Hawaiian monk seals are earless seals endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. They are the only seals native to Hawaii. The Hawaiian monk seal is one of two surviving monk seal species; the other is the Mediterranean monk seal. A third species, the Caribbean monk seal, is now extinct.
Hawaiian monk seals are endangered, with approximately 1,400 individuals left in the wild. The main threats to Hawaiian monk seals are entanglement in fishing gear, disease, and habitat loss.
They are solitary animals and only come together to mate. Female Hawaiian monk seals give birth to one pup at a time. Hawaiian monk seal pups are born with their eyes open and can swim within minutes of birth.
These seals are an important part of the Hawaiian ecosystem. They help to control populations of fish and other marine animals.
Deep in the New Mexico desert you might stumble upon the Very Large Array (VLA). It has a very simple name, but the work it is doing and the questions it is trying to answer are very complex.
The VLA is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory comprised of twenty-seven 25-meter radio telescopes. Each of the massive telescopes are mounted on railroad tracks, so the array can be moved around the desert for researchers needs.
All 27 radio telescopes work together to function as an "interferometer." This means that they work together to function as a single telescope to provide higher resolution images of astronomical objects.
It is designed to allow investigations of many astronomical objects, including radio galaxies, quasars, pulsars, supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts, radio-emitting stars, the sun and planets, astrophysical masers, black holes, and the hydrogen gas that constitutes a large portion of the Milky Way galaxy as well as external galaxies.
In 1989 the VLA was used to receive radio communications from the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew by Neptune.
Astronomers using the VLA have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters, and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produce radio emission.
You may recognize it from the 1997 movie, Contact, in which the VLA is the location where the alien signal is first detected. In the 2009 movie, Terminator Salvation, the VLA is the location of a Skynet facility. At the beginning of the film the site is attacked by Resistance forces.
A flash flood is a rapid and potentially deadly flood caused by heavy rainfall or sudden water release from a dam or other structure. These floods typically occur with little to no warning, and can pose a significant risk to people and property in affected areas.
In the case of waterfalls, flash floods can be particularly dangerous because they can cause a sudden surge of water to flow over the falls, creating a powerful and unpredictable torrent of water. This can pose a significant risk to anyone who may be swimming, fishing, or hiking in the area. Additionally, flash floods can cause erosion and other damage to the surrounding terrain, which can destabilize the ground and lead to landslides or other hazards.
It's important to note that flash floods can occur even in areas that may not typically experience heavy rainfall, and they can happen quickly and without warning. Visitors to waterfalls and other natural attractions should always be aware of the potential risks associated with flash flooding and should take appropriate precautions, such as monitoring weather conditions and heeding any warnings or advisories from local authorities.
Salvation Mountain is an art installation covering a hill in the Colorado Desert several miles from the Salton Sea in California.
Salvation Mountain was created by local resident Leonard Knight and encompasses numerous murals and areas painted with Christian sayings and Bible verses.
In an address to the United States Congress on May 15, 2002, California Senator Barbara Boxer described it as "a unique and visionary sculpture... a national treasure... profoundly strange and beautifully accessible, and worthy of the international acclaim it receives". If you visit, you may recognize it. It was featured in the movie "Into the Wild".
Ask any American what sound a rooster makes and it is almost guaranteed that they will answer "cock-a-doodle-doo". I always thought that the whole world would have the same answer.
The great thing about traveling is that you learn the quirks of other languages and culture randomly, One of those quirks that you will never find in a textbook is the sound a rooster makes.
In the Czech Republic, they say "kykyryký" - in Germany it's "kickeriki" - in Norway it's "kykeliky" - in the Philippines it's "kukaok" - in France it's "cocorico" - in China (Cantonese) it's "gokogoko". Nearly every culture has its own way of saying "cock-a-doodle-doo"! What sound does a rooster make where you are from?
The 400-foot falls are located on a private land owned by the Robinson family. The Robinsons' holdings consist of nearly 51,000 acres on Kauai and some 46,000 acres on "the forbidden island" of Niihau.
The family is known for severely restricting access to the island, which has helped preserve Hawaiian as the first language of its approximately 200 residents. The Robinsons allow visitors to take a helicopter tour from Kauai that lands on an uninhabited part of Niihau and to participate in hunting safaris. Educated at UC Davis, Keith Robinson has also made a name for himself as an avid environmentalist and preserver of rare native plants.
The Robinson's have reportedly been offered over $1 billion to sell Niʻihau to the US Federal government or possibly to turn over ownership to Hawai'i state. They have turned down all offers.
Each statue stands at least 40 feet tall and is comprised of stainless steel mesh and LED lights.
