"A Trip to God's Country"

A "Google search" oftentimes results in not only tracking down whatever you were searching for but also produces some unexpected treasures that can lead us off in another direction. Thus I happened to discover this wonderful gallery of photos by Victor B. Soto -- Sierra scenes from Yosemite (above), Sequoia and other areas. Soto has captured the wondrous beauty of the Sierras in his photos. To see more of the work of this outstanding photographer click on the link below.

As sometimes happens one good thing leads to another. At the end of the gallery there is a place where visitors can leave a comment. The comments are quite interesting and especially the one from Mike Harper (April 02, 1999), where he goes into detail about the unique "High Sierra Loop" trip in Yosemite. His suggestion to "try the lottery" reflects on how difficult it is to get a reservation for this one-week summer adventure. I know what he's talking about because years ago I tried each year for several years and never was able to book the trip. But I did make the trip to all the camps -- as a backpacker. I slept in my sleeping bag in the little campground close by to each of the High Sierra Camps and joined the paying guests for the evening meal that was served family style. I paid a modest fee for a feast that was a fitting end to a day of scenic hiking. Here are the comments by Mike Harper:

"For persistant people, very persistant - try the lottery for the High Sierra Loop Trip in Yosemite. It is 53 miles in a loop from Tuolumne (TwoWallOmee) Meadows High Sierra Camp to a series of 5 camps and back again. You will hike down the Tuolumne River to Glen Aulen Camp on the 1st day. Next day the hike is up out of the Tuolumne canyon and up to May Lake - past the famous mammilary rocks. May lake is usually a two day stay so you can make the trek up to the top of Mt Hoffman on the second day of just go fishing. Sunrise Camp is next in line and has a beautiful view of the Cathedral Range. From Sunrise the trail leads to Merced Lake Camp. The unoffical trail leads down Jayne Mansfield Pass. Merced is also a two day stay and the adventurous can climb Mt Clark. The 1st trick is first find a very large tree that has fallen across the Merced, otherwise you have to swim. The next trick is to find the trail to Mt Clark as the Park does not maintain this trail anymore. The last trick is be foolish enough to do some free climbing. Voglesang Camp is the highest of the camps just below Voglesang pass which is 11,000 ft plus. The Voglesang site is fantastic. A huge granite slab rises up behind the camp and on a clear night with a fullmoon the reflected light knocks you on your butt. All good things come to an end with the hike back to Tuolumne Camp. As I remember the longest hike is about 10 miles and as you have all day and don't have to make camp you can go at your leasure. You are at high elevation and the elevation change can be 2,000 to 4,000ft so a word to the wise is to get into condition before you go and also spend a night at Tuolumne Camp before setting out on the 1st hike so your body becomes acclimeted to the high altitude. If you can't get reservations at Tuolumne try for White Wolf. Do the same for the end of the trip and spend another night at Tuolumne or White Wolf. Young kids do just fine. Can't remember the age limit but you will know when they are old enough - you don't have to carry them anymore. Each camp is set up to provide beds (with clean sheets) in tent cabins, breakfast, lunch and dinner. All you carry is your clothes. The other item of interest is *Hot Showers*. Singles bunk domatory style but they try to put families together. We always had a cabin to ourselves. If you have less time try the hike down Yosemite Creek starting from Yosemite Creek Campground to the top of Yosemite Falls and then on to the valley floor. It is about 10 miles almost all down hill. The first half is alongside the Yosemite Creek and the last is down the steep trail up from the valley floor. There are pools at the top of the falls that you can swim in if you go late in the season when the flow is down. Great viewing platform on the rock face right next to the falls giving views of the falls and of the valley. If you use the bus from the valley that goes to Tuolumne Meadows you can do the trip without a car shuttle. Enjoy."

