Tiger's Nest monastery, Bhutan

Taktsang Monastery, also known as the Tiger's Nest, clings to the slide of a cliff about 10,000 feet above ground in Bhutan's Paro district. The monastery was built in the 17th century and damaged in a fire in 1998.

Visitors can reach the monastery by mule ride or by foot. Walking takes about two hours from the base of the trail. The monastery is still used, and entry is restricted.

-- Jason La

More info: http://www.tourism.gov.bt/destinations/brief-description-5.html
(Photo above by Scott Bonhard)

Historic Center of Craco, Italy

The Historic Center of Craco was first developed between the 10th and 9th centuries B.C., and the tall watchtower that hovers above this rocky village was built in 1000 A.D. The town has been abandoned since 1991, when a landslide forced out its remaining residents. Because this hilltop town was built on an unstable slope, it will be hard to protect this ancient piece of Italian history.

-- Deborah Netburn

More info: thecracosociety.org/index.htm

Icehotel, Jukkasjarvi, Sweden

Every winter since about 1990, sculptors have built a hotel and bar made of ice blocks from the nearby Torne River. When the spring thaw arrives, the facilities melt. New ones are created the next winter, usually opening in early December.

Some outstanding actresses never won an Oscar -- Below are some who never won

Ava Gardner
Marlene Dietrich
Greta Garbo (three nominations, honorary Oscar)
Deborah Kerr (six nominations and an honorary Oscar)

Marilyn Monroe

Kim Novak

Hedy Lamarr

Mae West

"Two lives spent in the shadows"

Lost for decades in the shadows of Cold War spookery, the tale of Mikhail and Yelizaveta Mukasey has been blasted over state-controlled media this year. Yelizaveta's death this fall, as a 97-year-old widow, gave Russian officials the chance to trumpet the derring-do of the two star agents.

The story has found an eager audience. If there's one thing Russians love, it's a spy thriller, especially one that conjures up the proud days of the Soviet Union and the fading glory of World War II. Add a touch of Hollywood stardust, and so much the better.

Despite the surge of interest in the couple, hard facts are scant. Anatoly Mukasey, their 71-year-old son, says intelligence officials told him it would be 150 years before the Russian state would divulge the full extent of his parents' missions. All that remains now are the stories they told their children, and the fragmentary memories they eventually set in print. Shown above, the Moscow graves of Mikhail and Yelizaveta Mukasey.

"Cool" addition to L. A. Civic Center

(Photo by Kharis on Your Scene -- L. A. Times)

"Half Day, Half Night"

Buildings of Downtown L.A. (Photo by gvick on Your Scene -- L. A. Times)

Bison & Panthers: legal action being taken to provide needed habitat

I have been focusing on ocean issues for a while, so for a change of pace, let's take a look at some dry, four-footed (or should I say paws and hoof) concerns.

In some parts of the world, endangered animals like tigers and lions are at risk because of demand on the black market for hides and other parts as either trophies/souvenirs or homeopathic "medicines" (as in the case of tigers) or because of competition with subsistence level cattlemen and farmers in developing African nations (lions).

Plains Bison At Yellowstone Park
In the United States, one of the great but unfortunate icons of the Old West, the plains bison, or buffalo, is still teetering on the edge, following the slaughter in the 1800s that brought the bison to the edge of extinction. Today, there are actually around 500,000 bison across North America, but many are the result of cross-breeding with cattle. The challenge has been in the proper management of bison. Conservation groups and federal or state agencies differ as to the methods for keeping a healthy breeding population within a defined area.

A prime example are the 4,000 or so free-roaming bison in Yellowstone National Park. During harsh winter weather, bison will forage at lower elevations outside the park, and to insure that the bison do not transmit a particular bovine disease (although transmission of such has never been proven), wandering bison are killed - in the winter of 2007-2008, 1,600 bison were killed, the greatest number since the 1800s.

Several conservation organizations and other concerned groups banded together to issue The Citizen's Plan to Save Yellowstone's Buffalo. The plan was not considered by state and federal agencies and this has pushed several conservation groups to file an intent to sue the Department of the Interior for failing to act on the status of the bison as an endangered species (it has been "under review" for some time). An endangered status would require both designated protected habitat and effective (ie: non-life threatening) management.

Here's some additional info from Defenders of Wildlife and The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD).

Development Threatens Florida Panther
In Florida, urban development has continued to encroach upon the habitat of the endangered Florida panther. Only 117 panthers remain approximately, but 21 have been lost so far in 2009, with 15 in each of the preceding two years. Most are killed by cars but one was recently found decapitated.

