly being the worst toy cape I've ever seen on any toy, with the only redeeming value being that it's decently painted. Furthermore, this wired cape still allows for some pretty cool posing.

 

Having said that, we're now free to move on to this figure.

 

The outfit is multi layered, which does look nice. Unfortunately, those layers are made of some pliable, yet still pretty rigid plastic, which looks great but generally gets in the way of everything. There's even a warning about permanent deformation if you leave Strange in his crossed leg pose for too long.

 

The Eye of Agamoto is something you want to keep your eye on because there is a tendency for the piece to go flying should you move the figure too quickly. Also, the Eye is connected to two raised and painted lines that represent the necklace strap, rather than being on an actual strap.

 

The translucent plastics used for the effects are also somewhat concerning, given the fragility of them and all. Especially the sword, where you have to shove the handle into a fist. The larger mystic mandalas are printed on clear plastic, which are less fragile, but more susceptible to scratching. There's also lovely warnings in the manual about potential paint wear as you pose the figure and attach the various mystic effects.

 

From an articulation perspective, Strange is about the same as Bucky, except that Strange has pull down hips. Based on previous practices and general logic, I'm going to go ahead and guess that they probably reused the actual body. You get ankles, single jointed knees, hips with thigh twist, waist, mid torso, standard shoulders with butterfly joints for lateral movement, single jointed elbows, wrist, neck, and head.

 

I've mentioned the hips, so here's some other highlights. The ankle joints are terrible, probably due to the bulk of the boot. Basically they're nonexistent. The coattails predictably get in the way of leg movement, as does the solid shoulder piece on the cape. All-in-all, it's a functional body with decent posing options, but I can't help but feel it's an older body that they didn't want to spend money to bring up to Ant Man standards.

 

Paint is generally above average. Work on the head and body are very good. Even in the areas of finer detail you can make out the masking is pretty sharp. Things like the Eye of Agamoto I can give a pass on as it is hard to get the paint into every tiny crevice. Paint work appears smooth. But, it's the hands that knock it down a peg for me. For starters, paint application is a bit thick, but maybe that's a material thing.

What you might not be able to make out is that wrist at the wrist there's a very small layer of black to help it blend in with the wrist and sleeves. The masking here is horrible.. like, they didn't even try, and it's consistent across all the hands I looked at. I wish they hadn't bothered at all, and just kept them as all flesh coloured.

 

Build quality, however, is all good. The usual criteria of joints, materials used, QC, tolerances, finish - none of those register a true concern or complaint from me and are up to what I expect from a Figuarts release.

 

Overall, I'd say this Dr. Strange is pretty much what the WW 84 Figuarts was like, namely its what they should have done in the first place, though I guess I can say that at least WW was better than Dr. Strange. While from an overall perspective the Figuarts certainly looks more like Benedict Cumberbatch as compared to the Mafex photos, you are getting a better articulated body and an outfit that works with you as opposed to against you... and a 120 USD preorder price tag.

 

To me, it's fascinating that each of the two figures chose a different key moment to include accessories for. Maybe this was planned so they didn't compete with each other?

 

*Sigh* I guess I'll just have to eventually get the other one too.

Visionary Poet of the Millennium

An Indian poet Prophet

Seshendra Sharma

October 20th, 1927 - May 30th, 2007

seshendrasharma.weebly.com/

seshen.tributes.in/

www.facebook.com/GunturuSeshendraSharma/

eBooks :http://kinige.com/author/Gunturu+Seshendra+Sharma

 

Rivers and poets

Are veins and arteries

Of a country.

Rivers flow like poems

For animals, for birds

And for human beings-

The dreams that rivers dream

Bear fruit in the fields

The dreams that poets dream

Bear fruit in the people-

* * * * * *

The sunshine of my thought fell on the word

And its long shadow fell upon the century

Sun was playing with the early morning flowers

Time was frightened at the sight of the martyr-

-Seshendra Sharma

"We are children of a century which has seen revolutions, awakenment of large masses of people over the earth and their emancipation from slavery and colonialism wresting equality from the hands of brute forces and forging links of brotherhood across mankind.

