The Unofficial New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
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"The Entertainer" is a single by singer Billy Joel released as the only single from his 1974 album Streetlife Serenade. The song peaked at #34 on the US charts
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Lyrics
I am the entertainer
And I know just where I stand
Another serenader
And another long-haired band
Today I am your champion
I may have won your hearts
But I know the game, you'll forget my name
And I won't be here in another year
If I don't stay on the charts, oh
I am the entertainer
And I've had to pay my price
The things I did not know at first
I learned by doin' twice
Ah, but still they come to haunt me
Still they want their say
So I've learned to dance with a hand in my pants
Let 'em rub my neck and I write 'em a check
And they go their merry way, oh
I am the entertainer
Been all around the world
I've played all kinds of palaces
And laid all kinds of girls
I can't remember faces
I don't remember names
Ah, but what the hell? You know it's just as well
'Cause after a while and a thousand miles
It all becomes the same
I am the entertainer
I bring to you my songs
I'd like to spend a day or two
I can't stay that long
Naw, I got to meet expenses
I got to stay in line
Gotta get those fees to the agencies
And I'd love to stay but there's bills to pay
So I just don't have the time
I am the entertainer
I come to do my show
You heard my latest record
It's been on the radio
Ah, it took me years to write it
They were the best years of my life
It was a beautiful song but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05
I am the entertainer
The idol of my age
I make all kinds of money
When I go on the stage
Ah, you've seen me in the papers
I've been in the magazines
But if I go cold I won't get sold
I'll get put in the back in the discount rack
Like another can of beans
I am the entertainer
And I know just where I stand
Another serenader
And another long-haired band
Today I am your champion
I may have won your hearts
But I know the game, you'll forget my name
I won't be here in another year
If I don't stay on the charts
Little Bay Park Fishing Pier - As the sun went down, not only was it a bit dangerous to walk on these haphazardly arranged jagged boulders, giant rats started to come out from their hiding places!
The giant fat rats were as large as the squirrels, if not fatter! NYC is the country's third most rat-infested city – rat sightings are so common that you can easily spot a rodent as you walk down an alley!
Thank goodness, the NYC cockroaches are the tiny ones, not the tropical not-just-giant-but-can-fly types (like those in Houston!!!) , but still gross !!!
**********
From NYC Parks website:
New York City Parks acquired the property via condemnation in September 1950. The agency planned to develop the shoreline area but the construction of the Throgs Neck Bridge and the fiscal crisis of the 1970s put an end to the plan.
The Mantinecock tribe originally inhabited the shores of Little Bay. But in 1644, King Charles I of England gave 16,000 acres of land to his countryman William Lawrence. The grant stimulated European settlement in the area.
Credits:
📷Dahlia - Cici -chair - Texture Change New!! ❥ @ Collabor88
📷Dahlia - Cici - Wall Planters New!! ❥ @ Collabor88
📷Dahlia - Cici - Lavender Tray New!! ❥ @ Collabor88
📷Dahlia - Cici - Lavender New!! ❥ @ Collabor88
📷Dahlia - Cici - Fringe Rug New!! ❥ @ Collabor88
📷Dahlia - Cici - Cushion Table - Texture Change New!! ❥ @ Collabor88
📷Dahlia - Liam - Candle - Velvet Roses @ Main Store
📷Dahlia - Okra - Snake Plant @ Main Store
📷{moss&mink} Book & Magazine stack @ Main Store
📷FOXCITY. Photo Booth - The Agency
Photo from my climb of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, in 2012.
It is available for sale via RooM the Agency.
Credit Here
Queenz
Outfit: Chic Maxi Dress
Color: HUD (Megapack)
Applier: Mesh
Mesh Sizes: Maitreya, Legacy, Kupra, Erika & Reborn Marketplace:https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/176905
InWorld Store: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/QUEENZ/111/118/26
TanTrum
Shoes: Oh Snap Tippy Toe Heels
Color: HUD (Fatpack)
Type: Female
Applier: Mesh
Mesh Sizes: Maitreya, Legacy, Inithium, Ebody(Reborn), Erika
Marketplace Store: marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/227681
Hoodlem Ink
Tattoo: Kisses Neck Tattoo
Celestial Arm & Ethical Tattoo
Color: Black
Gender: Female
Type: BOM
Marketplace Store: marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/160231
Other products item used.
Body: Kalhene / ERIKA (3.2)
Skin: Ives / Somi Skin (Head) , Velour / Ipanema (Body)
Eyes: Avi-Glam / Cupid Eyes
Mesh head: LeLutka / Brannon
Hair: Stealthic / Honey
Nails: Bloom / Dalu Gold Nails
Jewelry: Real Evil / Royalty Queen Ring & Bracelet
Piece Of Me / Jessica Necklace
Accessory: Cinnamon Cocaine / Beverly Hills Bag (Cabo)
Moncada Paris / X Atd Migo Eyewear
Hive / Study buddy
Pose: Foxcity / Secure The Bag
Photo Set: Foxcity / The Agency
Published
news.mongabay.com/2021/03/philippines-looks-to-improve-di...
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Taal Volcano is a large caldera filled by Taal Lake on Luzon island in the Philippines, Taal Volcano is the second most active volcano in the Philippines, with 33 recorded historical eruptions, all of which were concentrated on Volcano Island, near the middle of Taal Lake. The caldera was formed by prehistoric eruptions between 140,000 and 5,380.
Viewed from the Tagaytay Ridge in Cavite, Taal Volcano and Lake presents one of the most picturesque and attractive views in the Philippines. It is located about 50 kilometers (31 mi) south of the capital of the country, the city of Manila. The main crater of Taal Volcano originally had a lake, until the 2020 eruption that evaporated the water inside it.
The volcano has had several violent eruptions in the past, causing loss of life on the island and the populated areas surrounding the lake, with the death toll estimated at about 6,000. Because of its proximity to populated areas and its eruptive history, the volcano was designated a Decade Volcano, worthy of close study to prevent future natural disasters. All volcanoes of the Philippines are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taal_Volcano
The eruption of Taal Volcano was a phreatic eruption from its main crater that spewed ashes across Calabarzon, Metro Manila, and some parts of Central Luzon and Ilocos Region, resulting to the suspension of classes, work schedules, and flights in the area. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) subsequently issued an Alert Level 4, indicating "that a hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours to days.
By January 26, 2020, PHIVOLCS observed an inconsistent, but decreasing volcanic activity in Taal, prompting the agency to downgrade its warning to Alert Level 3. It was until February 14, 2020, when PHIVOLCS finally decided to downgrade the volcano's warning to Alert Level 2, due to consistent decreased volcanic activity
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Taal_Volcano_eruption
The photo was taken from Tagaytay Ridge on 28 February, 2020, when the volcano warning is at alert level 2 (sudden steam-driven or phreatic explosions, volcanic earthquakes, ashfall and lethal accumulations or expulsions of volcanic gas can occur and threaten areas within Taal Volcano Island and along its coast)
This is not a joke it is ablosutely true.
The Copais Lake Agency was created in 1957 to supervise the draining of the lake and building of a new road. The task was completed that same year, but the agency with full-time staff of 30 (including a driver for the president of the agency) still existed until 2010!!!!!!!
Peat, also known as turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs.
The peatland ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet, because peatland plants capture CO2 naturally released from the peat, maintaining an equilibrium. In natural peatlands, the "annual rate of biomass production is greater than the rate of decomposition", but it takes "thousands of years for peatlands to develop the deposits of 1.5 to 2.3 m [4.9 to 7.5 ft], which is the average depth of the boreal [northern] peatlands".
