Good Morning All,
Working on things on the back end and soon we’ll have anew form, etc. For now I’ve got tons of submissions lined up. Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)| 19 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture
Good Morning All,
Working on things on the back end and soon we’ll have anew form, etc. For now I’ve got tons of submissions lined up. Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Today, pictures from valued commenter Greg in PDX.
Some more pictures from my tour of America via train and bus. Amtrak has proven to be non existent or way too expensive for the last few weeks. So, buses have ruled my world…..
Rhode Island
Taken on 2018-06-16
Sunset over Slack reservoir. Johnston RI
Massachussets
Taken on 2018-06-18
Fogland beach, Tiverton MA
Thank you so much Greg in PDX, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)| 12 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture
Good Morning All,
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Today, pictures from valued commenter otmar.
Some more pictures from life in Europe: this one is a mixed bag from early July 2018.
Right after school closed for summer, we brought the kids to my MiL in Carinthia. This picture is from the train back to Vienna. The track snuggles along the north coast of Lake Wörthersee. You can see the viewing tower on the Pyramidenkogel in the background.
The runners in the foreground are taking part in the yearly Ironman competition around the lake. See http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman/austria.aspx
Before entering the lowlands around Vienna the train needs to pass the Semmering: the gate between Lower Austria an Styria. Historically speaking, this is one of the oldest mountain railroads still in operation. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmering_railway
It was built 1848 – 1854 and features lots of viaducts, tunnels, and turns. Yes, it can be very scenic, but it’s also very slow. So, finally, they are building a tunnel to bypass the whole thing.
Now for a change in scenery: I needed to fly to a meeting in Brussels a few days later. This here is the iconic building of the EU Commission. As you can see, this area is still on elevated security footing.
Around the corner, just an average Brussels view.
Nestled in the European quarters in Brussels is Parc Leopold. It’s an isle of quiet just next to the main buildings of the Commission, the Council and the Parliament.
Btw EU Parliament: there it is.
I had time to grab a bite at the airport before flying back. Leffe is my favorite Belgian beer, so if there is a chance to get it fresh from the tap, I go for it.
Thank you so much otmar, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)| 13 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture
Good Morning All,
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Today, pictures from valued commenter mad citizen.
I was lucky enough to travel to Zagreb Croatia for some multinational meetings the week before the World Cup started. A beautiful city and nice people. Of course I’m rooting for Croatia in the World Cup now. I also attended a personal appearance by John Cleese, on his “Last Chance to See Me Before I’m Dead” tour at a very nice theater a block from my hotel.
Sunday Marchers
Taken on 2018-06-10
After Sunday morning mass a solemn drum beat accompanied these gentlemen and a group from the Zagreb Cathedral to the park, a 650 meter march. It seemed like maybe a wedding march, but I didn’t confirm what was about to happen in the park gazebo.
Cathedral of Zagreb
Taken on 2018-06-12
This is the tallest structure in Croatia, at 354 feet. Finished in 1217; spires added/restored after the 1880 earthquake. Yes, that’s a photographic representation of the spire on the right, which was surrounded by scaffolding. There was a sign inside banning tank tops, cellphones, etc., but nothing about hats. I was just standing inside and a man angrily snapped at me and motioned for me to remove my hat. I guess that’s just a given inside the church.
Ban Josip Jelacic central square
Taken on 2018-06-10
The last day of the Nikola Tesla EV Rally through Croatia started in the central square in Zagreb–Ban Josip Jelacic square. I’ve never seen so many Teslas gathered in one place before. Later in the week I was told Tesla’s hometown village was near national border. I now see it was Serbia, but maybe that is now in Croatia and so Croatia is trying to lay claim as well…
Art Pavilion
This National Art Pavilion is a 19th century museum hosting major art exhibitions.
Croatian National Theater
The Croatian National Theater is a grand neo-Baroque building dating from 1895, hosting opera, ballet and drama.
Young Croatian performers
Taken on 2018-06-10
Ban Josip Jelacic, Zagreb Croatia
A few Croatian youngsters, part of a group dressed in the folk costumes and singing dancing a few traditional songs in the central square.
Figures at the Zagreb Cathedral.
Thank you so much mad citizen, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)| 14 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture
Good Morning All,
We’re making some changes here, so for now I’m taking down the links to the form and email account. I’ll be posting what I’ve got, but please do not submit any more pictures right now, just hold on to them for a few days.
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Today, pictures from valued commenter ?BillinGlendaleCA.