This century has seen peaks of human knowledge; unprecedented intercourse of peoples and

perhaps for the first time saw the world stand on the brink of the dilemma of one world or destruction.

It is a very inspiring century, its achievements are unique.

A poet who is not conscious of this context fails in his existence as poet."

-Seshendra Sharma

(From his introduction to his “Poet’s notebook "THE ARC OF BLOOD" )

* * * * * *

B.A: Andhra Christian College: Guntur: A.P: India

B.L : Madras University: Madras

Deputy Municipal Commissioner (37 Years)

Dept of Municipal Administration, Government of Andhra Pradesh

Parents: G.Subrahmanyam (Father) ,Ammayamma (Mother)

Siblings: Anasuya,Devasena (Sisters),Rajasekharam(Younger brother)

Wife: Mrs.Janaki Sharma

Children: Vasundhara , Revathi (Daughters),

Vanamaali ,Saatyaki (Sons)

 

Seshendra Sharma is one of the most outstanding minds of modern Asia. He is the foremost of the Telugu poets today who has turned poetry to the gigantic strides of human history and embellished literature with the thrills and triumphs of the 20th century. A revolutionary poet who spurned the pedestrian and pedantic poetry equally, a brilliant critic and a scholar of Sanskrit, this versatile poet has breathed a new vision of modernity to his vernacular.Such minds place Telugu on the world map of intellectualism. Readers conversant with names like Paul Valery, Gauguin, and Dag Hammarskjold will have to add the name of Seshendra Sharma the writer from India to that dynasty of intellectuals.

* * *

Seshendra Sharma better known as Seshendra isa colossus of Modern Indian poetry.

His literature is a unique blend of the best of poetry and poetics.

Diversity and depth of his literary interests and his works

are perhaps hitherto unknown in Indian literature.

From poetry to poetics, from Mantra Sastra to Marxist Politics his writings bear an unnerving pprint of his rare genius.

His scholarship and command over Sanskrit , English and Telugu Languages has facilitated his emergence as a towering personality of comparative literature in the 20th century world literature.

T.S.Eliot ,ArchbaldMacleish and Seshendra Sharma are trinity of world poetry and Poetics.

His sense of dedication to the genre of art he chooses to express himself and

the determination to reach the depths of subject he undertakes to explore

place him in the galaxy of world poets / world intellectuals.

Seshendra’seBooks :http://kinige.com/author/Gunturu+Seshendra+Sharma

Seshendra Sharma’s Writings Copyright © Saatyaki S/o Seshendra Sharma

Contact :saatyaki@gmail.com+919441070985+917702964402

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

Seshendra Sharma : Scholar - Poet

Seshendra Sharma, a scholar - poet was born (October 20, 1927) into a Pujari ( Priests ) family in Nellore District in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India . Seshendra’s father and his grandfather were well versed in Sanskrit Literature, Vedas and scriptures. At home itself, thus from his childhood , Seshendra got the opportunity of learning and training in Sanskrit. This was further nurtured by the Village school of Thotapalligudur, where he spent best part of his childhood.

Seshendra’s father was a well-to-do person, a Munsif ( village officer ) of the village, possessing more than Ten Acres of agricultural Wet land and own house . Father’s desire to see his son flower into a top man turned a new leaf in Seshendra’s life. Seshendra’s father admitted him for B.A. Graduation course in Andhra Christian College in Guntur. Incidentally, Seshendra’s Family Sir Name and this town’s name are one and the same. This is a turning point in the budding poet’s journey. Seshendra got significant exposure to the Western World, particularly to the Western Literature. The makings of a Visionary Poet germinated in him in this Alma Mater. His journey of poetry started with Translation of Mathew Arnold’s “Sohrab and Rustum “ , a long poem , which Seshendra translated into Telugu in Metrical poetry with accomplished finesse . This trend eventually blossomed and Seshendra emerged as an Epic – Poet. His My Country – My People : Modern Indian Epic is observed by learned critics as a land mark in modern poetry ranking it on par with T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land . This long poem was nominated for Nobel Prize in 2004. His subsequent works Gorilla, Turned into water and fled away, Ocean is my name – long poems were reviewed in scholarly strain.