Sphagnum moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most common components in peat, although many other plants can contribute. The biological features of Sphagnum mosses act to create a habitat aiding peat formation, a phenomenon termed 'habitat manipulation'. Soils consisting primarily of peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding or stagnant water obstructs the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing the rate of decomposition.
Peatlands, particularly bogs, are the primary source of peat, although less-common wetlands including fens, pocosins, and peat swamp forests also deposit peat. Landscapes covered in peat are home to specific kinds of plants including Sphagnum moss, ericaceous shrubs, and sedges (see bog for more information on this aspect of peat). Because organic matter accumulates over thousands of years, peat deposits provide records of past vegetation and climate by preserving plant remains, such as pollen. This allows the reconstruction of past environments and study changes in land use.
Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world. By volume, there are about 4 trillion cubic metres (5.2 trillion cubic yards) of peat in the world, covering a total of around 2% of the global land area (about 3 million square kilometres or 1.2 million square miles), containing about 8 billion terajoules of energy. Over time, the formation of peat is often the first step in the geological formation of other fossil fuels such as coal, particularly low-grade coal such as lignite.
Depending on the agency, peat is not generally regarded as a renewable source of energy, due to its extraction rate in industrialized countries far exceeding its slow regrowth rate of 1 mm per year, and as it is also reported that peat regrowth takes place only in 30-40% of peatlands. Because of this, the UNFCCC, and another organization affiliated with the United Nations classified peat as a fossil fuel.
However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has begun to classify peat as a "slowly renewable" fuel. This is also the classification used by many in the peat industry. At 106 g CO2/MJ, the carbon dioxide emission intensity of peat is higher than that of coal (at 94.6 g CO2/MJ) and natural gas (at 56.1) (IPCC).
"Ever wonder whether biologists' constant renaming and reshuffling of organisms from one taxonomical pigeonhole to another has any actual importance in the real world?
You could ask the wrentit. A tiny bird that lives in stands of chaparral along the California coast, the wrentit was just reassigned from one family of birds to another -- and as a result, it's now protected under one of America's oldest environmental laws: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA).
How'd this happen? It has to do with a group of scientists who discuss bird taxonomy in the U.S., and how the agency responsible for enforcing the MBTA follows those scientists' lead in determining which birds are protected by the law.
...
Taxonomic categories reflect, as closely as we can determine, which groups of organisms share common ancestors, and how those common ancestors were themselves related to each other. As we learn more about how we all evolved, through DNA analysis and other means, we learn that some of our old notions about how each of us fit into the big evolutionary jigsaw puzzle need to be updated. When that happens, taxonomy often needs to change as well.
The wrentit, Chamaea fasciata, is part of a larger group of birds that has perplexed ornithologists for some time. In recent years it's been bounced between five different closely related families depending on which ornithologist is writing about them. Until recently the AOU Checklist put the wrentit in the family Timaliidae, commonly known as Old World babblers, a huge group of small songbirds similar to warblers and thrushes. Most Old world babblers are native to Eurasia, Africa, and Australasia, with an especially diverse number of species in the Indian subcontinent.
...What does all this mean? There hasn't been any change in the wrentit, but as a result of a taxonomical technicality it now enjoys the protection of a law that is, when USFWS decides to enforce it, a fairly stringent environmental protection law. Once the ruling becomes effective on December 1, big development projects that threaten to disrupt California's chaparral habitat have one more wildlife species to consider, and one more set of permits to get before they can start cutting down coyote brush.
Not a bad result from a group of scientists considering what might seem forbiddingly wonky data."
Chris Clarke
kcet.org
Moremi Game Reserve
Okavango Delta
Botswana
Southern Africa
Happy Caturday!
Mothers can give birth to up to six cubs at a time, but litters of two or three are more common. Just before giving birth, the mother will leave the pride and find a secluded, isolated, safe place.
At 10 days old, lion cubs will open their eyes and very soon after that – between 10 to 15 days old – will start walking. The mother will keep the cubs in isolation, away from pride, for the first four to eight weeks of their lives.
At around three months old the cubs will start to eat meat. Male lions generally play no paternal role when it comes to providing food for the cubs. Baby lions may be referred to as cubs, whelps, or lionets. A “whelp” refers to any young member of a carnivorous species, while “lionet” means “small lion” in Middle French.
Female lions, sisters, live together for life. Their female cubs also stay with the pride, even after they’re grown, but male cubs must venture out on their own once they reach maturity.
Last year the US Fish and Wildlife Services announced that African lions may be facing extinction by the year 2050. The agency proposed listing the lions as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
The greatest threats facing lions are habitat loss, loss of prey (largely due to the bushmeat trade), and human-lion conflict, including sport hunting and retaliation kills, in which lions are killed after attacking area livestock.
There are only about 34,000 lions left in Africa, which is about half the number that existed 30 years ago. About 70 percent of these animals live in just 10 regions of the continent, mostly in southern and eastern Africa. In West Africa, fewer than 250 adult lions remain. – Wikipedia
Kawagoe (川越) is located 45 km north northwest of Shinjuku. It is known as a Ko-edo (小江戸) town meaning small Edo, which is one of the castle towns developed by modelling after Edo and still looks like Edo when it was the seat of the shogunate.
It is served by the Iruma-gawa river (入間川) that is the upstream of the Sumida-gawa and the Shingashi-gawa (新河岸川) that is a half-canal tributary of the Sumida-gawa; therefore Kawagoe was reached by boat from Edo as well as by a road called Kawagoe Kaidou (川越街道).
It is now a bed town of salarymen who work in Tokyo. It takes 40 minutes by rail from Kawagoe to Shinjuku.
Shitamachi of Edo like Nihonbashi and Ginza used to be lined up with such Kura warehouses as in the photo. It is noted that the existing Kura in Kawagoe are reconstructions after the fire in 1893 during the Meiji period.
The area in the photo survived throughout the construction booms of concrete buildings thanks to the popularity among tourists and a long distance from railway stations.
It is designated as a Denken-chiku (伝建地区) or Conservation Area for the Group of Traditional Architectures (伝統的建造物群保存地区) by the Agency of Cultural Affairs (文化庁).
It stayed cloudy the entire day tht I chased YR-1 with a pair of 38's and a set of recently delivered U18B's . Here they are rolling through Lunenburg Vermont just a few feet from crossing the Connecticut River into New Hampshire. I covered the agency in Gilman on a vacation relief hold down back in 82. What a great job.
Ogi (pronounced Oguí) is an old port town in southern Sadogashima. It has a ferry service to and from Naoetsu (直江津) in the main island.
Kihachiya (喜八屋) is a rare five-story wooden architecture that had been used as a Japanese inn until 2012.
It is only 5 km from here to Shukunegi; hence the architectural style shows some similarities to the traditional houses in Shukunegi.
Kihachiya was built in 1905 as a two-story Japanese inn, and the third to fifth stories were added in 1928. Such high-rise wooden construction is not allowed anymore under the current architectural regulations that place priority on the RC architecture.
It is registered to the Agency of Cultural Affairs (文化庁) as a Registered Intangible Heritage (登録有形文化財).
