Brothers water, Lake District, Cumbria UK

Brotherswater, originally uploaded by bingleyman2.

Brothers Water is in the Hartsop valley and is a small lake in the eastern region of the English Lake District, in the county of Cumbria. Once called Broad Water, it lies at the northern end of Kirkstone Pass, affording picturesque views on the descent towards Patterdale.
Dorothy Wordsworth, having left William sitting on Cow Bridge, walked beside the lake on 16 April 1802, delighted with ‘...the boughs of the bare old trees, the simplicity of the mountains, and the exquisite beauty of the path...the gentle flowing of the stream, the glittering, lively lake, green fields without a living creature to be seen on them.’ The lake is not among the most popular of the National Park, being shallow and full of reeds. Water lilies bloom in July, providing colour.
The name Broad Water was changed in the 19th century after two brothers drowned there.
To the north east of Brothers Water is the village of Hartsop, which has several 17th-century stone farm buildings and cottages. Some of the buildings still contain spinning rooms where villagers would have made their own clothing, selling any surplus in the local market towns.
The word Hartsop means "valley of the deer", which would have lived in the woodlands of the lower areas of the surrounding fells.
A walk through woodland skirts the western shore.
From its northern end the walk leads to Patterdale. Southward it heads over Kirkstone Pass to Ambleside.
On the western side of Brothers Water is Hartsop Hall. The 16th-century building passed to Sir John Lowther in the 17th century. The village of Hartsop lies near the northeast corner of the lake. Brothers Water may be classified in either of two ways: as one of the Lake District's smallest lakes or one of its largest tarns.
The lake is home to a trout population and harbours a rare species of fish, the schelly.

Cloud City

Cloud City, originally uploaded by DanielKHC.

“It’s so exciting to watch a big city look like a big jewel, with so many millions of lights shining on buildings nearby,” Daniel says. “You can spend the whole night shooting there — shooting wide, shooting with a tele[photo] lens or close to a building, etc.,” Daniel explains. “At the end of any rooftop session, you can walk away with hundreds of different shots, and it’s incredible.”

It helps that he isn’t afraid of heights. Daniel, however, does encounter dangerous and unpredictable situations on his shoots.

Old Town of Tallinn | From Toompea hill

Old Town of Tallinn | From Toompea hill, originally uploaded by Paul Biris Photography.

Twisting cobblestone lanes and iron street lamps. Gothic spires and medieval markets. Cappuccino and Wi-Fi. This is the city's famous Old Town. If you're looking for that mix of historic ambience and cutting-edge culture that defines Tallinn, you'll find it here.

Built up from the 13th to 16th centuries, when Tallinn – or Reval as it was known then – was a thriving member of the Hanseatic trade league, this enclosed neighbourhood of colourful, gabled houses, half-hidden courtyards and grandiose churches is, quite rightly, the city's biggest tourist draw. And the fact that it's all neatly packaged within a mostly-intact city wall and dotted with guard towers gives it an extra dose of fairytale charm.

Tallinn Old Town is listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The aim of the 3d.tallinn.ee is to allow anyone interested in this Medieval pearl to access the Old Town by using 3D computing technology.
Read more and download the application from here.

Milky Way

Milky Way, originally uploaded by john white photos.

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. Its name "milky" is derived from its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the night sky in which the naked eye cannot distinguish individual stars. The term "Milky Way" is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος (galaxías kýklos, "milky circle"). From the Earth, the Milky Way appears like a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within the Galaxy. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. In the past, astronomers thought that all of the stars in the universe were contained inside of the Milky Way. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble definitively showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy some 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter which contains 100–400 billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets as well. The Solar System is located within the disk, about 27,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of a spiral-shaped concentration of gas and dust called the Orion–Cygnus Arm. The stars in the inner ≈10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The very center is marked by an intense radio source named Sagittarius A* which is likely to be a supermassive black hole.
Stars and gases at a wide range of distances from the Galactic center orbit at approximately 220 kilometers per second. The constant rotation speed contradicts the laws of Keplerian dynamics and suggests that much of the mass of the Milky Way does not emit or absorb electromagnetic radiation. This mass has been given the name "dark matter". The rotational period is about 240 million years at the position of the Sun. The Galaxy as a whole is moving at a velocity of approximately 600 km per second with respect to extragalactic frames of reference. The oldest known star in the Galaxy is at least 13.6 billion years old and thus must have formed shortly after the Big Bang. Surrounded by several smaller satellite galaxies, the Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which forms a subcomponent of the Virgo Supercluster.

Kansas City, Missouri USA.

IMG_1273, originally uploaded by KingDavid73.