Seshendra’s desire to perform in films took him to Madras, today’s Chennai in Tamil Nadu. In Madras he formally joined B.L. Course with Madras Law College. And was developing contacts in the Telugu Cinema Circles and was working as a freelance journalist. He used to translate articles into Telugu for Janavani , a popular weekly of those times whose editor was Tapi Dharma Rao , a towering personality of Telugu Literature. This facet of journalism of his personality rose to its full heights in 90s. When Soviet Union collapsed he wrote a series of articles in Telugu as well as in English decrying the west’s sinister plot, villainous machinations to pull down Communist Regimes. He sang odes / Laurels to communism and expressed in aggressive tone and style that communism will never die. It remains in the genes of oppressed peoples of the world for ever. Perhaps Seshendra is the only poet from the Indian Subcontinent to pen Anti – Imperialist essays during those times. He completed his Law course but his desire to act in films remained unfulfilled. Seshendra’s Classmates at his Alma Mater, A.C.College, Guntur, N.T.Rama Rao and Kongara Jaggaiah became popular actors of Telugu Cinema. N.T.R became an all time super –hero. Seshendra’s father and maternal uncle forcibly brought him back from Madras, and with the good offices of native Member of Parliament put him in Government service as Deputy Panchayat Officer. In due course of time, on deputation, joined Municipal Administration Department and worked as Municipal Commissioner in all Major cities and towns of Andhra Pradesh. With the result he got wide exposure to conditions of social life of his times. He obtained personal acquaintance of Common Man’s life and his travails. This enriched his vision of life and literature a great deal.

With Seshendra Poetry and Poetics are Siamese Twins. He penned works of Literary Criticism both on classical and contemporary poetry. Sahitya Kaumudi (Telugu ) and his bi-lingual book “ the ARC of Blood : My Note Book “ illustrate this point. His Research work on Valmiki’s Ramayana , Shodasi : Secrets of The Ramayana , questions the very foundations of centuries old assumptions. Seshendra, based on scientific research citing from the original text of Valmiki and Vedas, reveals that The Ramayana is not just story of Rama told in enchanting poetry , But the Sage wrote the epic to spread Kundalini Yoga among the masses of his era. His observations that the concepts of Vishnu and Reincarnation were non –existent during Valmiki’s Epoch constitute a revolt against centuries old beliefs. Sita is the central character of The Ramayana and she is Kundalini Shakti / Adi Para Shakthi . During that era temples and prayers were nonexistent. This hits directly at the very foundation of Temple System.

His Kavisena Manifesto , is a noteworthy work on Modern Poetics. In this work, he compiles cogently definitions of poetry cutting across centuries and countries and writes scintillating commentary. This Manifesto of Modern Poetry is a sort of Wikipedia page of world poetry. Seshendra, finally concludes that poetry is emotions and feelings skilfully garbed in unusual diction, and poetry is a way of life.

Discerning scholars critics and academics are of intrinsic opinion that T.S.Eliot ,Archibald MacLeish and Seshendra Sharma are trinity of world poetry and Poetics.

But this Scholar – poet of 20th century is an unsung and unwept genius of his times.

Prime Minister of India honoured Seshendra with Gold Medal in Sahitya Akademi ( India ) Golden Jubilee celebrations and Chief Minister of AP honoured him with Hansa Literary Award on the eve of UGADI , Telugu New Year Day in 2005 .

In one of his poems he says fragrance of stars is calling me. Seshendra left this world and vanished into fragrance of galaxies on May 30, 2007.

