2012
Yosemite - Summer 2012
About a month or so ago my wife and I went on a camping trip with some friends in Yosemite National Park. It was much warmer than we thought it would be, and there were even a few mild rain showers, but overall it was a wonderful trip. This wasn't my first time camping, but it was my first trip to Yosemite and the valley was just beautiful. We didn't branch out into the wilderness too much, as we were just there for a couple of days. After a long day of travel on foot, the pizza and beer at the Curry Village Pizza Deck (Wayback Machine link) was a lifesaver... more than once!
Sadly, it's come to light that several people who stayed in Curry Village's "signature tent cabins" were infected with hantavirus (Wayback Machine link) during the same time we were in Yosemite, and a few people have died. The cabins in question were poorly designed; they were built in 2009 after a rockfall from Glacier Point destroyed buildings and caused minor injuries (Wayback Machine link). The continued high risk of rockfalls (Wayback Machine link) has prompted the closure of other areas of the park as well. We camped in our own tent and never saw any mice, but we did hear a colossal boom and cracking sound in the late afternoon that we could only assume to be a rockfall somewhere in the valley.
Now on to the photos – I'm going to save all the silly, sweaty, hiking photographs for my personal file and just stick to some nice landscape shots.
The first picture is of the Wawona Tunnel View, this is the classic Yosemite picture that all first-timers just have to take. On the left side of this photo is El Capitan, in the center is Half Dome, and on the right side is Bridalveil Fall. There are many other rock formations in the largely granite, glacier-carved valley, but El Capitan and Half Dome are perhaps the most famous.
Map of the Inca Empire
This map of the Inca Empire (Wayback Machine link) is great for showing the rapid expansion of the Incas across the Andes region. On the original map it was a little difficult to correlate the numbered excerpts with the colored regions, so I made new numbers that will show up a little better on classroom projectors.
Map of Spanish Viceroyalties
I came across this map of Spanish viceroyalties (link no longer available) a few months ago, and since it can be difficult to find good maps online I thought I'd post it here. Even though there's a plethora of maps on the Internet, it still seems like the best ones are either overhead-projector transparencies, or printed in books. This map is of Spanish territory in the Americas during the eighteenth century – it covers all of Latin America and the Spanish-American colonial empire, as well as neighboring British territory, and the Portuguese viceroyalty of Brazil.
The Spanish viceroyalties shown on the map are:
- Viceroyalty of New Spain
- Viceroyalty of New Granada
- Viceroyalty of Peru
- Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
(Revised and republished April 21st, 2025)
Ruins of the Acropolis, 1966 - Athens, Greece
These photos (Kodak slides) were also taken by my grandparents while on vacation in 1966, and they've been scanned but not altered. The first image is of the Acropolis of Athens, and in this citadel all the other images except the last are found.
The middle images are of the Parthenon, and also of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an ancient amphitheater.
Second to last is the Porch of the Caryatids, also known as the "Porch of the Maidens,"which is found at the Erechtheion, an ancient Greek temple in the Acropolis.
The last image is of the Panathenaic Stadium, the location of the Panathenaic Games between the sixth and third centuries BC. The Panathenaic Games were like the Ancient Olympic Games but only Athenians competed. In the late 1800s the stadium was rebuilt, and the first modern Olympic Games took place there in 1896.
Roman Ruins, 1966 - Rome, Italy
These photos of Roman ruins were taken in 1966 by my grandparents. These images are scanned Kodak slides, and they have not been altered. The first image with the inscription is near the Basilica Aemilia of the Forum. More information can be found on the inscription at the Index of Latin Inscriptions at the University of Chicago (97A23.11).
I’m assuming the last image is also in the Forum, and the other slides are some interesting takes of the Colosseum.
A Courtesy - Not an Obligation
Some might as a courtesy, but it shouldn’t be considered an obligation.
via DF
(Revised and republished April 21st, 2025)
The artistry of the postmodern GIF
Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium | Off Book | PBS Digital Studios
(Revised and republished April 21st, 2025)