"Peace"

A protester carries a flag as he takes part in the "Ostermarsch" (Easter march) demonstration to protest against wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Berlin March 24, 2008. The sign on the flag reads "peace".
REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY)

"The Sword in the Stone"

Tennis ace Roger Federer, who has been the number one ranked men's tennis player in the world for four consecutive years, portrays King Arthur and pulls a sword from the anvil that holds a magical grip upon it in a new image created by photographer Annie Leibovitz. The gallant scene is reminiscent of Disney's animated film "The Sword in the Stone", in which a young King Arthur follows the wizardly teachings of Merlin. The regal image is one of three unveiled by Leibovitz to celebrate Disney Parks' "Year of a Million Dreams". Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Florida commissioned Leibovitz to create images featuring international celebrities in fairy tale settings.
REUTERS/Annie Leibovitz image/Walt Disney/Handout (UNITED STATES).

"Dr. Death" or "Hope" for the hopeless ??

Jack Kevorkian announces he is running in the November election as an Independent for a seat in the US Congress during a news conference in Southfield, Michigan March 24, 2008. Assisted suicide advocate Kevorkian, known as "Doctor Death" for helping more than 100 people end their lives, said on Monday he will run for the U.S. Congress.
REUTERS/Rebecca Cook (UNITED STATES)

"Nebbia"

An actor of Cirque Eloize and Theater Sunil performs in a play titled "Nebbia" during the XI Ibero-American Theater Festival in Bogota March 19, 2008.
REUTERS/John Vizcaino (COLOMBIA)

The British know how to "make a spectacle" of themselves

Yeomen of the Guard march as Britain's Queen Elizabeth leaves the Royal Maundy Service held at the St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh March 20, 2008.
REUTERS/Michael Cooper (NORTHERN IRELAND)

Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg

French singers Alizee (R) and Adrienne Pauly perform during a show in tribute to late French singer Serge Gainsbourg in Monte Carlo March 20, 2008. Monies from the concert will go to Monaco's Princess Stepahnie's charity association, Monaco Fight Aids.
REUTERS/Eric Gaillard (MONACO)

"Olympic Torchbearer"

Singer Wang Lee Hom holds the Beijing Olympic Games torch while posing for photos during a news conference in Beijing March 21, 2008. Wang is selected as an Olympic torchbearer for the Games. REUTERS/China Daily (CHINA). CHINA OUT

It's a challenge: Finding the dancer's upper bodies in the mass of bodies in the rear

Bhutanese people watch traditional dance during the annual Tsechu festival in Paro March 21, 2008. The tiny and deeply traditional Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan takes a slightly nervous step into the modern world on Monday when it holds the first parliamentary elections in its history.
REUTERS/Desmond Boylan (BHUTAN)

Tokyo Greed

A model is silhouetted during a presentation of Greed made by Blondy at the Tokyo Runway 2008 Spring and Summer collection March 23, 2008. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao (JAPAN)

"Un poco mas de luz"

An acrobat from Group F of France performs in the play titled "Un poco mas de luz" which means "a little more light" at the closing of the XI Iberoamerican Theater Festival in Bogota March 23, 2008. Over 100 theatre companies are presenting their shows.
REUTERS/John Vizcaino (COLOMBIA)

"The Floating Pearl . . . or a duck egg"

BEIJING — Compared variously to a floating pearl and a duck egg, the titanium-and-glass half-dome of the National Center for the Performing Arts formally opened its underwater entryway to Chinese officials and dignitaries here in December.

The $400 million complex, a concert hall, opera house and theater under one space age span, is designed to be the center of Chinese culture, just as Tiananmen Square next door was designated this country’s political center.

The complex’s lush, dazzling interior, sophisticated acoustics and mechanical wizardry rival any hall in Europe or the United States, its promoters say.

One of a Kind

The four-in-one organ at Metropolitan Art Space in Tokyo is the only one of its kind. Here's a story who's details may be fascinating -- I'd like to know more.

March 24, 2008: Bingo!! I learned some more.