With the Florida panther listed as an endangered species since 1967, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to insure a safe habitat but, apparently, the political pressure from developers has pushed Florida officials to drag their feet. It's a dilemma I can relate to.

Having grown up in sunny Southern California, I witnessed firsthand the expansion of my hometown, with housing moving more and more up into the base of the San Gabriel Mountains and forcing many coyotes and the occasional mountain lion to forage right within a suburban neighborhood. You could be walking the dog and find a coyote following fifty paces behind you, sizing up little Fido as a possible meal. Caught in cages or tranquilized, these animals are often released back into the hills; but many are killed, particularly if they injure someone.

In Florida, a scientific, legal petition was filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requesting to set aside 3 million acres as "critical habitat" which would comply with the intent of the Endangered Species Act. The petition was ignored and so CBD, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Council of Civic Associations have jointly filed notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Info from Miami Herald/Center for Biological Diversity.

"Sunset on the Rio Marañon"

(Photo by Carrie Kay taken 3/24/2009 southwest of Nauta, Peru)

"What will we know and when will we know it ???"

Chile's $19-million Museum of Memory and Human Rights will honor the 31,000 murder, kidnapping and torture victims of Pinochet's regime. Many wonder how the events will be portrayed. (December 27, 2009)

Is it the last drop ???

It's hard to imagine a world in which polar bears don't exist in the wild. Alun Anderson, former editor-in-chief of New Scientist magazine, asserts that it most likely will occur in our lifetime.

In his book, "After the Ice: Life, Death, and Geopolitics in the New Arctic" (HarperCollins, 2009), Anderson takes a close look at the complicated past, present and future of the Arctic region, the area of Earth that he says is certain to feel the effects of global warming first and most powerfully.

"one of the great blessings to be experienced here on earth"

Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, has been featured on a U.S. postage stamp, on the cover of Time magazine, and in perhaps a shelf-ful of coffee table books. Since the house was opened to the public in 1964, some 3.5 million visitors have made the pilgrimage to its sylvan location off Route 381 in the hills of western Pennsylvania. Wright's stunning creation-the living room with its mound of native sandstone swelling up through the floor, the ribbons of red-trimmed steel windows, and, above all, those daring cantilevered planes hovering over the falls of Bear Run-has enchanted architectural critics and the general public since its completion 64 years ago.

Too bad it wasn't built properly. While millions of people have a nodding acquaintance with Fallingwater, relatively few of them know the latest, most dramatic chapter in its history: Only an ingenious repair, completed a few years ago, removed the growing risk that a large chunk of the house might tumble into the creek below.

The problem had been brewing since the beginning. The concrete beams that support the hung-in-space living room, its two adjoining terraces, and the master bedroom terrace above were too weak for the load they needed to carry. The beams sagged from the moment their supports were removed during construction and continued to droop a little more each year, until by 1994 they were an alarming 4 to 7 inches out of level. It took five years of assessment and planning, four months of actual work, and $1.5 million to stabilize the structure, but now, at last, Fallingwater is secure in its airy perch.

When Wright wrote in 1955 that "Fallingwater is a great blessing-one of the great blessings to be experienced here on earth," it wasn't just more hyperbole from the legendary self-promoter. "The house has a real presence in the American psyche," says Richard Cleary, an architectural historian and Wright scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. "That view of it over the waterfall is a sort of perfect American fantasy. It showed we could have both technology and the natural world, and make them work beautifully together."

Aquafarming Standards: new U.S. legislation to clean up a mess

I have mentioned in several past posts, my enthusiasm for the development of responsible aquafarming, also called aquaculture. It comes from a simple realization that man has learned to raise cattle and poultry to feed its population through the understanding that the continued taking of wild animals would not suffice.

Unfortunately, centuries ago, man did not make that same intellectual leap when it came to seafood. And we have been, as Dr. Sylvia Earle describes it, eating ocean "bushmeat" ever since, all to the ultimate detriment of the ocean's ecology.

But there are some very serious challenges that aquafarming must overcome for it to be truly commercially successful without harming the environment. This requires the cautious and well-thought out use of science and technology to insure maximum yield will also protecting the environment within which the aquafarm exists. Once you determine just how it is to be done right, then there must be regulations and enforcement to insure it is done properly. This requires government oversight and this is where it can get a bit tricky.