Granitz Hunting Lodge (German: Jagdschloss Granitz) is located on the German island of Rügen in the vicinity of the seaside resort of Binz. With over 200,000 visitors per year it is the most popular castle or schloss in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The hunting lodge (Jagdschloss) was built on the highest hill in East Rügen, the 107 m above sea level (NN) high Tempelberg, in the years 1838 to 1846 by order of Prince Wilhelm Malte I of Putbus, based on a design by Berlin architect, Johann Gottfried Steinmeyer in the style of the North Italian Renaissance castellos. It was once a popular holiday destination for European nobility and prominent people; for example, Frederick William IV, Christian VIII, Otto von Bismarck, Elizabeth von Arnim, and Johann Jacob Grümbke numbered amongst its visitors.
The lodge was owned by the von Putbus family until 1944 and passed into Nazi hands on the imprisonment of Malte von Putbus. The family was finally dispossessed as part of the East German land reforms and the castle remains today in state hands. After the end of the Second World War many of the furnishings were lost or stolen, several works of art were taken to the Berlin Art Depot, the agency for the administration of Soviet assets in Germany, and transferred in 1953 to the state museums in Berlin.
Attempts by the grandson of Malte zu Putbus, Franz zu Putbus, to get the family seat returned failed in court. The building is used today as a museum.
The castle was renovated at the beginning of the 21st century at a cost of 7.9 million euros.
Design:
The two-storey, plastered, brick edifice has a rectangular ground plan and four small corner towers. In the centre of the building in the old courtroom there is a 38-metre-high central tower, erected later based on plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Inside is a cantilevered circular staircase with 154 cast-iron steps. The static forces of the heavy iron staircase are entirely absorbed by the side walls; because it virtually clamped to the tower.
From the observation platform, 145 metres above sea level (NN), on the roof of the tower, there is a panoramic view in all directions, especially over the south and east of Rügen. In clear visibility the island of Usedom may be seen.
Source: wikipedia
Invited to a Fine Arts Fair, I visited what is called 'Kasteel Groeneveld' in Dutch. That translates as 'Groeneveld Castle', But thinking about 'castle' and just having looked at Muiden Castle near Amsterdam, I decided I don't like that word as a description of this fine Manor. A castle is a fortified building often dating to the Middle Ages, and this Country Seat has no fortifications at all; the picturesque moat doesn't really count. Rather than 'kasteel' in Dutch I think I'd rather use 'Heerlijkheid' or 'Buitenplaats' or perhaps 'Huis' or 'Huize'.
The Manor was built in stages from 1710 onwards and was initiated by one Marcus Mamuchet Jr. (1696-1730). He hailed from a French family who'd made a lot of money in copper smithing but moved to Holland to escape religious persecution. Marcus died childless and the Manor passed to various families down through the centuries. At present it's administered by Staatsbosbeheer, the agency of nature reserves in The Netherlands.
The Manor has delightful gardens and there I saw this Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus. Just look at those wonderful copper tones of its wings dusted with heavenly blue.
So Coldplay isn't the only one to see a sky full of stars, these are 22K light-years away
Located approximately 22,000 light-years away in the constellation of Musca (The Fly), this tightly packed collection of stars — known as a globular cluster — goes by the name of NGC 4833. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the dazzling stellar group in all its glory.
NGC 4833 is one of the over 150 globular clusters known to reside within the Milky Way. These objects are thought to contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy. Studying these ancient cosmic clusters can help astronomers to unravel how a galaxy formed and evolved, and give an idea of the galaxy’s age.
Globular clusters are responsible for some of the most striking sights in the cosmos, with hundreds of thousands of stars congregating in the same region of space. Hubble has observed many of these clusters during its time in orbit around our planet, each as breathtaking as the last.
bit.ly/2b85p36
Image credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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I made a better ad for my agency.. the other one was shit. x]
So I've had this Agency for a while, and no one knows who's signed or not.. x] Well, now there's a site! ;3 Most of the girls that I've entered BNTM's or ect, are on there. Lillie and Nat inspired me to make a site. ;) If anyone wants to be apart of the agency, just send me some test shots of your model, and I'll be gladly to examine them, :) And for the winners of my BNTM will also signed too. ;)
Link: www.wix.com/rainbowdoll489/rainbowcouturemodelz#!
Hope you guys likee! ;3
Union Pacific’s N200 manifest has stopped to switch in Spanish Fork, Utah the afternoon of Feb. 6, 1988. After the agency here closed in 1973, UP donated the building to a local chapter of the Old Timers Club, named for South Central District manager Harold B. Brandt. The Harriman standard depot along the Provo Subdivision at 5802 South Depot Road has seen very little use over the years, sitting vacant and derelict for decades.
This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the colorful "last hurrah" of a star like our sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the center. Our sun will eventually burn out and shroud itself with stellar debris, but not for another 5 billion years.
Our Milky Way Galaxy is littered with these stellar relics, called planetary nebulae. The objects have nothing to do with planets. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century astronomers called them the name because through small telescopes they resembled the disks of the distant planets Uranus and Neptune. The planetary nebula in this image is called NGC 2440. The white dwarf at the center of NGC 2440 is one of the hottest known, with a surface temperature of more than 360,000 degrees Fahrenheit (200,000 degrees Celsius). The nebula's chaotic structure suggests that the star shed its mass episodically. During each outburst, the star expelled material in a different direction. This can be seen in the two bowtie-shaped lobes. The nebula also is rich in clouds of dust, some of which form long, dark streaks pointing away from the star. NGC 2440 lies about 4,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Puppis.
The material expelled by the star glows with different colors depending on its composition, its density and how close it is to the hot central star. Blue samples helium; blue-green oxygen, and red nitrogen and hydrogen.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Noll (STScI), Acknowledgment: The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Crédits
_____________________
VELOUR: Angele Skin Genus - (Rose) @ Tres Chic
_____________________
Hair : Magika - Faye
Head: GENUS Project - Genus Head - Strange Face W001
Body: [LEGACY] Meshbody (f) Perky Edition (
FOXCITY. Photo Booth - The Agency
General Mansilla/Bartolomè Bavio
Los vecinos del pueblo de Magdalena, siendo gobernador Carlos Casares, en 1872 iniciaron las gestiones para que el ferrocarril de Buenos Aires a la Ensenada se prolongara hasta Magdalena. Este ramal benefició los campos de Cajaraville y de Bavio, y fue don Bartolomé (Bavio) el que donó a la compañía del entonces ferrocarril de la Provincia, toda la superficie para las vías y la estación, con el compromiso de que ésta se nomenclara Bartolomé Bavio. El gobierno acepta la designación y la línea se inaugura el 15 de mayo de 1887. Pero para este momento aún no había el trazado de un pueblo. En la documentación que existe en el archivo público y en el Departamento de Investigación Histórica y Cartográfica de la Dirección de Geodesia, que es la dependencia heredera del Departamento Topográfico, creado por Rivadavia en 1826, y el Departamento de Ingenieros, el organismo que intervino en la fundación de La Plata, en 1901 uno de los Bavio vendió su campo a Adrián Hernando y luego éste se asoció con la mitad indivisa con su connacional Julián Estanislao Pallejá. Qué mejor idea se le ocurrió a Hernando y Pallejá que fundar un pueblo sobre la “Estación Bartolomé Bavio”. Se presentaron al gobierno solicitando la fundación del pueblo, sobre la estación Bartolomé Bavio del Ferrocarril La Plata - Magdalena y Costa Sud. Corridos los trámites correspondientes, por decreto del 14 de agosto de 1901 se acepta el proyecto de los señores Hernando y Pallejá, para fundar el pueblo “General Pallejá”. El nombre de “General Mansilla” lo proponen los fundadores, por tratarse de un pueblo español donde nació uno de sus fundadores, y luego anteponiéndole “General” en atención a la Argentina, por existir entonces un general de ese apellido. Este ramal que comienza en el Empalme Kilómetro 62,17130 a la salida de la estación Rufino de Elizalde, al sur de La Plata comprende 2 secciones diferentes inauguradas con 17 años de diferencia. El primer sector desde Rufino de Elizalde (Emp. Km. 62,17130) hasta Vergara se abrió en forma efectiva al servicio público el 14 de diciembre de 1914 comprendiendo 53, 270 kilómetros de vías férreas.