In one of my first submissions to “On The Road” on April 12th I documented a hike my step-daughter(aka my nurse) and I took to Mt. Lowe. Unfortunately, as is usually the case when the kid and I hike together, the view was not optimal(though interesting in it’s own way). There was a solid cloud deck over the basin and the clouds ended up whipping over the summit once we got up there(the links are broken on the original post, IT WAS ALL MY FAULT, but I provided links in the comments). Being that the kid was on-call at the hospital and her mom had to work Thanksgiving afternoon, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday instead. I decided to redo the hike to Mt. Lowe Thanksgiving morning if the weather was clear. I woke early and checked the local news webcams(ABC7) and it was really clear, so I headed up to the trailhead. It seems that a few other folk had the same idea, I ended up having to park across the road from the trailhead since the lot(more like a wide spot in the road) was full.
The trail follows the Mt. Lowe fire road from the Mt. Wilson road, through the Mueller tunnel, until you reach the saddle between Mt. Markham and San Gabriel Peak. Then a single track trail climbs the west side of Mt. Markham to the saddle between Mt. Markham and Mt. Lowe. The trail then climbs the north side of Mt. Lowe to the summit.
View from Eaton Saddle just prior to reaching the tunnel.
Taken on 2017-11-23
Eaton Saddle, Angeles National Forest, CA
This is the view looking south down Eaton Canyon, this is the first indication of how good the view will be once you get to the summit. You can see the trailhead to the left and Mt. Markham to the right. Catalina Island is visible to the left of the eastern slope of Mt. Markham.
The Mueller Tunnel.
Taken on 2017-11-23
Eaton Saddle, Angeles National Forest, CA
Trump’s go in but they don’t come out.
Single track trail to Mt. Lowe.
Taken on 2017-11-23
Top of Bear Valley, Angeles National Forest, CA
Notes: Apologies for the sun glare. The trail up to now has been following the Mt. Lowe Fire Road which runs from Eaton Saddle on the road to Mt. Wilson to Pasadena(partially along the old railroad bed from Echo Mountain). The single track trail to Mt. Lowe(and Mt. Markham) is in front and the trail to San Gabriel Peak is behind me. The fire road continues around Mt. Lowe to the Mt. Lowe trail camp and Inspiration Point. I ran into a few people on the trail: a Boy Scout Troop and a group of folk that had camped out at the Mt. Lowe Trail Camp(it’s at the base of Mt. Lowe by Inspiration Point).
View to the southeast from Markham Saddle.
Taken on 2017-11-23
Markham Saddle, Angeles National Forest, CA
The eastern slope of Mt. Lowe is on the right and Saddleback in Orange County is in the center. I wasn’t sure what the mountain to the left and behind Saddleback was until I got home and checked Google Maps…it’s Palomar Mountain in northern San Diego County, 90 miles away!
View to the southwest from Mt. Lowe summit.
Taken on 2017-11-23
Mt. Lowe, Angeles National Forest, CA
The view(top to bottom, left to right): Catalina, Santa Barbara Island, Sandstone Peak(at the right, it’s south of Thousand Oaks) and Santa Cruz Island; Palos Verde, LAX, West LA, the Valley; East LA, downtown LA, downtown Glendale; downtown Pasadena, the Rose Bowl, JPL(partially obscured by a hill and a bush), the Verdugo Hills and the Crescenta Valley.
View to the north from Mt. Lowe summit.
Taken on 2017-11-23
Mt. Lowe, Angeles National Forest, CA
The view( left to right): San Gabriel Peak, Mt. Markham, Twin Peaks, Occidental Peak(named after the college).
Thank you so much ?BillinGlendaleCA, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)| 18 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture
Good Morning All,
This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.
So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.
You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.
For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Sorry I’ve been not-so-involved. I hurt my back 1 1/2 weeks ago and the first week, I didn’t really sit at my computer more than an hour a day. Holding my iPad has also too much, so I’ve been surfing and doing online reading on my phone pretty much exclusively. Each day is better but I aggravated it Sunday, so I’m a few steps back….
Today, pictures from valued commenter J R in WV.
After a long week in Baja watching and petting whales, we decided not to fly straight home, but to spend a few days in LA. It rained the whole time, so was cool and damp, and I caught a cold after a couple of days (darn) so we did two museums. First the LA County Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, where dinosaurs and minerals were the most interesting photo subjects, and then the Getty Museum on Wednesday, before I laid up with my cold.
The Getty Museum is a white Travertine temple o art and culture on a mountaintop in the wooded hills on the edge of Los Angeles.
The two exhibits we viewed were Early Photography and Rembrandt Miniatures after the Mogol Empire. The early photos were pale, low contrast, and difficult to take pictures of. I did anyway, and my pictures were mostly not usable. The Rembrandt miniatures were really tiny, like 2 inches on a side. So also difficult to photograph.
I did take some pretty good (for a cloudy rainy day) photos of the actual museum itself, so that’s mostly what we have here. By the way, the food in the cafe was fabulous!! No pics, tho!