"I always imagined that our skin is permanently tattooed with text – our life, our experiences – tattooed, but with invisible ink. And then suddenly, somebody is able to decipher these tattoos; that person becoming a lover, a friend. That is probably why I work with sculptures like this, this human form composed solely of letters, like cells. It’s almost biological." -Jaume Plensa, creator of "Nomad" sculpture.
There is a vault located behind Mount Rushmore's Hall of Records, which was originally intended to house important historical documents and information about the monument and the United States. The idea for the vault was first proposed by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who designed and oversaw the creation of Mount Rushmore, in the 1930s. Borglum envisioned the vault as a way to preserve information about the monument and American history for future generations.
The vault was finally completed in 1998, more than 50 years after Borglum's death, and contains a variety of historical documents and artifacts, including copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, as well as other important documents related to American history and the history of Mount Rushmore. The vault is accessible only to National Park Service personnel, and its location behind the Hall of Records, which is accessible to the public, adds an air of mystery and intrigue to the monument.
The Gibson J-160E acoustic guitar is a special instrument. This specific one is legendary. It is the one John Lennon used during his famous "Bed-In" peace protests in 1969.
The Gibson J-160E is one of the first acoustic-electric guitars produced by the Gibson Guitar Co. It was their second attempt at an acoustic-electric guitar, and it was a success. The only instrument used on every Beatles album from "Please Please Me" to "Abbey Road" was the J-160E.
In 1962, John Lennon was an up-and-coming artist, and was scraping by on the little money the band was making at that time. For his first quality American acoustic-electric guitar, Lennon wanted a new Gibson J-160E, but didn't have the money to buy it. With help from Beatles manager Brian Epstein (who also co-signed for George Harrison's J-160E), Lennon was able to get his guitar.
Lennon's original J-160E was stolen at a Christmas concert in 1963. In 2015, that stolen guitar was auctioned for $2.41 million, fetching one of the highest prices ever for an item of rock and roll memorabilia.
Lennon got this guitar in 1964. As the Vietnam War raged in 1969, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono held two week-long "Bed-Ins for Peace." These "Bed-Ins" were intended to be non-violent protests against wars, and experimental tests of new ways to promote peace.
Knowing his marriage to Yoko One would be a huge press event, John and Yoko decided to use the publicity to promote world peace. They spent their honeymoon in the presidential suite (Room 702) at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel for a week between March 25 and 31, inviting the world's press into their hotel room every day from 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
The second Bed-In was planned to take place in New York, but Lennon was not allowed into the U.S. because of a 1968 marijuana conviction. Instead, they went to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of just under 3,000, Provincetown has a summer population of as high as 60,000. The town is known for its beaches, harbor, artists, tourist industry, and its status as a vacation destination for the LGBTQ community.
In the 1890s, Provincetown was booming, and began to develop a resident population of writers and artists, as well as a summer tourist industry. After the 1898 Portland Gale storm severely damaged the town's fishing industry, members of the town's art community took over many of the abandoned buildings.
By the early decades of the 20th century, the town had acquired an international reputation for its artistic and literary productions. The Provincetown Players was an important experimental theatre company formed during this period. Many of its members lived during other parts of the year in Greenwich Village in New York, and intellectual and artistic connections were woven between the places. In 1898 Charles Webster Hawthorne opened the Cape Cod School of Art, said to be the first outdoor school for figure painting, in Provincetown.
In the mid-1960s, Provincetown saw population growth. The town's rural character appealed to the hippies of the era; property was relatively cheap and rents were correspondingly low, especially during the winter.
By the 1970s Provincetown had a significant gay population, especially during the summer tourist season, when restaurants, bars and small shops serving the tourist trade were open. There had been a gay presence in Provincetown as early as the start of the 20th century as the artists' colony developed, along with experimental theatre. Drag queens could be seen in performance as early as the 1940s in Provincetown. In 1978 the Provincetown Business Guild (PBG) was formed to promote gay tourism.
Today more than 200 businesses belong to the PBG, and Provincetown is perhaps the best-known gay summer resort on the East Coast. The 2010 US Census revealed Provincetown to have the highest rate of same-sex couples in the country, at 163.1 per 1000 couples.
The penitentiary refined the revolutionary system of separate incarceration first pioneered at the Walnut Street Jail which emphasized principles of reform rather than punishment.
Notorious criminals such as Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton were held inside its innovative wagon wheel design. At its completion, the building was the largest and most expensive public structure ever erected, and quickly became a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide.