Vergara fue la punta de rieles desde 1914 hasta 1931 cuando el ramal se extendió hasta Lezama.
El año 1977 resulta trágico para el ramal, ya que al disponerse el levantamiento de las vías entre Rufino de Elizalde y Lezama, todas las estaciones quedan clausuradas definitivamente.2
Tres años más tarde, en 1980, la dictadura militar clausura el ramal a Pipinas, y todas sus estaciones, que incluyó a Circunvalación, Rufino de Elizalde, Arana, Ignacio Correas, Julio Arditi, Bartolomé Bavio
TRASLATOR
General Mansilla/Bartolomè Bavio
The neighbors of the town of Magdalena, being governor Carlos Casares, in 1872 initiated the managements so that the railroad of Buenos Aires to the Ensenada was prolonged until Magdalena. This branch benefited the fields of Cajaraville and Bavio, and it was Don Bartolomé (Bavio) who donated to the company of the then railroad of the Province, all the surface for the roads and the station, with the commitment that this is nomenclara Bartholomew Bavio. The government accepts the designation and the line is inaugurated on May 15, 1887. But at this time there was still no layout of a town. In the documentation that exists in the public archive and in the Department of Historical and Cartographic Research of the Directorate of Geodesy, which is the heir dependency of the Topographic Department, created by Rivadavia in 1826, and the Department of Engineers, the agency that intervened in the foundation of La Plata, in 1901 one of the Bavio sold his field to Adrián Hernando and then he was associated with the undivided half with his compatriot Julian Estanislao Pallejá. What better idea occurred to Hernando and Pallejá than to found a town on the "Bartolomé Bavio Station". They presented themselves to the government requesting the foundation of the town, on the Bartolomé Bavio station of the La Plata - Magdalena Railway and the South Coast. Corresponding steps, by decree of August 14, 1901, the project of Messrs. Hernando and Pallejá was accepted. found the town "General Pallejá". The name of "General Mansilla" is proposed by the founders, because it is a Spanish town where one of its founders was born, and then before being "General" in attention to Argentina, because there was then a general of that surname. This branch that begins at Empalme Kilómetro 62,17130 at the exit of the Rufino de Elizalde station, south of La Plata, comprises 2 different sections inaugurated 17 years apart. The first sector from Rufino de Elizalde (Emp. Km 62,17130) to Vergara was effectively opened to public service on December 14, 1914, comprising 53, 270 kilometers of railways.
Vergara was the tip of rails from 1914 to 1931 when the branch extended to Lezama.
The year 1977 is tragic for the branch, since when the raising of the roads between Rufino de Elizalde and Lezama is arranged, all the stations are definitively closed.2
Three years later, in 1980, the military dictatorship closed the branch to Pipinas, and all its stations, which included Circunvalación, Rufino de Elizalde, Arana, Ignacio Correas, Julio Arditi, Bartholomew Bavio,
North and south-bound SunRail trains meet in Winter Park, each powered by the agency's unique MP32PH-Q locomotives.
Interested in purchasing a high-quality digital download of this photo, suitable for printing and framing? Let me know and I will add it to my Etsy Shop, MittenRailandMarine! Follow this link to see what images are currently listed for sale: www.etsy.com/shop/MittenRailandMarine
If you are interested in specific locomotives, trains, or freighters, please contact me. I have been photographing trains and ships for over 15 years and have accumulated an extensive library!
At the southern end of the Earth, a NASA plane carrying a team of scientists and a sophisticated instrument suite to study ice is returning to surveying Antarctica. For the past eight years, Operation IceBridge has been on a mission to build a record of how polar ice is evolving in a changing environment.
The information IceBridge has gathered in the Antarctic, which includes data on the thickness and shape of snow and ice, as well as the topography of the land and ocean floor beneath the ocean and the ice, has allowed scientists to determine that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may be in irreversible decline. Researchers have also used IceBridge data to evaluate climate models of Antarctica and map the bedrock underneath Antarctic ice.
Read more:http://go.nasa.gov/2dxczkd
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Hudson Line #8847 rolls through Dobbs Ferry, New York on the Hudson River behind Metro-North's 40th anniversary P32AC-DM painted in the original livery worn by FL9s during the agency's startup in 1983. The George Washington Bridge and 1WTC can be seen downriver on the bottom right.
lpfw.org/forest-service-to-expedite-logging-and-habitat-c...
The Forest Service recently announced plans to selectively log old-growth forest and chaparral across 755 acres deep in the Ventura County backcountry. The agency quietly released the proposal in late May amid a pandemic, economic crisis, and period of civil unrest, offering the public a single 30-day period to submit comments. Officials indicated that they hope to use a loophole to approve the project without an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement.
The project would allow the logging of centuries-old trees, up to five feet in diameter, and the clearance of rare old-growth chaparral along six miles of the prominent ridge known as Pine Mountain stretching from Highway 33 to Reyes Peak. The area is a popular recreation destination beloved by hikers and climbers.
Despite the project’s massive scale, the Forest Service intends to use two controversial loopholes to bypass requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to conduct a detailed study of potential impacts to the area’s unique ecosystems. These loopholes would also limit the public’s ability to voice their concerns while eliminating the official objection process that helps reduce the potential for litigation.
“Once again, the Trump administration has shown its willingness and desire to avoid conducting the level of environmental review needed to ensure that places like Pine Mountain are protected from damaging and unnecessary projects such as this one,” said Los Padres ForestWatch conservation director Bryant Baker. “To make matters worse, the Forest Service’s use of loopholes for this project has diminished the public’s ability to participate in the decision-making process—and they made their announcement at a time when citizens are focused on the COVID-19 crisis and fighting racial injustice.”
The ridge is home to some of the most diverse and unique habitats in the Los Padres National Forest. Pine Mountain hosts the greatest diversity of coniferous tree species in Ventura County, which occur next to large expanses of rare old-growth chaparral. Altogether, the ridge is home to over 400 species of native plants, including dozens that are rare or sensitive. As a biodiversity hotspot, the area is also home to several species of wildlife that depend on the mountain’s unique ecosystems. Mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, and numerous species of birds and small mammals can be found in and around the project area.
The agency has not confirmed whether this project will involve the selling of cut trees, but the Forest Service often uses agreements known as “stewardship contracts” for similar projects that allow private logging companies to profit from the timber harvest in exchange for services. Regardless, the agency has stated that trees and chaparral will be removed using mechanical equipment which can cause significant damage to soil, water, and plants that are not being targeted.
“The Trump administration is trying to hand over our southern California national forests to the logging industry, at taxpayer expense,” said Dr. Chad Hanson, forest ecologist with the John Muir Project, based in Big Bear City, California. “This destructive logging proposal would degrade wildlife habitat and make climate change worse, and would increase threats to human communities from wildland fire; we need Congress to protect our National Forests from logging once and for all,” he added.