The Front Steps of the Getty
Taken on 2018-03-14
Getty Museum, LA
After you arrive at the parking facility, you take a tram up the hill to the actual Getty Museum, and this is how you arrive at the actual facility, which is mostly White Roman Travertine.
The bronze is the best of the sculpture we saw, very Greco-Roman in style. The steps and the buildings are awesome when you arrive!
f/3.4 for 1/800 sec at 52mm
The Interior Atrium of the Getty Museum
Taken on 2018-03-14
Getty Museum, in LA
This is interior of the roundest, swoopiest building in LA. Unless BillInG. knows of something we don’t! The main gift shop, the information desk, presentations, mobile equipment, lots in here.
f/2.8 for 1/640th at 25mm.
Exhibit Room – Early Photography
Taken on 2018-03-14
Getty Museum, in LA
A beautiful room full of the earliest American photography. Many photos were covered by a black opaque cloth that you had to lift away to see, in order to protect the fragile and dim photo from light which tends to fade some early technology used for photography pretty quickly compared to today’s dyes
Pre-Emancipation Children – trigger warning!!
Taken on 2018-03-14
Getty Museum, LA
This was one of the more successful attempts at photographing these early photos, so I decided to include it, after much repair work on the original picture I took.
These cute children were (according the the legend beside the frame) slaves, probably from New Orleans.
They were obviously prepared for being photographed, and we can have little knowledge of the circumstances or reasons for these photographs being taken. Perhaps advertising? Who knows.
I decided to put a lot of time and energy into learning how to repair my photo, and then into working on the photo, because it is so relevant to today’s most important political issue… how our current administration decided to treat refugee families.
When this photo was taken, slavery was the law of the land in the Deep South, and owners were permitted to do whatever they pleased to their slaves. These children look pretty light skinned to me, but they had the rule of “One Drop” of African blood, made you African, and potentially a slave. They could be bought and sold for any purpose. These children were not going to be field workers, and they may well have had a much worse fate in store.
Owners and overseers of slaves could do and did do anything to their property. This is why each generation of slaves included some who had lighter complexions than their parent. There were no laws about sexual abuse regarding slaves, nor murder, although that would be costly… no, I’m not kidding, that was the equation in the Deep South.
Today DHS Secretary Kirstjen Neilsen set in motion the separation of children from their families with less paperwork than the confiscation of a criminal’s wallet.
We know today that DHS, as ordered by Secretary Neilsen, made no provision for reuniting these illegally arrested children with their families whatsoever. They were taken away and imprisoned in a system that assumes 3 year old children can represent themselves in a kangaroo immigration court. They made no records of these children’s names, of their parent’s names, of their home town, NOTHING.
Slaves were transferred with better record keeping in most cases, as it was a transaction with lots of money changing hands. I personally believe Secretary Neilsen and everyone else in that chain of command down to the capo who took the child from his family should be in jail awaiting trial for kidnapping and human trafficking, because we made slaves illegal 150 years ago, even in the Deep South.
I believe Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions should be in jail for failure to control illegal behavior, child abuse, in the DHS. He knows what is happening, and takes no action to prevent the kidnapping and illegal trafficking in child refugees, the most vulnerable persons in our land.
I’m sorry to introduce a painful issue into the Photo journal, but the more I went through these photos, the more this one cried out to me. We can do nothing for these children in this photo, over a century and a half old. But by God we can do something for the illegally kidnapped and trafficked children today.
f/2.8 for 1/125 sec, at 25mm
Main Plaza of the Getty Museum
Taken on 2018-03-14
Getty museum, LA
IIRC, the building in the background is the dining facilities, where the food is from 12 different ethnicities, and they are all delicious. On the left is another of the 6 buildings that make up the museum complex.
In the background you can see that there are green hills, except for the burnt ones, all around the hill of the museum. It isn’t raining hard, but it is very wet and foggy.
f/2.8 for 1/1600 sec at 25mm
Getty Offices
Taken on 2018-03-14
This is on the right of the front steps as you arrive. The building is covered with the same Off-white Travertine the floors of the plaza are paved with.
f/3.6 for 1/1000 sec at 66 mm
Rail Head on Mountain Top
Taken on 2018-03-14
Getty Museum, LA
You can see that by closing time the fog had cleared somewhat, and that the hills around the museum have their own grand architecture.
On the left is the road that deliveries are made on, and on the right is the tram station that visitors arrive in. And the same pretty Travertine from Rome.
f/3.2 for 1/1300 sec at 42mm
Thank you so much J R in WV, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
by Alain Chamot (1971-2020)| 6 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Open Threads, Readership Capture
Good Morning All,
This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.
So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.
You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.
For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Adam here covering for Alain.
About three weeks ago we had a humongous rainbow, so I took some pictures. It was actually a double rainbow, but only the brighter one showed up in the pictures.