The Ocean Conservancy has an excellent article explaining the problems in developing national standards for aquafarming. Currently, there are several issues of concern regarding aquafarming: ocean pollution due to feed waste, fish waste, and medications; keeping farmed fished contained and not entering a wild fish population accidentally; responsibility for the maintenance and/or dismantling of an aquafarm (dismantling due perhaps to severe ocean weather or storms); and impacts on other fish populations that are required to act as feed sources for the farms. Many of these issues could be regulated by several different agencies but, without a unifying national policy of standards, we're only setting ourselves up for a bureaucratic nightmare with overlapping agencies, jurisdictions, criteria, and responsibilities.



According to the Ocean Conservancy, one of the last acts of the Bush Administration was to put forward a U.S. plan to increase aquafarming from $900 million to $5 billion by 2025. This plan provided for the National Marine Fisheries Service to issue permits to meet the goal but did not specifically or clearly address how it was to be done responsibly, ie: regulation and enforcement. Pollution or water quality issues would be handled by one agency, often using terrestrial standards in place of a non-existent marine standard; environmental impacts would be handled by another, and so on. It was basically putting the cart before the horse, and many scientific, conservation, public advocacy and even commercial fishing groups objected. This stalled the roll out of the plan, halting it on several occasions, but it was eventually put into place in September of 2009 - flaws and all.

Earlier this month, California Representative Lois Capps introduced The National Sustainable Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2009 (H.R. 4363). According to Representative Capps' office, the submitted piece of legislation will,

"Establish an overarching, federal regulatory system for offshore aquaculture that includes standardized, precautionary measures to protect the environment and coastal communities. The key provisions of the legislation include:

1. Establishing a clear, streamlined regulatory process for offshore aquaculture with specific provisions and permit terms to protect marine ecosystems and coastal communities;

2. Requiring coordinated, regional programmatic environmental impact statements to provide regulatory certainty, ensure environmental protection for sensitive marine areas, and reduce conflicts among competing uses of the marine environment; and

3. Authorizing new funds for research to provide the crucial feedback needed for adaptive, environmentally-sound management of this new use of offshore waters."

Right now, this is just proposed legislation, newly introduced. Watch how it develops and stay on top of the efforts of groups, like the Ocean Conservancy, in retracting the current piecemeal plan. And you can expect to hear more in this blog as I continue to promote aquafarming as our best chance at attaining sustainable commercial seafood levels while protecting the ocean's wild populations from decline and possible extinction.

Loggerhead Turtles: threatened by new Hawaii and Florida regs

The fate of sea turtles, particularly the loggerhead sea turtle, is once again at further risk - this time due to a loosening of U.S. regulations for the longline fisheries in Hawaii and Florida, fisheries that are in pursuit of swordfish and must deal with sea turtles (and many other unfortunate species) as accidental bycatch.

A suit was filed this week against the National Marine Fisheries Service by Earth Justice on behalf of The Center for Biological Diversity, Caribbean Conservation organizations, Defenders of Wildlife, Gulf Restoration Network, and Turtle Island Restoration Network. The suit states that while the Fisheries Service has filed reports that claim that the loggerhead sea turtles face extinction unless the numbers of commercially caught turtles are reduced, they have also proposed a change in longline regulations that would allow for more longlines - literally more hooks in the water - that would produce a three-fold increase in turtle bycatch. The loggerhead sea turtle is currently on the endangered species list, so these new regulations, obviously designed to increase the catch of swordfish, would seem to run counter to the intent of protection required by the Endangered Species Act.

The swordfish fisheries, particularly in Hawaii, have experienced closure at times in the past, even during the past U.S. administration, so it is particularly disheartening to see the influence of the commercial fishing industry on the new administration.

And then on top of it all, we're talking about increasing capacity for commercially-caught swordfish - a fish that currently provides in one 8 oz. fillet over 4 times the acceptable level of mercury for the week. That's a month's worth in one sitting. What crazy, fish-hugging radicals came up with those levels? The government's own Environmental Protection Agency. (Check out GotMercury.org.)

Read press release from Courthouse News Service.
If you would like to add your voice in protest to the new regs, click here.

"Snowy avenue"

(Photo by Odyssevs on Flickr)

Frank Lloyd Wright has left his mark

Modern southwest desert, this contemporary and sophisticated resort combines the elegance of Frank Lloyd Wright Design with warm colors symbolic of a desert. Nestled at the base of the Red Rock Canyons allowing all guestrooms to have awe-inspiring views of the Canyons or 180 degree views of the Las Vegas strip Red Rock is the perfect combination.