The Forest Service has proposed the project under the guise of community protection from wildfire despite countless scientific studies that demonstrate that remote vegetation treatments, such as the Pine Mountain project, are ineffective against the fires that cause the majority of damage to communities each year. Pine Mountain is several miles away from any community, and the agency itself admits that the project will not help mitigate fire spread under extreme weather conditions. In fact, the Forest Service’s own assessment of existing and potential vegetation removal projects in the Los Padres National Forest ranks the one on Pine Mountain as only 118 out 163 in terms of priority for community protection and other factors.
In 2017 and 2018, just six fires out of 16,600 throughout California caused nearly 90% of the total damage to communities. All six fires burned under conditions that render vegetation removal projects, such as the one proposed on Pine Mountain, useless for suppression purposes. Moreover, vegetation clearance projects can increase wildfire risk by removing fire-resistant trees, increasing heating and drying of the forest floor, and spreading non-native invasive grasses and weeds that ignite more easily and spread wildfire more quickly.
Scientists and conservation organizations have long advocated that funding should be directed instead to creating defensible space directly next to homes, retrofitting and building structures with fire-safe materials, and reducing development in the wildland-urban interface.
“The Los Padres National Forest administration has a record of not only ignoring the science,” Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute, said, “but also of violating agreements to collaborate with scientists and community members to manage the public’s land. Los Padres officials are well aware that the science does not support this project to clear fragile habitat far from communities at risk. This project is about obtaining taxpayer dollars to support the agency, not protecting citizens from fire.”
Over 30% of the project is within two proposed additions to the Sespe Wilderness approved by the House of Representatives with the passage of the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act earlier this year. The legislation would designate an area along part of the western portion of the ridge and an area that includes Reyes Peak. The bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate.
The proposal comes at a time when the Trump administration is attempting massive rollbacks of regulations under NEPA and similar laws. Earlier this month, the president issued an executive order that would waive requirements under these bedrock environmental laws for a wide variety of projects on federal lands. The Forest Service has also been directed to ramp up vegetation removal projects across the country, especially those that involve timber harvesting. Last year, Los Padres National Forest approved two commercial logging projects near Mt. Pinos under loopholes that similarly allowed the agency to avoid conducting the level of environmental review that is normal for such projects.
The public comment period is open until June 30 and may be the only chance the public has to weigh in with concerns about the Pine Mountain project. To submit a comment online or learn more about the project, visit p2a.co/IASAFIf
A southbound CTRail train with two of the agency's GP40-2H's arrives at Meriden, CT on its way to New Haven.
The beautiful spiral galaxy visible in the center of the image is known as RX J1140.1+0307, a galaxy in the Virgo constellation imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and it presents an interesting puzzle. At first glance, this galaxy appears to be a normal spiral galaxy, much like the Milky Way, but first appearances can be deceptive!
The Milky Way galaxy, like most large galaxies, has a supermassive black hole at its center, but some galaxies are centered on lighter, intermediate-mass black holes. RX J1140.1+0307 is such a galaxy — in fact, it is centered on one of the lowest black hole masses known in any luminous galactic core. What puzzles scientists about this particular galaxy is that the calculations don’t add up. With such a relatively low mass for the central black hole, models for the emission from the object cannot explain the observed spectrum. There must be other mechanisms at play in the interactions between the inner and outer parts of the accretion disk surrounding the black hole.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Niccy and I just got back from a transatlantic cruise so I've finally got some shots to post!
SAR MASTELERO (IMO: 9525730) is a Tug and is sailing under the flag of Spain. Her length overall (LOA) is 40 meters and her width is 12 meters.
She belongs to the Sociedad de Salvamento y Seguridad Marítima (literally: Maritime Safety and Rescue Society), also known as SASEMAR or Salvamento Marítimo, is a sea search and rescue agency that operates in Spain.
SASEMAR is the body in charge of maritime traffic control, safety and rescue operations, and protection of the maritime environment but lacks any law enforcement responsibilities.
The agency runs 20 rescue coordination centers (RCC), employs a staff of 1,500, and operates a fleet of 19 vessels, 54 boats, 11 helicopters, and 4 airplanes.
Heimdal Glacier in southern Greenland, in an image captured on Oct. 13, 2015, from NASA Langley Research Center's Falcon 20 aircraft flying 33,000 feet above mean sea level.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, recently finalized two overlapping campaigns at both of Earth’s poles. Down south, the mission observed a big drop in the height of two glaciers situated in the Antarctic Peninsula, while in the north it collected much needed measurements of the status of land and sea ice at the end of the Arctic summer melt season.
This was the first time in its seven years of operations that IceBridge carried out parallel flights in the Arctic and Antarctic. Every year, the mission flies to the Arctic in the spring and to Antarctica in the fall to keep collect an uninterrupted record of yearly changes in the height of polar ice.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/nasa-s-operation-icebridge-c...
Credits: NASA/Goddard/John Sonntag
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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In this rare image taken on 19 July, the wide-angle camera on the international Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn’s rings and our planet Earth and Moon in the same frame.
The dark side of Saturn, its bright limb, the main rings, the F ring, and the G and E rings are clearly seen; the limb of Saturn and the F ring are overexposed. The ‘breaks’ in the brightness of Saturn’s limb are due to the shadows of the rings on the globe of Saturn, preventing sunlight from shining through the atmosphere in those regions. The E and G rings have been brightened for better visibility.
Earth, 1.44 billion km away in this image, appears as a blue dot at centre right; the Moon can be seen as a fainter protrusion off its right side. The other bright dots nearby are stars.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The first of two solar arrays for NASA’s Psyche spacecraft has been extended inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 20, 2023.
This week, NASA invited media to view the Psyche spacecraft at 9 a.m. EDT Friday, Aug. 11, at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility in Titusville, Florida.
The Psyche mission is a journey to a metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be exposed nickel-iron core material of an early planetesimal, one of the building blocks of our solar system.
Deep within rocky, terrestrial planets – including Earth – scientists infer the presence of metallic cores, but these lie unreachably far below the planets' rocky mantles and crusts. Because we cannot see or measure Earth's core directly, Psyche offers a unique window into the violent history of collisions and accretion that created the terrestrial planets.
DSOC will be NASA’s furthest-ever test of high-bandwidth optical communications. DSOC will send and receive test data from Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser, which can transmit data at 10 to 100 times the bandwidth of conventional radio wave systems used on spacecraft today. As the first demonstration of deep-space laser communications, DSOC is not relaying mission data from Psyche. Although, what the team learns from DSOC could support future agency missions, including humanity's next giant leap: When NASA sends astronauts to Mars.
Image Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson
#SolarSystemandBeyond #NASAMarshall #jpl #psyche #asteroid
This stunning image, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), shows part of the sky in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The region is rendered in exquisite detail — deep red and bright blue stars are scattered across the frame, set against a background of thousands of more distant stars and galaxies. Two features are particularly striking: the colors of the stars, and the dramatic crosses that burst from the centers of the brightest bodies.
While some of the colors in this frame have been enhanced and tweaked during the process of creating the image from the observational data, different stars do indeed glow in different colors. Stars differ in color according to their surface temperature: very hot stars are blue or white, while cooler stars are redder. They may be cooler because they are smaller, or because they are very old and have entered the red giant phase, when an old star expands and cools dramatically as its core collapses.
The crosses are nothing to do with the stars themselves, and, because Hubble orbits above Earth’s atmosphere, nor are they due to any kind of atmospheric disturbance. They are actually known as diffraction spikes, and are caused by the structure of the telescope itself.