* * * * * *

 

GunturuSeshendraSarma: an extraordinary poet-scholar

One of the ironies in literature is that

he came to be known more as a critic than a poet

 

HYDERABAD: An era of scholastic excellence and poetic grandeur has come to an end in the passing away of GunturuSeshendraSarma, one of the foremost poets and critics in Telugu literature. His mastery over western literature and Indian `AlankaraSastra' gave his works a stunning imagery, unparalleled in modern Indian works. One of the ironies in literature is that he came to be known more as a critic than a poet. The Central SahityaAkademi award was conferred on him for his work `KaalaRekha' and not for his poetic excellence. The genius in him made him explore `Kundalini Yoga' in his treatise on Ramayana in `Shodasi' convincingly. His intellectual quest further made him probe `NaishadhaKaavya' in the backdrop of `LalitaSahasraNaamavali', `SoundaryaLahari' and `Kama Kala Vilasam' in `SwarnaHamsa', Seshendra saw the entire universe as a storehouse of images and signs to which imagination was to make value-addition. Like Stephene Mallarme who was considered a prophet of symbolism in French literature, SeshendraSarma too believed that art alone would survive in the universe along with poetry. He believed that the main vocation of human beings was to be artists and poets. His `Kavisena Manifesto' gave a new direction to modern criticism making it a landmark work in poetics. Telugus would rue the intellectual impoverishment they suffered in maintaining a `distance' from him. Seshendra could have given us more, but we did not deserve it! The denial of the Jnanpeeth Award to him proves it

 

The Hindu

India's National Newspaper

Friday, Jun 01, 2007

 

* * * * * *

Pardon Me Father!

 

I could not rescue him from the clutches of that nymphomaniac and vampire. There may be an exception or two but an average Indian woman desires from the depths of her soul that her husband should live long and she should pass away before him. She performs prayers and fasts on auspicious days for this purpose. She in spite of being 3years elder to him did away with my father in a planned and premeditated manner and I was a silent and helpless witness to it. He suffered 1st Heart attack in November 1997. Cardiologists performed angiogram and advised open heart surgery. Because there were blocks in vessels and one valve was damaged. But she successfully thwarted it and without my knowledge or informing any one got angioplasty done in Mediciti (Hyderabad: AP; India) her plan was to do away with him and live long, and establish herself as his wife through his books. He was succumbing to her blackmail. My overwhelming hunch is that she was threatening him with social insult and humiliation if he parts ways with her.

 

Between 1997-2007, she played football with his body. He used to be hospitalized every now and then with swollen body and heart pain. Because of damaged valve pumping was impaired and water used to accumulate in the system. Every time I used to force her to hospitalize him. He used be in ICCU for a couple of days and recover marginally. After each visit to hospital he was getting debilitated gradually. He was put on wheel chair. He was virtually under house arrest. He was not allowed to speak to friends and family members. Visitors were kept away. He was taking Lasix (Tablet: is a diuretic that is used to treat fluid accumulation, caused by heart failure, cirrhosis, chronic kidney failure, and nephrotic syndrome.) to flush out water accumulated in his body. This creates a painful dilemma in me whether my interference in his health matters was just. As his son it was my moral duty to protect him. But I sometimes feel if I were not to interfere she would have put him to death long ago and thus he would have escaped from physical and mental torture quite early.

 

Towards perhaps end of the month of March she withdrew medication. He got swollen suddenly and that condition continued till the last day i.e. 30th may 2007. Each time I visited I used to tell that witch to take him to hospital. But after a couple of visits I got convinced that she made up her mind this time to do away with him. I requested a bastard who was feigning to be a friend of mine, who incidentally happens to be a legal luminary of this region to send a doctor friend to that place and ascertain the exact condition of his health. But of no avail.

 

I kept on telling him to come out of that place and lead a normal and healthy life. Her blackmail gained an upper hand and I lost in my efforts to restore health to him and bring him back to civilized society. O God pardon me for not being able to outmanoeuvre her machinations. Pardon me father.

 

* * *

 

Who Are The Legal Heirs of Seshendra Sharma ?

DISCLAIMER

The literary world is aware that my father Gunturu Seshendra Sharma, eminent poet, litterateur and scholar-critic, died on 30th may 2007. Ever since he expired, there has been no mention of his parents, family members and other personal details in the news and in the articles about him. Not only this, fictional lies are being spread and using money power one shady lady is being propagated as his wife and so on. This has been causing me, as his son, a great mental agony. That is why, through this article, I am revealing certain fundamental truths to the literary field of this country and the civilized society. I appeal to your conscience to uphold truth, justice and values of our composite culture.