Downtown is the historic center of Kansas City, located entirely within Kansas City, Missouri, and containing the original town site, business districts and residential neighborhoods of the city. Downtown is bounded by the Missouri River on the north, the state line on the west, 31st Street on the south and the Blue River on the east. Downtown includes the central business district and its buildings which form the city's skyline. The downtown loop is formed by Interstates 670, 70, and 35. Within the downtown loop are many of the tall buildings and skyscrapers forming the city's skyline. Also within the downtown loop are small, distinct neighborhoods such as Quality Hill, the Garment District, the Financial District, the Convention Center District, and the Power and Light District.
Other neighborhoods within Downtown are the River Market and Columbus Park, both located between the downtown loop and the Missouri River. Between the downtown loop and the state line are Westside neighborhood and the West Bottoms, located at the bottom of the bluff adjacent to Kaw Point. East of the loop are the 18th & Vine District, the North Bottoms, East Bottoms, Northeast, and Pendleton Heights. South of the loop is the Crossroads District, Union Hill, Crown Center, Hospital Hill, Longfellow, Wendell Phillips, and Washington Wheatley.
The Kansas City Convention Center, Municipal Auditorium, City Hall, Lyric Theater, Midland Theater, Ilus Davis Park, and Barney Allis Plaza are located within the central business district inside the downtown loop. The Sprint Center and the College Basketball Experience are located within Power & Light District, also within the downtown loop. The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is perched upon a high point immediately south of the downtown loop. South of the loop is the Crossroads District, Union Station, Crown Center, the National World War I Museum, Liberty Memorial, Penn Valley Park, Truman Medical Center, Children's Mercy Hospital, and the 18th & Vine District. North of the loop are City Market within the River Market and Richard L. Berkeley Riverfront Park. West of the loop within the West Bottoms are Kemper Arena and Hale Arena.

Alex Thomson attempts the Keel Walk

O Alex Thomson κάνει τον stuntman και επιχειρεί αυτό που αποκαλεί "Ο περίπατος της καρίνας", ένα κατόρθωμα που έχει γίνει διαβόητο σε όλο τον κόσμο, χάρη στην εικόνα του Alex να «περπατά» με κοστούμι στην καρίνα του 20 μέτρων σκάφους του HUGO BOSS, που πλέει με ταχύτητα και μεγάλη κλίση. Το σκάφος είναι 8 τόνων φτιαγμένο από ανθρακονήματα.









"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu Copyright © Demetrios the Traveler

HalfMoonSnake

HalfMoonSnake, originally uploaded by Iceland Aurora (Photo Tours).

Yank tank, Cuba Orange

Cuba Orange, originally uploaded by @Doug88888.

Yank tank or máquina are the words used to describe the many classic cars (for example: 1957 Chevrolet, 1953 Ford, 1958 Dodge, etc.) present in Cuba with an estimated 60,000 of them still driving the roads today. In 1962 a United States embargo against Cuba was introduced, effectively cutting trade between the two countries. This meant that the cars in Cuba could no longer receive new replacement parts when something broke. Currently, the only way to keep these cars on the road today is by using Cuban ingenuity to adapt household products and Soviet technology into these vehicles. If a car is unable to be repaired at the time, the car is usually either “parked” for future repair or “parted out” (to produce extra income for the owner’s family) so that other cars can remain on the road. During the years of Soviet Union influence on Cuba, Ladas, Moskvitchs and Volgas became the main cars imported by the communist regime, mainly for state use. As a result of these internal economic restrictions, to this day there is no such thing as a new or used private European or Asian automotive dealership branch in Cuba for independent purchasing by regular Cubans.

Rua Reidh Lighthouse

Rua Reidh Lighthouse - A blink of light - (explored), originally uploaded by Michael~Ashley (Catching up).

Built in 1912 by David A Stevenson, Rua Reidh Lighthouse, near Gairloch, stands at the entrance to Loch Ewe, at one of the most dramatic locations on the north-west coast of Scotland, with stunning views across the Minch to the Isle of Skye, the Shiant Isles and the Outer Hebrides.

It’s still a working lighthouse, but the original Lighthouse Keepers' Quarters are now privately owned and run as guest accommodation. We welcome our guests as we would our own family and friends – in a relaxed, sociable atmosphere where you can make yourself at home. You will have the companionship of other guests from around the world in our comfortable lounge and conservatory, and we invite our guests to join us for a home cooked supper in a friendly dinner party setting every evening.
We're at the end of a single track private road, three miles from the nearest house - you won't hear any traffic noise here, just the cries of the seabirds and the sound of the waves. If you love remote places, walking, wildlife, peace and solitude, it's an unforgettable, unique and unusual place to stay.