Like all big modern telescopes, Hubble uses mirrors to capture light and form images. Its secondary mirror is supported by struts, called telescope spiders, arranged in a cross formation, and they diffract the incoming light. Diffraction is the slight bending of light as it passes near the edge of an object. Every cross in this image is due to a single set of struts within Hubble itself! Whilst the spikes are technically an inaccuracy, many astrophotographers choose to emphasize and celebrate them as a beautiful feature of their images.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This shining disk of a spiral galaxy sits approximately 25 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Sculptor. Named NGC 24, the galaxy was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1785, and measures some 40,000 light-years across.
This picture was taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, known as ACS for short. It shows NGC 24 in detail, highlighting the blue bursts (young stars), dark lanes (cosmic dust), and red bubbles (hydrogen gas) of material peppered throughout the galaxy’s spiral arms. Numerous distant galaxies can also been seen hovering around NGC 24’s perimeter.
However, there may be more to this picture than first meets the eye. Astronomers suspect that spiral galaxies like NGC 24 and the Milky Way are surrounded by, and contained within, extended haloes of dark matter. Dark matter is a mysterious substance that cannot be seen; instead, it reveals itself via its gravitational interactions with surrounding material. Its existence was originally proposed to explain why the outer parts of galaxies, including our own, rotate unexpectedly fast, but it is thought to also play an essential role in a galaxy’s formation and evolution. Most of NGC 24’s mass — a whopping 80 percent — is thought to be held within such a dark halo.
Image Credit: NASA/ESA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The last, warm light of the sun embraces cold, wet granite after a long day of thunderstorms and hail.
taken on White Bear Pass at 11800 feet of elevation
lpfw.org/forest-service-to-expedite-logging-and-habitat-c...
The Forest Service recently announced plans to selectively log old-growth forest and chaparral across 755 acres deep in the Ventura County backcountry. The agency quietly released the proposal in late May amid a pandemic, economic crisis, and period of civil unrest, offering the public a single 30-day period to submit comments. Officials indicated that they hope to use a loophole to approve the project without an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement.
The project would allow the logging of centuries-old trees, up to five feet in diameter, and the clearance of rare old-growth chaparral along six miles of the prominent ridge known as Pine Mountain stretching from Highway 33 to Reyes Peak. The area is a popular recreation destination beloved by hikers and climbers.
Despite the project’s massive scale, the Forest Service intends to use two controversial loopholes to bypass requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to conduct a detailed study of potential impacts to the area’s unique ecosystems. These loopholes would also limit the public’s ability to voice their concerns while eliminating the official objection process that helps reduce the potential for litigation.
“Once again, the Trump administration has shown its willingness and desire to avoid conducting the level of environmental review needed to ensure that places like Pine Mountain are protected from damaging and unnecessary projects such as this one,” said Los Padres ForestWatch conservation director Bryant Baker. “To make matters worse, the Forest Service’s use of loopholes for this project has diminished the public’s ability to participate in the decision-making process—and they made their announcement at a time when citizens are focused on the COVID-19 crisis and fighting racial injustice.”
The ridge is home to some of the most diverse and unique habitats in the Los Padres National Forest. Pine Mountain hosts the greatest diversity of coniferous tree species in Ventura County, which occur next to large expanses of rare old-growth chaparral. Altogether, the ridge is home to over 400 species of native plants, including dozens that are rare or sensitive. As a biodiversity hotspot, the area is also home to several species of wildlife that depend on the mountain’s unique ecosystems. Mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, and numerous species of birds and small mammals can be found in and around the project area.
The agency has not confirmed whether this project will involve the selling of cut trees, but the Forest Service often uses agreements known as “stewardship contracts” for similar projects that allow private logging companies to profit from the timber harvest in exchange for services. Regardless, the agency has stated that trees and chaparral will be removed using mechanical equipment which can cause significant damage to soil, water, and plants that are not being targeted.
“The Trump administration is trying to hand over our southern California national forests to the logging industry, at taxpayer expense,” said Dr. Chad Hanson, forest ecologist with the John Muir Project, based in Big Bear City, California. “This destructive logging proposal would degrade wildlife habitat and make climate change worse, and would increase threats to human communities from wildland fire; we need Congress to protect our National Forests from logging once and for all,” he added.
The Forest Service has proposed the project under the guise of community protection from wildfire despite countless scientific studies that demonstrate that remote vegetation treatments, such as the Pine Mountain project, are ineffective against the fires that cause the majority of damage to communities each year. Pine Mountain is several miles away from any community, and the agency itself admits that the project will not help mitigate fire spread under extreme weather conditions. In fact, the Forest Service’s own assessment of existing and potential vegetation removal projects in the Los Padres National Forest ranks the one on Pine Mountain as only 118 out 163 in terms of priority for community protection and other factors.
In 2017 and 2018, just six fires out of 16,600 throughout California caused nearly 90% of the total damage to communities. All six fires burned under conditions that render vegetation removal projects, such as the one proposed on Pine Mountain, useless for suppression purposes. Moreover, vegetation clearance projects can increase wildfire risk by removing fire-resistant trees, increasing heating and drying of the forest floor, and spreading non-native invasive grasses and weeds that ignite more easily and spread wildfire more quickly.
Scientists and conservation organizations have long advocated that funding should be directed instead to creating defensible space directly next to homes, retrofitting and building structures with fire-safe materials, and reducing development in the wildland-urban interface.
“The Los Padres National Forest administration has a record of not only ignoring the science,” Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute, said, “but also of violating agreements to collaborate with scientists and community members to manage the public’s land. Los Padres officials are well aware that the science does not support this project to clear fragile habitat far from communities at risk. This project is about obtaining taxpayer dollars to support the agency, not protecting citizens from fire.”
Over 30% of the project is within two proposed additions to the Sespe Wilderness approved by the House of Representatives with the passage of the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act earlier this year. The legislation would designate an area along part of the western portion of the ridge and an area that includes Reyes Peak. The bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate.
The proposal comes at a time when the Trump administration is attempting massive rollbacks of regulations under NEPA and similar laws. Earlier this month, the president issued an executive order that would waive requirements under these bedrock environmental laws for a wide variety of projects on federal lands. The Forest Service has also been directed to ramp up vegetation removal projects across the country, especially those that involve timber harvesting. Last year, Los Padres National Forest approved two commercial logging projects near Mt. Pinos under loopholes that similarly allowed the agency to avoid conducting the level of environmental review that is normal for such projects.
The public comment period is open until June 30 and may be the only chance the public has to weigh in with concerns about the Pine Mountain project. To submit a comment online or learn more about the project, visit p2a.co/IASAFIf
Comet Neowise July 18 2020.
We gathered atop a 6000 ft peak to witness a once in a lifetime event, Comet Neowise. A mother asked me to take some photos of her and her child with the comet, and I'm so grateful she did because this one was the best shot I got that night.
Here is an article about the area this photo was taken:
lpfw.org/forest-service-to-expedite-logging-and-habitat-c...
The Forest Service recently announced plans to selectively log old-growth forest and chaparral across 755 acres deep in the Ventura County backcountry. The agency quietly released the proposal in late May amid a pandemic, economic crisis, and period of civil unrest, offering the public a single 30-day period to submit comments. Officials indicated that they hope to use a loophole to approve the project without an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement.