 

Seshendra Sharma's family members are: Parents: Subrahmanyam Sharma, Ammaayamma- Wife: Janaki Daughters: Vasundhara, Revathi, Sons: Vanamali, Saatyaki. Only these two are legal heirs of Seshendra Sharma, socially and morally too.

 

Street Play and Circus: In 1972, away from the civilized society, without the knowledge of parents and near and dear, in a far flung village called Halebeed in Karnataka a circus, a street play was staged. Let me make it clear that even after this street play my father did not divorce my mother Mrs.G.Janaki legally. He never had even a faint intention of committing such an uncivilized act. On the contrary, in all crucial Government documents he nominated my mother as his legal heir from time to time. During his long career as Municipal Commissioner with The Government of Andhra Pradesh, he retired 3 times. His first retirement came in 1975 by way of compulsory retirement for his anti establishment writings during Mrs. Gandhi's' emergency. His second retirement came in 1983 when the then new chief minister N.T. Rama Rao's government reduced the age of service from 58 to 55 years. The third and final retirement in the year 1985 on attaining 58 years of age. On all these occasions, in all the government documents, my father Seshendra Sharma nominated my mother Mrs. Janaki as his legal heir. This is precisely why the self contradictory 'second marriage' is a circus enacted away from the society and Law does not recognize this type of street plays as marriage.

 

Lakshmi Parvathi in literature

 

N.T. Rama Rao, actor turned politician married Ms. Lakshimi Parvathi in 1994 and subsequently in January 1995 he came to power for the second time. She used to act as an extra constitutional power and run the matters of government and the party. She developed her own coterie of cohorts and started dominating the party. After NTR was toppled by his own son- in-law, most of them parted ways with her. And the remaining touts left her for good the day NTR breathed his last. Ms.Indira Dhanrajgir has been playing the same role in Telugu literature over a period of more than 3 decades. In the guise of literature she developed her own coterie of lumpens with extra literary and money mongering elements - Tangirala Subba Rao, Velichala Kondala RAo(Editor:Jayanthi) Cheekolu Sundarayya(A.G.'s Office, Hyderabad et al).

 

There are a couple[ of dissimilarities between these two instances. After the demise of NTR, L.P's coterie of cohorts disappeared once and for all. Whereas, in Indira Dhanrajgir's case new lumpens are entering the field with the passage of time. Squandering her late father's wealth, she is roping in new touts. Since NTR's wife Basava Tarakam passed away in 1984 and since he was old and sick NTR's marriage with LP has ethical basis and is legal completely. Whereas I.D's is neither ethical nor legal. Hence it is a street play. This is the reason why after my father's death she has been spending money on a larger scale and indulging in false publicity and propaganda. Bh. Krishna Murthy, Sadasiva Sharma (The then Editor of Andhra Prabha:Telugu Daily, presently with Hindi Milap) Chandrasekhara Rao(Telugu lecturer: Methodist Degree College) etc. are indulging in all sorts of heinous acts to prop up I.D as my father's wife.

 

My father passed away on 30 May 2007. When our family was in grief and I was performing the 11 day ritual as per my mother's wish, the above mentioned Sadasiva Sharma went to Municipal Office on 4th June, created ruckus, played havoc telling them that he is from the Prime Minister's Office , мейд some 'senior officials' make phone calls to the officials concerned and got my father's death certificate forcibly issued. When the entire family was mourning the death of the family head, a stranger and a lumpen S.S -Why did he collect my father's death certificate forcibly from the municipal authorities? Whom did he collect it for?

 

THREE NAMES OF THE SAME PERSON IN 3 DECADES

 

This is perhaps for the first time that the name of a lady appears in 3 forms at a time. Perhaps in 1970, in my father's collection of poems"PAKSHULU her name appeared As Rajkumari Indira Devi Dhanrajgir. In 2006 she published a fake version of Kamaostav(Rewritten by a muffian Called Chandrasekhara Rao) . In this book her name appears as R.I.D.D. Prior to 1970 in Maqdoom Mohiuddeen's(Renowned Urdu Poet) anthology of poetry 'Bisath -E-Raks', in Urdu as well as Hindi , at the end of two poems her name appears as Kumari Indira Dhanrajgir. On 15th June 2007 A.P state cultural affairs department and Telugu University jointly held my father's memorial meeting. I.D hijacked this meeting by issuing her own commercial advertisements in English and Telugu dailies. In these advertisements her name appeared as Smt. Indira Devi Seshendra Sharma and again in the commercial public notices мейд by her in the month of November 2007her name appeared as Rajkumari devi etc. Why does her name appear in different forms on different occasions? Will I.D explain? Will Sadasiva Sharma clarify, who forcibly took my father's death certificate after four days of his death? Or will Bh.Krishna Murthy clarify?