Outside the cell was an individual area for exercise, enclosed by high walls so prisoners could not communicate. Exercise time for each prisoner was synchronized so no two prisoners next to each other would be out at the same time. Prisoners were allowed to garden and even keep pets in their exercise yards.
Cell accommodations were advanced for their time, including a faucet with running water over a flush toilet, as well as curved pipes along part of one wall which served as central heating during the winter months where hot water would be run through the pipes to keep the cells reasonably heated. Toilets were remotely flushed twice a week by the guards of the cellblock.
On April 3, 1945, a major escape was carried out by twelve inmates (including the infamous Willie Sutton), who over the course of a year managed to dig an undiscovered 97-foot (30 m) tunnel under the prison wall. During renovations in the 1930s an additional 30 incomplete inmate-dug tunnels were discovered.
The prison remained operational until 1971.
Ho'okipa Beach on the island of Maui, Hawaii, has a storied history in the world of windsurfing, earning its reputation as one of the most iconic and challenging spots for enthusiasts of the sport. In the 1970s, windsurfers began to flock to Ho'okipa due to its optimal conditions, featuring strong and consistent trade winds and powerful waves. This beach, nestled on Maui's North Shore, quickly became a testing ground for the limits of windsurfing, attracting pioneers of the sport eager to navigate its challenging waters.
During the windsurfing boom of the late 1970s and 1980s, Ho'okipa Beach emerged as a global hotspot, setting the stage for the evolution of windsurfing as a dynamic and extreme water sport. Windsurfers at Ho'okipa, including industry legends like Robby Naish and Laird Hamilton, pushed the boundaries of the sport by developing new techniques and maneuvers. The beach also gained international recognition through hosting prestigious competitions like the Aloha Classic, drawing top windsurfers from around the world to showcase their skills in the demanding conditions of Ho'okipa.
Today, Ho'okipa Beach remains a mecca for windsurfing enthusiasts and professional riders alike.
When driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, you will stumble upon something in the middle of the Mojave Desert which looks like it is straight out of a sci-fi movie. In fact, it is the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, the world's largest solar thermal power station.
Just across the California border on Interstate 15, this $2.2 billion facility is not any ordinary solar field. Instead, it uses mirrors which follow the sun. The 347,000 mirrors focus the sunlight on 3 centralized boiler towers. The receivers generate steam to drive specially adapted steam turbines. The steam is heated to 1,022° Farenheit (550°C). The plant covers 4,000 acres of land and has a gross capacity of 392 megawatts (MW). This plant is not without controversy though. This mostly stems from its location on what once was an ecologically intact desert habitat. Covering 4,000 acres, the facility was fenced off to keep out wildlife. According to a report by the Associated Press, "Ivanpah might act as a 'mega-trap' for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds. Birds face the risk of collision with the mirrors or from burning in superheated air created by the mirror field. In September 2016, federal biologists said about 6,000 birds die from collisions or burning annually while chasing flying insects around the facility’s towers.
The desert tortoise also calls this land home, and the construction of this power plant has impacted the species. Many desert tortoises found on the site were relocated to other parts of the Mojave Desert. However, environmentalists raised concerns that relocated tortoises were more likely to die due to the stresses involved.
The underbelly of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is not the view you typically see. But what is underneath this bridge may be more interesting than the world famous bridge itself.
Directly underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, on the San Francisco side, is Fort Point. It is a massive brick structure completed just before the American Civil War by the U.S. Army. Its purpose was to defend San Francisco Bay against hostile warships.
The story begins in 1769 when Spain occupied the San Francisco area. By 1776 they established the area's first European settlement. Fearful of the British and Russians, Spain fortified the narrowest part of the bay's entrance, where Fort Point stands today.
When Mexico gained independence from the Spanish in 1821, they gained control of the fortifications. By 1835 they abandoned it.
On July 1, 1846, after the Mexican–American War broke out, U.S. forces captured and occupied the empty fort and disabled the cannons. The U.S. won the war in 1948, annexed California, and on September 9th, 1850, it became the 31st state.
The 1849 gold rush had caused rapid settlement of the area. U.S. Military officials recommended a series of forts to secure San Francisco Bay due to its commercial and strategic importance.
Work began on Fort Point in 1853 and the first cannons were mounted in 1861, the same year the Civil War began.
Throughout the Civil War, soldiers stood guard for an enemy that never came. The Confederate ship, CSS Shenandoah, planned to attack San Francisco, but on the way to the harbor the captain learned that the war was over.
Plans for the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s called for the fort's removal, but Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss redesigned the bridge to save the fort. "While the old fort has no military value now," Strauss said, "it remains nevertheless a fine example of the mason's art.... It should be preserved and restored as a national monument." This is the view you see today when exploring the fort.