The project would allow the logging of centuries-old trees, up to five feet in diameter, and the clearance of rare old-growth chaparral along six miles of the prominent ridge known as Pine Mountain stretching from Highway 33 to Reyes Peak. The area is a popular recreation destination beloved by hikers and climbers.
Despite the project’s massive scale, the Forest Service intends to use two controversial loopholes to bypass requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to conduct a detailed study of potential impacts to the area’s unique ecosystems. These loopholes would also limit the public’s ability to voice their concerns while eliminating the official objection process that helps reduce the potential for litigation.
“Once again, the Trump administration has shown its willingness and desire to avoid conducting the level of environmental review needed to ensure that places like Pine Mountain are protected from damaging and unnecessary projects such as this one,” said Los Padres ForestWatch conservation director Bryant Baker. “To make matters worse, the Forest Service’s use of loopholes for this project has diminished the public’s ability to participate in the decision-making process—and they made their announcement at a time when citizens are focused on the COVID-19 crisis and fighting racial injustice.”
The ridge is home to some of the most diverse and unique habitats in the Los Padres National Forest. Pine Mountain hosts the greatest diversity of coniferous tree species in Ventura County, which occur next to large expanses of rare old-growth chaparral. Altogether, the ridge is home to over 400 species of native plants, including dozens that are rare or sensitive. As a biodiversity hotspot, the area is also home to several species of wildlife that depend on the mountain’s unique ecosystems. Mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, and numerous species of birds and small mammals can be found in and around the project area.
The agency has not confirmed whether this project will involve the selling of cut trees, but the Forest Service often uses agreements known as “stewardship contracts” for similar projects that allow private logging companies to profit from the timber harvest in exchange for services. Regardless, the agency has stated that trees and chaparral will be removed using mechanical equipment which can cause significant damage to soil, water, and plants that are not being targeted.
“The Trump administration is trying to hand over our southern California national forests to the logging industry, at taxpayer expense,” said Dr. Chad Hanson, forest ecologist with the John Muir Project, based in Big Bear City, California. “This destructive logging proposal would degrade wildlife habitat and make climate change worse, and would increase threats to human communities from wildland fire; we need Congress to protect our National Forests from logging once and for all,” he added.
The Forest Service has proposed the project under the guise of community protection from wildfire despite countless scientific studies that demonstrate that remote vegetation treatments, such as the Pine Mountain project, are ineffective against the fires that cause the majority of damage to communities each year. Pine Mountain is several miles away from any community, and the agency itself admits that the project will not help mitigate fire spread under extreme weather conditions. In fact, the Forest Service’s own assessment of existing and potential vegetation removal projects in the Los Padres National Forest ranks the one on Pine Mountain as only 118 out 163 in terms of priority for community protection and other factors.
In 2017 and 2018, just six fires out of 16,600 throughout California caused nearly 90% of the total damage to communities. All six fires burned under conditions that render vegetation removal projects, such as the one proposed on Pine Mountain, useless for suppression purposes. Moreover, vegetation clearance projects can increase wildfire risk by removing fire-resistant trees, increasing heating and drying of the forest floor, and spreading non-native invasive grasses and weeds that ignite more easily and spread wildfire more quickly.
Scientists and conservation organizations have long advocated that funding should be directed instead to creating defensible space directly next to homes, retrofitting and building structures with fire-safe materials, and reducing development in the wildland-urban interface.
“The Los Padres National Forest administration has a record of not only ignoring the science,” Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute, said, “but also of violating agreements to collaborate with scientists and community members to manage the public’s land. Los Padres officials are well aware that the science does not support this project to clear fragile habitat far from communities at risk. This project is about obtaining taxpayer dollars to support the agency, not protecting citizens from fire.”
Over 30% of the project is within two proposed additions to the Sespe Wilderness approved by the House of Representatives with the passage of the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act earlier this year. The legislation would designate an area along part of the western portion of the ridge and an area that includes Reyes Peak. The bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate.
The proposal comes at a time when the Trump administration is attempting massive rollbacks of regulations under NEPA and similar laws. Earlier this month, the president issued an executive order that would waive requirements under these bedrock environmental laws for a wide variety of projects on federal lands. The Forest Service has also been directed to ramp up vegetation removal projects across the country, especially those that involve timber harvesting. Last year, Los Padres National Forest approved two commercial logging projects near Mt. Pinos under loopholes that similarly allowed the agency to avoid conducting the level of environmental review that is normal for such projects.
The public comment period is open until August 14 and may be the only chance the public has to weigh in with concerns about the Pine Mountain project. To submit a comment online or learn more about the project, visit p2a.co/IASAFIf
The mysterious girl was trying to corrupt me to be admitted to the Agency while not having any qualification.
Constant Columbus.com had a battle of the bands. On July 5, 2006 there was a live show with the top three winners. RAYBURN 3rd place. RYAN SMITH & THE AGENCY 2nd place. JONATHAN HAPE The winner!
The puzzling appearance of an ice cloud seemingly out of thin air has prompted NASA scientists to suggest that a different process than previously thought -- possibly similar to one seen over Earth's poles -- could be forming clouds on Saturn's moon Titan.
Located in Titan's stratosphere, the cloud is made of a compound of carbon and nitrogen known as dicyanoacetylene (C4N2), an ingredient in the chemical cocktail that colors the giant moon's hazy, brownish-orange atmosphere.
Read more: go.nasa.gov/2crVEPM
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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I would have loved to have been able to explore the High Sierras before they were mapped, and criss-crossed with trails swarming with PCT/ JMT hikers. Before all the peaks were summited, while there was still unknown and uncharted places to be found. It would have been awesome to have wandered within them even before the sheep herders guided their flocks into the high alpine meadows for summer grazing.
I would have love to have walked with the native tribes that traversed the mountains for hunting and trade.
But those days are long gone. At least this wilderness is being protected and preserved today.
this shot was taken in black and white while climbing Piute Pass
lpfw.org/forest-service-to-expedite-logging-and-habitat-c...
The Forest Service recently announced plans to selectively log old-growth forest and chaparral across 755 acres deep in the Ventura County backcountry. The agency quietly released the proposal in late May amid a pandemic, economic crisis, and period of civil unrest, offering the public a single 30-day period to submit comments. Officials indicated that they hope to use a loophole to approve the project without an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement.
The project would allow the logging of centuries-old trees, up to five feet in diameter, and the clearance of rare old-growth chaparral along six miles of the prominent ridge known as Pine Mountain stretching from Highway 33 to Reyes Peak. The area is a popular recreation destination beloved by hikers and climbers.
Despite the project’s massive scale, the Forest Service intends to use two controversial loopholes to bypass requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to conduct a detailed study of potential impacts to the area’s unique ecosystems. These loopholes would also limit the public’s ability to voice their concerns while eliminating the official objection process that helps reduce the potential for litigation.
“Once again, the Trump administration has shown its willingness and desire to avoid conducting the level of environmental review needed to ensure that places like Pine Mountain are protected from damaging and unnecessary projects such as this one,” said Los Padres ForestWatch conservation director Bryant Baker. “To make matters worse, the Forest Service’s use of loopholes for this project has diminished the public’s ability to participate in the decision-making process—and they made their announcement at a time when citizens are focused on the COVID-19 crisis and fighting racial injustice.”
The ridge is home to some of the most diverse and unique habitats in the Los Padres National Forest. Pine Mountain hosts the greatest diversity of coniferous tree species in Ventura County, which occur next to large expanses of rare old-growth chaparral. Altogether, the ridge is home to over 400 species of native plants, including dozens that are rare or sensitive. As a biodiversity hotspot, the area is also home to several species of wildlife that depend on the mountain’s unique ecosystems. Mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, and numerous species of birds and small mammals can be found in and around the project area.
