Odd and Different Architecture #3 - Photos

Tokyo, Japan

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Wales, Great Britain

China

Cathedral de Brasilia, Brazil

Singapore

Cosswiller, France

Odd and Different Architecture #2 - Photos

Dubai, UAE

China

Chile

The Netherlands

Jaipur, India

Kansas City, Missouri

Barcelona, Spain

Registered Trademarks & the Emoluments Clause

Registered trademarks are a great way to make money.  If you have a well-known name, like President 45, you can make millions by trademarking your own name.  Last month, the government of China gave preliminary approval to one registered trademark by President 45, and it pretty much sailed by unnoticed.  That trademark was for construction services businesses.  Two days ago, China announced the preliminary approval of 38 new trademark registrations for the circus peanut, which raised quite a few eyebrows.  These trademark applications were made in April of 2016, when the US Presidential election was running hot and heavy.
   The newest approved trademarks cover a wide variety of businesses: spa and massage services; golf clubs; hotels, which include escort services; insurance companies; financial companies; real estate companies; restaurants; bars; and a trademark classification that includes bodyguards, concierge services, and social escorts.  Three of the approvals use the name Scion, which is the name of the President's sons line of hotels.
   All thirty-nine trademarks were granted to a company registered in Delaware as DTTM Operations LLC.  Unless someone objects to the trademarks in letters addressed to China's government within 90 days of the preliminary approval, the trademarks are automatically registered as law.
   Maryland's Ben Cardin said, "For a decade prior to his election as President, DT sought, with no success, to have lucrative and valuable trademarks granted in the world's biggest market (China).  He was turned down each and every time.  The floodgates now appear to be open."  Cardin called on the federal Departments of Justice, State, and Commerce to "brief Congress, immediately, on these matters and on the potential constitutional dangers that they present."
    Ben Cardin is concerned about violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, which bars elected leaders from taking anything of value from foreign countries, unless approved by Congress.  Dianne Feinstein of California said the trademark approvals are "exactly what the Constitution's Emoluments Clause was designed to prevent, and the President is blatantly defying it."
    Kathleen Clark, a government ethics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told National Public Radio last month that by giving the circus peanut valuable name rights, Chinese officials may hope that they can influence policy decisions.  And that represents a breach of the Emoluments Clause, she believes.

Old Stonework Photos

Buildings in Tibet

Crom Estate, County Fermanagh, Ireland

St. Andrew's Cathedral, Scotland

Engelsburg castle, the Czech Republic

The Great Wall, China

Critter Photos

Chinese dog with puppy and tiger kitten

Great crested grebe with chicks on back

Kitten headlock

Nyalas - mother and fawn

Innsbruck (Austria) cows

Strange Natural Wonders - III

The Eye of the Sahara (a Richat Structure), Mauritania:  This enormous depression, circular in shape and stretching 25 miles wide, is like a bull’s-eye mark in the middle of an otherwise flat and featureless area of Mauritania desert. Visible from space, it has been a landmark for astronauts since the earliest missions. The Eye isn’t the result of any target practice by aliens; rather, it formed as winds eroded the different layers of sediment, quartzite, and other rocks at varying depths.

 

Sailing Stones on Racetrack Playa, Death Valley, California, USA:  No one has ever seen one of the “sailing stones” on Death Valley’s Racetrack Playa move, but evidence of their travels is visible in the long track marks that trail behind them in the dusty ground. Scientists aren’t sure exactly how the rocks—which can weigh hundreds of pounds—make their way across the dry lake bed. The prevailing theory is that when the rocks are wet or icy, they’re pushed along the flat playa by strong winds. The deep groove marks they leave behind indicate they may travel up to 700 feet from their point of origin.

 

The Stone Forest (Shilin) in Yunnan Province, China:  Many of the trees within the forest in China’s remote Yunnan Province are rock hard, literally. The area, which spans nearly 200 square miles, was underwater 270 million years ago, and the sea floor was covered with limestone sediment. Gradually, the seabed rose and the water dried up. As rain and wind eroded the weaker rock, the stronger limestone spires began to take shape. Now they rise skyward, surrounded by leafy trees.

 

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia:  When a prehistoric lake dried up about 30,000 years ago, it left an endless expanse of white hexagonal tiles that stretch to the horizon. Welcome to the world’s largest salt flat, stretching for 4,000 square miles—25 times the size of Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. The site provides more than 25,000 tons of salt per year to local miners, supports a thriving community of thousands of flamingos, and attracts tourists who can check into the Palacio de Sal, a 16-room hotel made entirely from salt blocks.