"an exhilarated rush"

The usual tranquility of Llano Seco had a new twist on Christmas Day. Normally. the geese stay to the far west of the refuge and leave the viewing area up front to the more subdued sound and activity of the ducks. The mintue we got out of the car we could hear the garrulous activity of the Snows and White Fronted Geese just to the South. It wasn't long before a cruising Bald Eagle had them up in the air. About the time one group would settle back down in the water, another group would head upward. The sound and activity of the geese in great numbers never cease to send an exhilarated rush through me! (Photos from "champbass2's photostream").

Outstanding Photography

(Photo from Sophaschwein's photostream on Flickr).

"timeless shadows, and wonderment"

"And just for a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete slip across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm, and the sensation of death kicking at my heels to move on, with a phantom dogging its own heels, and myself hurrying to a plank where all the angels dove off and flew into the holy void of uncreated emptiness, the potent and inconceivable radiances shining in bright Mind Essence." Jack Kerouac

We hiked down Bright Angel Trail to Phantom Ranch to enjoy some winter in Arizona. Every step was ecstacy and inconceivable radiance (Photo by Al_HikesAZ on Flickr).

Los Angeles: A little L A History

After founding Farmers and Merchants National Bank, the brothers Herman and Isaias went their separate ways, but gave the downtown some distinct structures (circa 1903).

"Go live in a tree" takes on a whole new meaning

"Behold the Day"

After seeing "Behold the Day: The Color Block Prints of Frances Gearhart," showing at the Pasadena Museum of California Art through Jan. 31, one may wonder why Gearhart isn't better known. Back in the 1930s, at the height of her career, she became one of the top color-block printmakers in America, displaying her work at the Smithsonian and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as at numerous shows on the West Coast. -- Deborah Netburn

Above: Frances Gearhart's Untitled (Big Sur's Bixby Creek Bridge), 1933, Color Block Print, 13 1/4" x 10 7/8," Private Collection.

"Mt. Rushmore from the Canadian side"

(source unknown)

"average fuel economy of 100 mpg"

"We are very excited to be bringing the Fisker Karma back to the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS)," said Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker. "In the year since we debuted the Karma, the reception we've received has been tremendous. I'm proud to announce at this time that we are already sold out on the car until mid-2010."

With a base price of $87,900 (USD), the Fisker Karma began delivery in November 2009. Featuring the proprietary Q-Drive powertrain, the Fisker Karma will has an all-electric range of 50 miles (80km). After the all electric 50 miles, the gasoline engine turns a generator to charge the lithium ion battery. Once the 50-mile electric range has been exceeded, the Fisker Karma can be used as a normal hybrid vehicle. With this balance of electric and gas range, Fisker Automotive estimates that most Karma drivers who charge the Karma overnight and commute less than 50 miles per day will be able to achieve an average fuel economy of 100 mpg (2.4L/100km) per year.

"Festivus for the rest of us"

Did you know that Wednesday was Festivus? That's the pseudo-holiday created by a famous episode of Seinfeld. You're supposed to gather around an aluminum pole to "air your grievances" and demonstrate your "feats of strength."

11-Year-Old Finishes Walk To DC To Raise Awareness About Child Homelessness

Eleven-year-old Zach Bonner, a recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Award, takes part in a press conference after the final mile of his 600 mile trek from Atlanta to Washington, DC on July 9, 2009 in Washington, DC. Bonner, whose trek was titled "My House to the White House" founded the Little Red Wagon Foundation in 2005 to raise awareness about the plight of homeless U.S. children.
(July 9, 2009 - Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images North America)

Mazel tov

This year Neil Diamond joined musicians of Jewish heritage who have put out Christmas-themed collections with "A Cherry Cherry Christmas," an album for which he wrote five original songs, including the title track, to weave in with standards such as "Joy to the World," "White Christmas" and "Sleigh Ride."

Diamond closed the album with a raucous performance of comedian Adam Sandler's "The Chanukah Song," which name-checks Jewish entertainers, including Kirk Douglas, Dinah Shore and "Star Trek's" William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

"I thought I'd throw one in there for my people too, because we always feel a little left out around this time of year," Diamond told the Telegraph in London recently. "Christmas music is amazingly evocative to people of all religions and cultures."

One of Hitchcock's BEST !!!