The agency has not confirmed whether this project will involve the selling of cut trees, but the Forest Service often uses agreements known as “stewardship contracts” for similar projects that allow private logging companies to profit from the timber harvest in exchange for services. Regardless, the agency has stated that trees and chaparral will be removed using mechanical equipment which can cause significant damage to soil, water, and plants that are not being targeted.
“The Trump administration is trying to hand over our southern California national forests to the logging industry, at taxpayer expense,” said Dr. Chad Hanson, forest ecologist with the John Muir Project, based in Big Bear City, California. “This destructive logging proposal would degrade wildlife habitat and make climate change worse, and would increase threats to human communities from wildland fire; we need Congress to protect our National Forests from logging once and for all,” he added.
The Forest Service has proposed the project under the guise of community protection from wildfire despite countless scientific studies that demonstrate that remote vegetation treatments, such as the Pine Mountain project, are ineffective against the fires that cause the majority of damage to communities each year. Pine Mountain is several miles away from any community, and the agency itself admits that the project will not help mitigate fire spread under extreme weather conditions. In fact, the Forest Service’s own assessment of existing and potential vegetation removal projects in the Los Padres National Forest ranks the one on Pine Mountain as only 118 out 163 in terms of priority for community protection and other factors.
In 2017 and 2018, just six fires out of 16,600 throughout California caused nearly 90% of the total damage to communities. All six fires burned under conditions that render vegetation removal projects, such as the one proposed on Pine Mountain, useless for suppression purposes. Moreover, vegetation clearance projects can increase wildfire risk by removing fire-resistant trees, increasing heating and drying of the forest floor, and spreading non-native invasive grasses and weeds that ignite more easily and spread wildfire more quickly.
Scientists and conservation organizations have long advocated that funding should be directed instead to creating defensible space directly next to homes, retrofitting and building structures with fire-safe materials, and reducing development in the wildland-urban interface.
“The Los Padres National Forest administration has a record of not only ignoring the science,” Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute, said, “but also of violating agreements to collaborate with scientists and community members to manage the public’s land. Los Padres officials are well aware that the science does not support this project to clear fragile habitat far from communities at risk. This project is about obtaining taxpayer dollars to support the agency, not protecting citizens from fire.”
Over 30% of the project is within two proposed additions to the Sespe Wilderness approved by the House of Representatives with the passage of the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act earlier this year. The legislation would designate an area along part of the western portion of the ridge and an area that includes Reyes Peak. The bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate.
The proposal comes at a time when the Trump administration is attempting massive rollbacks of regulations under NEPA and similar laws. Earlier this month, the president issued an executive order that would waive requirements under these bedrock environmental laws for a wide variety of projects on federal lands. The Forest Service has also been directed to ramp up vegetation removal projects across the country, especially those that involve timber harvesting. Last year, Los Padres National Forest approved two commercial logging projects near Mt. Pinos under loopholes that similarly allowed the agency to avoid conducting the level of environmental review that is normal for such projects.
The public comment period is open until June 30 and may be the only chance the public has to weigh in with concerns about the Pine Mountain project. To submit a comment online or learn more about the project, visit p2a.co/IASAFIf
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features an impressive portrait of M1-63, a beautifully captured example of a bipolar planetary nebula located in the constellation of Scutum (the Shield). A nebula like this one is formed when the star at its center sheds huge quantities of material from its outer layers, leaving behind a spectacular cloud of gas and dust.
It is believed that a binary system of stars at the center of the bipolar nebula is capable of creating hourglass or butterfly-like shapes like the one in this image. This is because the material from the shedding star is funneled toward its poles, with the help of the companion, creating the distinctive double-lobed structure seen in nebulae such as M1-63.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Stanghellini
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Clustered at the center of this image are six brilliant spots of light, four of them creating a circle around a central pair. Appearances can be deceiving, however, as this formation is not composed of six individual galaxies, but is actually two separate galaxies and one distant quasar imaged four times. Data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope also indicates that there is a seventh spot of light in the very center, which is a rare fifth image of the distant quasar. This rare phenomenon is the result of the two central galaxies, which are in the foreground, acting as a lens.
The four bright points around the galaxy pair, and the fainter one in the very center, are in fact five separate images of a single quasar (known as 2M1310-1714), an extremely luminous but distant object. The reason we see this quintuple effect is a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing occurs when a celestial object with an enormous amount of mass – such as a pair of galaxies – causes the fabric of space to warp. When light from a distant object travels through that gravitationally warped space, it is magnified and bent around the huge mass. This allows humans here on Earth to observe multiple, magnified images of the far-away source. The quasar in this image actually lies farther away from Earth than the pair of galaxies. The galaxy pair’s enormous mass bent and magnified the light from the distant quasar, giving the incredible appearance that the galaxies are surrounded by four quasars – when in reality, a single quasar lies far beyond them!
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) imaged the trio in spectacular detail. It was installed on Hubble in 2009 during Hubble Servicing Mission 4, Hubble’s final servicing mission. WFC3 continues to provide both top-quality data and fantastic images 12 years after its installation.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Treu; Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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This star-studded image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope depicts globular cluster NGC 6717, which lies more than 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. Globular clusters are roughly spherical collections of stars tightly bound together by gravity.
The bright foreground stars at the center of the image reside between Earth and the cluster, and are distinguished by the crisscross diffraction spikes that form when their light interacts with the structures supporting Hubble’s secondary mirror.
The constellation Sagittarius is in the same area of the night sky as the center of the Milky Way, which is filled with light-absorbing gas and dust. This absorption of light – which astronomers call “extinction” – makes studying globular clusters near the galactic center challenging. To determine the properties of NGC 6717, astronomers relied on a combination of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, A. Sarajedini
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower. So the nickname for this cosmic object — the Sunflower Galaxy — is no coincidence.
Discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1779, the galaxy later made it as the 63rd entry into fellow French astronomer Charles Messier’s famous catalogue, published in 1781. The two astronomers spotted the Sunflower Galaxy’s glow in the small, northern constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). We now know this galaxy is about 27 million light-years away and belongs to the M51 Group — a group of galaxies, named after its brightest member, Messier 51, another spiral-shaped galaxy dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy.
Galactic arms, sunflowers and whirlpools are only a few examples of nature’s apparent preference for spirals. For galaxies like Messier 63 the winding arms shine bright because of the presence of recently formed, blue–white giant stars and clusters, readily seen in this Hubble image.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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NJ Transit ALP-46A no.s 4636 and 4640 (Bombardier, 2009-2011) are seen alongside F40PH-2CAT no. 4120 (EMD, 1981) at Hoboken Terminal during the agency's 40th Anniversary event.
The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, released to commemorate a quarter century of exploring the solar system and beyond since its launch on April 24, 1990.
“Hubble has completely transformed our view of the universe, revealing the true beauty and richness of the cosmos” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “This vista of starry fireworks and glowing gas is a fitting image for our celebration of 25 years of amazing Hubble science.”
The sparkling centerpiece of Hubble’s anniversary fireworks is a giant cluster of about 3,000 stars called Westerlund 2, named for Swedish astronomer Bengt Westerlund who discovered the grouping in the 1960s. The cluster resides in a raucous stellar breeding ground known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina.
Read more: www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-unveils-celestial-firewor...
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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