 

If I.D has even an iota of regard, respect for or faith in love, or relation, the institution of marriage, immediately after'Halebeed Circus', she would have used my father's family sir name and her name would have appeared as Gunturu Indira. Since she was conscious of her goal during all times and conditions she did not take such a hasty and mindless step of change of her name.

 

WHERE DOES THE REAL SECRET LIE? Her life is totally illegal, anti-social and immoral. I.D's father performed her marriage with SRikishenSeth, Nephew of the then Prime minister to Nizam, Maharaja Kishen pershad in 1945. On the day of marriage itself I.D beat SrikeshenSeth up and ran away from him. She did not stop at that. She propagated among his friends and relatives and near and dear that he was not enough of a man and unfit for conjugal/ marital life. She filed a divorce case against him and dragged it till 1969/70. Lion's share of her husband's life got evaporated and was sapped completely by then. His parents used to approach I.D's father and plead with him to prevail upon his daughter, put sense into her head and see that she either lives with their son or dissolves the marriage legally so that they can remarry off their son. But I.D did not heed. Raja Dhanrajgir after getting disgusted with her nasty activities stipulated a mandatory condition in his will. He stated that I.D would be entitled to get a share of his property only if she is married.

 

This is the reason why ID who has no respect for the institution of marriage or regard or desire for marital life , in the guise of love and love poetry inflicted indelible blemish on the institution of marriage which is unprecedented in the literary history of the world. After my father's death she has been indulging in more rigorous false publicity along with her coterie of touts.

 

KAMOSTAV:STORY OF ID'S SOUL:

 

With this novel Kamostav, father's literary life came to an end for good. He did not produce literary works worth mentioning in his later phase of life. During those days he asked for my opinion on that novel. I told him clearly that it lacks the form and content of a novel- it does not have a story line, plot, sequences, characters and eventually a message which every novel gives. Hence it is a trash. Several people went to court and got its publication in a weekly stopped. ID got this very trash rewritten completely by Chandrasekhara Rao and printed it. This kind of heinous development has never taken place in the recorded history of Telugu literature till date. A writing which brought disrepute to my father in the literary field and isolated him in the society, why did she get it rewritten by somebody and publish it claiming copyright to be hers? What is her motive? What is her aim? That is why Kamotsav is ID's biography, story of her inner soul.

 

SESHENDRA'S COPYRIGHTS:

 

My father gifted away copyrights of his entire works along with their translations to me by way of birth day gift to me on 2.12.1989. Since then I have published several of his works during his lifetime itself. Kamostav, the version that is secretly мейд available is the dirty work of cheapsters and lumpens under the leadership of ID. It is much worse than violation of copyrights. That is the reason why I have been reluctant to take action so far. If she and her debased henchmen try to violate copyrights of my father's works bequeathed to me, I shall take exemplary legal action against them.

 

ID мейд 2 public notices to the effect that my father cancelled all his earlier transfer of copyrights and retransferred all his rights to her. This is a palace intrigue in the modern era in our civilized society.

 

WHAT DOES LAW SAY ABOUT COPYRIGHTS?

 

An author can transfer copyrights of his works to any one as per her/his wish. But the Copyrights Act 1957 and the Supreme Court in its various judgments has clearly stipulated a procedure to revoke earlier assignment and transferring of copyrights to somebody else subsequently. The author has to issue a notice to the 1st assignee, giving 6 months time for reply. Depending on the reply the author can take his next step. Where as in my father's copyrights matter he did not even inform me orally of any such cancellation. ID claims that she has a typed document of transfer of copyrights signed by my father on 5.1.2006. Between 5.1.2006 and 30.5.2007, leave alone issuing a notice, he did not even inform me orally.