Sunday evening, the Egyptian will show a 70-millimeter print of Alfred Hitchcock's erotically charged 1958 thriller, "Vertigo," starring James Stewart as a retired San Francisco police detective with a fear of heights who becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman (Kim Novak) he is hired to follow. Barbara Bel Geddes also stars in this gem, which features a great score by Bernard Herrmann. www.americancinematheque.com.

"Singin' in the Rain"

On Saturday, the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre presents two of the best MGM musicals of the 1950s: "Singin' in the Rain," directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen and starring Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor and Jean Hagen, and Vincente Minnelli's best picture Oscar- winner "An American in Paris." Kelly, Leslie Caron and Oscar Levant star in this stylish Technicolor soufflé, which features the songs of George and Ira Gershwin.

"Mourners" to tour U. S.

The white alabaster figures draped in cloaks show their grief in different ways: from a bent head, the face shrouded by a hood, to a hand swathed in cloth reaching up to wipe a tear.

The nearly 40 "mourners" commissioned in the 15th century to adorn the tomb of John the Fearless, the second Duke of Burgundy, will be seen together for the first time outside of France when they begin a tour of seven U.S. cities this spring. Los Angeles will see the exhibition in 2011.

Bridge Cinema de Lux multiplex to be sold

A deal for the remaining six theaters being sold by National Amusements, including the Bridge Cinema de Lux multiplex near Los Angeles International Airport, is expected to be finalized in the next couple of weeks. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / October 19, 2001)

It is claimed that Napoleon Bonaparte wore a Breguet watch in 1798

Oceana at COP15: NGOs getting the facts out

There are many worthwhile non-profit conservation organizations operating today (some would say too many, as over-proliferation can dilute the power of each group). Based on their available financial resources, some of these groups are singularly focused while others succeed at being more broad-based. To regular readers of this blog, you know that one of my oft-cited organizations is Oceana. Why? Because they have had measurable success at being international, comprehensive, media-savy, and are science-based.

At the recent Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15), Oceana was a visible presence with media presentations and staff on hand for interviews and discussions. While what seemed to captivate the press, and by extension the public, was whether a binding agreement could be achieved between the participating nations, what also was taking place at the conference was the dissemination of a lot of information concerning climate change and its related effects: ocean acidification, impacts on and from commercial fishing, changes within the Arctic circle, and so on.

All this information was being provided to insure that delegates from participating nations had the latest and most accurate information. Unfortunately, what was "sexier" to the press was the protests, bickering, and diplomatic machinations taking place, particularly as the conference moved into its second week and the question as to whether an agreement would be hammered out moved to center stage.

Oceana has assembled several videos that illustrate their presence at COP15. Blowing their own horn? Sure, but why not? Particularly since media coverage was focused elsewhere. Click here to view the videos.

One of the videos is an overview of the impact of climate change on the Arctic Circle, narrated by actor and staunch ocean conservationist, Ted Danson. I have seen some of the changes to the Arctic firsthand, working with InMER.org in the summer of 2007 when we conducted a reconnaissance of the Northwest Passage. Assisting expedition leader Ed Cassano, I documented, both on video/still images and through interviews with Inuit tribal elders and government officials, what has been taking place over the years.

What at first appears to be desolate and formidable, the Arctic Circle is, in reality, a very vibrant but delicate ecosystem, the health of which having great implications for the rest of the planet. Several of the many warning signs we saw are subtle but alarming: shrinking summer sea ice, shrubbery and trees where there used to be only permafrost, the appearance of bees and other insects that had never been seen before - all are "canaries in the coal mine" that speak to bigger and more extensive worldwide changes in the near future.

In the informative application Google Earth (available at no charge; click here for details), throughout the area of the Northwest Passage (within the Arctic Circle, north of Canada), you can find several interesting pieces of visual/textual content supplied by InMER. I had the pleasure of producing several videos for this effort and would look forward to the opportunity to return to the Arctic again to further the cause for its protection.

The other videos on Oceana at Copenhagen center on interviews with dedicated staff members and scientists discussing issues ranging from ocean acidification to over-industrialization. One of the challenges in presenting these subjects in short form (IE: brief videos) is to arrive at a balance between presenting a simplified and oft-repeated message and providing technical information which can be lost on the viewer/listener. One of the videos, I thought, illustrated this balance well: an interview with Oceana science director Dr. Jeffrey Short who, with just a bit more information and an analogy or two, describes ocean acidification as something more than an obscure or academic concept for the average viewer.

Click here to view the videos.