The Only Reversible Organ in the World: The job description for building the organ for the Metropolitan Art Space Concert Hall in Tokyo, Japan was to build an organ on which organ music could be played authentically no matter which period it came from. As this is simply impossible in one single organ, just think of the different ways of tuning, Marc Garnier from France in 1987-1991 built three organs in one with a total of 184 ranks / 123 voices (+ 2 ext. + 1 transm.) and more than 9,000 pipes with a three-part case. Now, depending on which organ you need you can turn the right one to the front. Of course you need to disconnect and reconnect all pipes, the air system and the action, a job that obviously is extremely complicated. Maybe that is the reason why this technical masterpiece is still singular in the whole World.

"Hollywood Dave"

Dave Stann doesn't deny that he's a card counter. He's a Mensa member who has used his brains to determine when the odds are in his favor, not the casino's. Stann says his rare skills have earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars at blackjack tables. But Stann wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He is not a crook.

"The bottom line is, I'm just a smart kid who remembers things," he says over lunch at a sidewalk cafe on Franklin Avenue, not far from his Hollywood home.

Card counting, the subject of the new movie "21," is not illegal. But that hasn't stopped many Las Vegas casino bosses from telling Stann, known professionally as "Hollywood Dave," that he's no longer welcome. If he returns, he faces arrest -- for trespassing on private property.

Meanwhile, the new movie, about several math whizzes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who team up to take Vegas casinos for millions by counting cards, is sure to shine a bright light on the topic. The movie opens Friday.

New War on Slavery

Rambho Kumar was born into wilting poverty in a village in Bihar, the poorest state in India, the country with more slaves than any other, according to U.N. estimates. In 2001, desperate to keep him and his five brothers from starving, his mother accepted 700 rupees ($15) as an advance from a local trafficker, who promised more money once 9-year-old Rambho started working many miles away in India's carpet belt.

After he received Rambho from the trafficker, the loom owner treated his new acquisition like any other low-value industrial tool. He never allowed Rambho and the other slaves to leave the loom, forcing them to work for 19 hours a day, starting at 4 in the morning.

On July 12, 2005, local police, in coordination with activists supported by Free the Slaves, an organization based in Washington, liberated Rambho and nine other emaciated boys.

Many people are surprised to learn that there are still slaves. Many imagined that slavery died along with the 360,000 Union soldiers whose blood fertilized the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. Many thought that slavery was brought to an end around the world when most countries outlawed it in the 19th century.

But, in fact, there are more slaves today than at any point in history. Although a precise census is impossible, as most masters keep their slaves hidden, baseline estimates from United Nations and other international researchers range from 12 million to 27 million slaves worldwide. The U.S. State Department estimates that from 600,000 to 800,000 people -- primarily women and children -- are trafficked across national borders each year, and that doesn't count the millions of slaves who are held in bondage within their own countries.

"Last Light On Half Dome, Yosemite"

Voted one of the best photos of 2007.

Job opening

The CIA had an opening for an assassin.

After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists — two men and one woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

“We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. You have to kill her.” The first man said.“You can’t be serious. I could never shoot my wife,”

The agent replies, “Then you’re not the right man for this job."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the agent came out with tears in his eyes. “I tried, but I can’t kill my wife.” The agent replies, “You don’t have what it takes. Take your wife and go home.”

Finally, it was the woman’s turn. Only she was told to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, “You guys didn’t tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. So I had to beat him to death with the chair.”

Patagonia in peril

The Chilean government has given the green light to a huge dam that will lay waste to parts of one of the most pristine wildernesses on the planet

"An Eye in the Sky"

It's History . . . but it was exciting

Drake's Don Draper, right, tries a reverse layuup to get past the reach of UCLA's Lew Alcindor in an NCAA national semifinal game at Louisvillethe NCAA semi-final at Louisville 38 years ago on Friday. The Bulldogs gave UCLA one of its toughest games of the year, falling, 85-82.
(Associated Press)