 

My father who assigned copyrights to me in his own handwriting, when he was relatively young and physically fit did not require to cancel the 1st assignment when he was totally dilapidated, almost bedridden and was counting his days. Another important aspect of the matter is that I have printed the Xerox of my father's document in his own works as early as 1995 and have been doing so from time to time during his life time. Where as ID claims to possess a document after my father's death and she has not мейд it public so far. ID tried to get my father's complete works published in different languages by Telugu University (Hyderabad: A.P: India) by paying them Rs. 6 Lakhs. I approached Telugu University and apprised them of facts. On the advice of legal experts, they stopped this project and returned ID's money to her. It is an incontrovertible fact that ID's document is a forged and fraudulent document which does not stand scrutiny before law. Court shall certainly award her exemplary punishment. In all societies and times literature has been social wealth/public property from time immemorial. It should not be used as a mask to grab share of parental property illegally and unethically. I am committed to this cause/ ideal and appeal to the civilized society to strengthen my hands in this endeavor. ID's younger brother Sri Mahendra Pratapgir is the lone legal heir apparent of that family and keeping him in dark, she is squandering her father's wealth in Telugu literature for her nasty propaganda.

 

FATHER PASSED AWAY:

 

In 1997 when he suffered the 1st heart attack he was half-dead. Dr.Sudhakar Reddy, cardiologist of Mediciti Hospitals (Native of Warangal.A.P) performed angiogram and diagnosed that he had blocks in arteries and one valve was damaged completely. He advised open heart surgery. But ID averted it and got angioplasty performed. His health declined rapidly since then and was leading the life of virtually an invalid till he breathed his last. He suffered inexplicable mental and physical torture for about a decade. During the last leg of his journey he was isolated from his family completely. He was deserted by one and all in the literary field. When his younger brother passed away, his younger sister passed away he did not visit his ancestral home in his village and call on those families. He became target of jealousy and animosity in the society. He became a victim of false impression with the society that he was an aristocrat and rolling in luxuries. Whereas, he was deprived of even his native vegetarian food for decades together. As a silent and helpless witness to these painful happenings, I was subject to untold mental agony.

 

In the later half of March 2007 on one of my visits to him, I was aghast at his condition. His entire body was swollen. His appearance was like that of a stuffed gunny bag. I told him to get hospitalized. I told ID to rush him to a hospital. But of no avail. On 30th may 2007 at about 11 pm I got a phone call from her" Come soon/Serious" she said. As I entered at 11.15 pm "Go inside/he is no more' she said.

 

* * One day when swarms of lamps vanish, in the light of a lonely lamp I ask the dumb pillars "Can't you liberate me from the disgust of this existence? I ask those stand still forest flame trees

which blossom flowers at that very place year after year

 

"can't you rescue me?

 

I ask those high roof tops and this Venetian furniture

 

which every one feels are greater than me, "can't you rescue me from the disgust of this existence?" All these answer in a melancholic voice "We have been languishing since more than 100 years watching the same unchanging scenes we are older prisoners than you are" (Janavamsham: Telugu: Seshendra: Page 80-81:1993: Translated by me)

 

My father's first biography (in Hindi) titled "Rashtrendu Seshendra: Ashesh Aayaam" by Dr.Vishranth Vasishth appeared in 1994. Touching upon these very sensitive aspects of my father's life he commented in that book"SONE KE PINJRE ME PANCHCHI" (A bird in a golden cage). Alarmed and agonized by his rapidly declining health, as early as June 2002, in order to bring pressure on ID, I gave a 2 cassettes long interview to Vijayaviharam of Janaharsha group. Later on when I enquired about that interview they said that in the raids conducted on their premises, they got destroyed.

 

I wanted to rescue my father and bring him back home when he was in good health. Alas! At last, I took him to the burial ground, laid him on the funeral pyre and consigned him to flames and returned home all alone.

 

G.Satyaki S/o Late.G.Seshendra Sharma

Hyderabad.T.S.INDIA

saatyaki@gmail.com

+91 94410 70985, 7702964402