On December 7, 1941, Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by Imperial Japanese Navy airplanes and midget submarines, causing the American entry into World War II. "Bockscar" is the name of the United States Army Air Forces B-29 bomber that dropped a Fat Man nuclear weapon over the Japanese city of Nagasaki during World War II in the second – and last – nuclear attack in history.
Bockscar was built at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Plant at Bellevue, Nebraska, at what is now Offutt Air Force Base. It was assigned to the 393d Bombardment Squadron, 509th Composite Group to Wendover Army Air Field, Utah in April 1945.
Bockscar was used in 13 training and practice missions from Tinian, and three combat missions in which it dropped pumpkin bombs on industrial targets in Japan.
On August 9th, 1945, Bockscar, piloted by the 393d Bombardment Squadron's commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, dropped a Fat Man nuclear bomb with a blast yield equivalent to 21 kilotons of TNT over the city of Nagasaki. About 44% of the city was destroyed; 35,000 people were killed and 60,000 injured.
On August 15, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union's declaration of war, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies. On September 2, it signed the instrument of surrender, effectively ending World War II.
The Bockscar is dubbed "the plane that ended WWII". It is currently on view at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Eucalyptus deglupta is a tall tree, commonly known as the rainbow eucalyptus. It is found in an area that spans New Britain, New Guinea, Seram, Sulawesi and Mindanao, and is the only Eucalyptus species with a natural range that extends into the northern hemisphere. It thrives in tropical forests that get a lot of rain.
The unique multi-hued bark is the most distinctive feature of the tree. Patches of outer bark are shed annually at different times, showing a bright green inner bark. This then darkens and matures to give blue, purple, orange and then maroon tones. The previous season’s bark peels off in strips to reveal a brightly colored new bark below. The peeling process results in vertical streaks of red, orange, green, blue, and gray. The colours of the bark are not as intense outside the tree's native range.
The rainbow eucalyptus grows up to 2 m (6 ft) wide and over 60 m (200 ft) tall.
In the U.S., rainbow eucalyptus grows in the frost-free climates found in Hawaii and the southern portions of California, Texas and Florida.
The Kalalau Valley is located on the northwest side of the island of Kauaʻi in the state of Hawaiʻi. The only legal ways to access the valley are by kayak or by hiking the Kalalau Trail.
The valley is renowned for its natural beauty; it is surrounded by lush cliffs more than 2,000 feet (610 m) high. The valley bottom is broad and relatively flat, with an accessible region about 2 miles (3.2 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide.
The abundant sun and rain provides an ideal environment for flora and fauna. Many native Hawaiians lived in the valley into the 20th century, farming taro from a vast complex of terraced fields.
The valley is home to many rare species, including the endangered plant Dubautia kalalauensis which was named for the valley and is found nowhere else in the world. Other endemics include the endangered Schiedea attenuata.
People trim their coconut trees for several reasons. One of the most important reasons is to maintain the health of the tree. Trimming helps to remove dead, diseased or damaged fronds and branches that can affect the overall health of the tree. It also helps to improve air circulation and sunlight exposure, which can enhance the growth of new fronds and improve fruit production. Additionally, trimming can help to prevent the tree from becoming too tall, which can make it difficult to harvest the coconuts.
Another reason for trimming coconut trees is to improve the safety of the surrounding area. Overgrown coconut trees can be hazardous, especially during storms or strong winds. Falling fronds and branches can cause damage to property and even injury to people. Trimming can help to reduce the risk of falling debris and ensure that the tree is well-maintained and safe. In some cases, trimming may also be done for aesthetic reasons, to maintain the appearance of the tree and keep it looking neat and well-groomed.
The process of turning cacao beans into chocolate is a complex and multi-step process, but it can be simplified into a few key steps. The first step is harvesting the cacao pods, which contain the beans, from the cacao tree. Once harvested, the pods are split open, and the beans are removed and allowed to ferment for several days. This fermentation process is crucial to the flavor and quality of the final product.
After fermentation, the beans are dried and roasted, which brings out their flavor and aroma. The roasted beans are then ground into a paste called chocolate liquor, which is then separated into cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The cocoa solids and cocoa butter can be recombined in varying proportions to create different types of chocolate, such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate.
Finally, the chocolate is tempered, which involves melting it to a specific temperature and then cooling it down while stirring to create a smooth, glossy finish. Once the chocolate is tempered, it can be molded into bars or other shapes and then packaged for distribution.
Denali National Park
Fun Fact: Denali National Park encompass 6,045,153 acres - larger than the state of New Hampshire!