 

Spotted Lake, British Columbia, Canada:  It looks almost as if you could play Twister on Spotted Lake near Osoyoos, less than a mile from the Washington State border. Each summer, most of the water in this mineral-rich lake evaporates, leaving behind large concentrations of salt, titanium, calcium, sulfates, and other minerals that form a polka-dot pattern in shades of green, yellow, and brown circles of varying size. The lake is a sacred site to the First Nations of the Okanagan Valley, and the land on which it sits is private property owned by the Indian Affairs Department. You won’t actually be able to get up close to the lake, but you can get a good look from the nearby road.

 

The Silfa Rift at Thingvellir National Park, Iceland:  The shifting of the tectonic plates that fit together like puzzle pieces on the earth’s crust (a.k.a. continental drift) is more visible in southwest Iceland’s Þingvellir National Park than anywhere else. In the park’s ever-widening Almannagjá canyon, you can walk in the seam of the Eurasian and North American plates as they slowly move apart—or you can dive into the crack between continents in the Silfra Rift in Lake Þingvellir. It takes nearly a century for glacier ice to melt and filter through lava into the lake, but once the water gets there, it’s so clear that visibility underwater is nearly 1,000 feet.

Beautiful Country Scenes

Argentina

 

Canada

 

England

 

China

 

USA

 

Photos of Contentment ...

... in Germany.

... in China.

... in Egypt.

... in India.

"Wild" Creatures and the Past

I slept like a rock last night.  Nedi was beside my legs and Lovey was curled up at my waist.  We had our second freezing night for the fall, and it's only 37 degrees outside, now, at 9 a.m. - Maybe I'll enjoy the heat and humidity of Florida! -  Nedi is curled up on the bed right now; Lovey is getting some sunshine.  I'm not walking the Rs at the moment because Remy is seeing the chiropractor this morning.  I did enjoy seeing NCIS last night - and I got a kick out of the way the team was trying to find "the perfect woman" for Gibbs to date.  I think that he will always choose his own ladies.  -  I had planned on being at home this weekend with the kids, but it looks as if I might be with Maggie, instead.  I'll return from Florida on the first, and start pet-sitting on the third, with Finn and Skippy.

What a wild, crazy, and sad time near Zanesville, Ohio!  People started calling the sheriff's office to report "exotic animals" being seen along the highway yesterday afternoon.  A Mr. Thompson had permits to keep lions and tigers, bears, giraffes, camels, cheetahs, wolves and orangutans and chimps.  The primates were found all safely caged in Thompson's house.  Thompson, however, was dead in the yard; all the large animal enclosures had their gates open, and all the gates off the property were open.  There were 48 large animals loosed - nearly all have been shot dead.  The sheriff gave the order to "shoot to kill" last evening, when it was reported that the owner was dead and the creatures were loose.  Several of the animals were standing next to the open doors of their cages when they were killed.  Photos of the dead animals have made me cry.  One large cat (type not identified) was struck by a car and killed on the highway.  These animals are scared witless!  It's a shame that the shoot to kill order was given! (Even though I do realize that the sheriff is/was trying to protect the residents of his county...)

If you know me, you know that I am fascinated by history.  I've been excited by recent finds that have been announced over the past few days....  A fully intact ship-burial with a Viking warrior has been found on the Scottish Highland peninsula of Ardnamurchan in Lochabar.  It has been dated to the tenth century, and contained a whetstone from Norway, a ring pin from Ireland, and pottery from the Hebrides.  Most of the warrior's skeleton has decayed, but part of his jaw and several teeth have been recovered, as well.  He was buried with his broadsword, a bronze-headed axe, his conical helmet, and his shield was placed above him.  ....  At Bredon Hill, immortalized by a poem in A. E. Housman's 1896 anthology, A Shropshire Lad, the reportedly largest ever treasure trove of gold has been found.  Details of what it includes are sketchy, and the finder has not been identified. But it is understood the Worcestershire County Council and the county coroner have been informed because of the potential archaeological significance. The treasure, found at the site of an Iron Age fort in Worcestershire, is already being compared with the Staffordshire Hoard, the country’s biggest ever find of Anglo Saxon gold. ....  After standing for at least 4,000 years, the standing stone at Bedd Morris on Newport Mountain has fallen. It was broken off below ground level, and is believed to have been run into by a motorist during the weekend.  Well over six-feet tall, the bronze-age stone is now a parish marker between Newport and Pontfaen in Wales.  The National Park Authority is investigating.  ....  And in Dangtu, Anhui Province, China more than 40 cultural relics have been found in a 400-square-meter tomb that is 2,000 years old.  It is suggested that the tomb belonged to an aristocrat of Yue, one of the seven Warring States during the Warring States period (475 to 221 BC).  One of the most gorgeous, and yet tiny, pieces was a "dragonfly eye" glass bead. This kind of jewellery was made by nomadic tribes in Mediterranean countries in the 10th century BC and was believed to keep misfortune away from the wearers, as well as to play the role of money, Gong Xicheng, deputy director of the provincial archaeological institute said.