Here’s the left side of the rainbow:
Here’s the right side of the rainbow:
And here’s the center of the rainbow:
As a bonus, here’s a bird that decided to hitch a ride on a car. And before anyone starts we were stopped at a long light and I was able to safely take the picture while it was red.
Hopefully Alain will be back tomorrow.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
This post is in: Dolt 45, Foreign Affairs, On The Road, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Russiagate, Assholes, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue
Actually, it happened under Mitch McConnell's watch. https://t.co/OnWoJob8AR
— Jennifer Hayden (@Scout_Finch) July 18, 2018
Does Putin have a pee tape of Sarah Huckabee Sanders?
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 18, 2018
Despite all the criticisms of her performance, Huckabee Sanders is an artist in her own Southern-Gothic niche. She was hired — and she does her job, in this context, brilliantly — to be the grim, dutiful Good Wife who insists that ERRYTHING IS JUST FAAAAHNE THENK YEW in front of the village congregation. Sure, the whole neighborhood knows that (behind the facade) ‘Daddy’ is a mean drunk who knocks her around and sleeps with hookers, the family business is forever teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, her kids are out of control and would be in jail or another institution if the local police weren’t cowed by or complicit in the ‘best families’ oligarchy… but as long as she can slab on enough pancake makeup and wear her ‘family’ pearls, the comforting clan mythology remains unchallenged. It’s not an easy living, but what alternatives does a past-her-prime good Southern girl with no education outside the conservative bubble have? Praise ‘Merican Jeebus for “tradition”, and don’t forget to vote Republican!
When you try and justify your support for our traitor POTUS that’s called Manchuriansplaining.
— Sex Huntress (@OhNoSheTwitnt) July 19, 2018
"In Sanders’s briefings, the Overton window doesn’t widen or narrow so much as it angrily yells at you for not being a door.” https://t.co/BG5qdZcgzl
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) July 19, 2018
… It is a well-worn cliché of the Trump presidency—which is also to say, it is a well-worn cliché about the Trump psyche—that, within a White House as vertically integrated as this one, loyalty counts above all. And Sarah Sanders, the press secretary who will have been on the job, this week, for one year—the White House announced her promotion to the role in July of 2017—performs that loyalty every time she meets the press.
This is a White House that prioritizes the scoring of points over the complexities of compromise. Sanders, on behalf of the president she works for—a happy warrior in a culture war that has found a front in the James S. Brady briefing room at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue—takes for granted an assumption that would be shocking were it not so common in the American culture of the early 21st century: There are things that are more important than truth.
Things like, for example, the claiming of victory against the other side. Things like, for example, the owning of libs and the trolling of Dems and the ability to victor-write history so thoroughly that you can claim, with an air of annoyance about being asked to make such a clarification in the first place, that the president’s long history of commentary on Russia has now been nullified, because the president had, in a single public event, “misspoken.” All of which made Wednesday’s briefing—the president will work with his team—both deeply typical and astounding: Here was one of the most prominent representatives of the White House choosing partisanship over patriotism. Winning above all…
Last fall, when she was still settling into the press secretary job after taking it over from Scaramucci, The New York Times asked Sanders, who is very much an evangelical Christian, what led her to want to work for Donald Trump, who is very much not. Sanders replied, matter-of-factly: “I thought he could win.”…
Don’t blame the Spokesmouthpiece, blame the Oval Office Occupant…
Translation: choose Party over country. https://t.co/Gv7xbEoOcR
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) July 20, 2018
all those stories of how trump projects his deepest insecurities in his unhinged rants ?? https://t.co/tFTn0Wzi1b
— darth™ (@darth) July 19, 2018
The Republican arguments about why we can’t infer that Trump is compromised by Russia in some way amount to saying that he’s emotionally, psychologically, and cohnitively incapable of discharging the duties of his office.
— Jacob T. Levy (@jtlevy) July 19, 2018
“He’s just so mad about the idea of anyone denying him full credit for his great magnificent bigly landslide electoral victory that he can’t see straight and can’t pay attention to anything about Russia and Putin.”
Then he can’t do the job.
— Jacob T. Levy (@jtlevy) July 19, 2018
.@realDonaldTrump is “not afraid of anything” … except for serving in the military, STDs, the public seeing his tax returns, a bald eagle, Putin, a no-carts golf course, Bob Mueller, windy days outdoors without a cap, an honest day’s work, facts, strong women, smart people … https://t.co/5sNQliznQN
— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) July 19, 2018
Since everything is playing out like a movie, I look forward to the American co-conspirators being rounded up while Trump's military parade lumbers down Pennsylvania Avenue. pic.twitter.com/WYarOKgDLJ
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 19, 2018
Friday Morning Open Thread: Ministry of TruthinessPost + Comments (269)