about 150 years ago....

In the 1860s and 70s, photographer Timothy O'Sullivan created some of the best-known images in American History. After covering the U.S. Civil War, (many of his photos appear in this earlier series), O'Sullivan joined a number of expeditions organized by the federal government to help document the new frontiers in the American West. The teams were composed of soldiers, scientists, artists, and photographers, and tasked with discovering the best ways to take advantage of the region's untapped natural resources. O'Sullivan brought an amazing eye and work ethic, composing photographs that evoked the vastness of the West. He also documented the Native American population as well as the pioneers who were already altering the landscape. Above all, O'Sullivan captured -- for the first time on film -- the natural beauty of the American West in a way that would later influence Ansel Adams and thousands more photographers to come.

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Pah-Ute (Paiute) Indian group, near Cedar, Utah, in 1872. (Timothy O'Sullivan/NARA

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Panoramic view of tents and a camp identified as "Camp Beauty", rock towers and canyon walls in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona. Tents and possibly a lean-to shelter stand on the canyon floor, near trees and talus. Photographed in 1873.

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Old Mission Church, Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. View from the plaza in 1873.

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Shoshone Falls, Snake River, Idaho. A view across top of the falls in 1874.

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The mining town of Gold Hill, just south of Virginia City, Nevada, in 1867.

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A wooden balanced incline used for gold mining, at the Illinois Mine in the Pahranagat Mining District, Nevada in 1871. An ore car would ride on parallel tracks connected to a pulley wheel at the top of tracks.

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The Canyon of Lodore, Colorado, in 1872.

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View of the White House, Ancestral Pueblo Native American (Anasazi) ruins in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, in 1873. The cliff dwellings were built by the Anasazi more than 500 years earlier. At bottom, men stand and pose on cliff dwellings in a niche and on ruins on the canyon floor. Climbing ropes connect the groups of men. (Timothy O'Sullivan/LOC) #

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A distant view of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1873

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Alta City, Little Cottonwood, Utah, ca. 1873. __________________

Ball's Pyramid

Ball's Pyramid Yesterday we looked at two pebble in the ocean. A stone with a cap , and another stone with oil . Let us now look at the stone SAIL.


Clickable 1200 px


Ball's Pyramid (English Ball's Pyramid, 31 ° 45'21 "w. W. 159 ° 15'02" to. Etc.) - a small volcanic island in the Tasman Sea, 20km south-east of Lord Howe Island . Known, which is the highest volcanic rock on the planet (562m.). The island is uninhabited and looks like a huge sail.

The island was discovered in 1788, the first man landed on it much later - in 1882. There are currently visiting the island is strictly regulated and requires permission not only to guide Lord Howe Island, to which Ball's Pyramid is geographically, but also directly to the Australian Government. In short, get on it is almost impossible and can only admire this vast object stone from a distance, from the board any recreational vessel.
Another interesting fact: in 2000. on this island was discovered by a small colony (about 30 individuals) Giant stick insects - insects relic that has long been thought to be extinct. The only question is whether people save the last of this kind ...

The area of ​​its base - a total of 200 square meters. meters. But the height - 562 meters. Bols Pyramid lies between Australia and New Zealand, but tourists do not spoil the attention that high-altitude vista of the Pacific. There's really no place to build hotels, no beach. Even the conquest of the peak of 1982 prohibits local authorities.
Prior to the ban is still some good climbing climbers had to make. But since 1986, not only the ascent - limited even just visiting the cliff.


The exception was the expedition of scientists who have studied the local fauna and flora. Yes, the stones of the Pyramids Bols is not lifeless, as it might at first seem. Oozing moisture between the stones provides power to small shrubs. And those, in turn, otmiraya create blockages brushwood. That that's the brushwood, and biologists expect the biggest surprise - they found a small population of the insect Dryococelus australis - a giant stick insects. But it was thought that he was dead. A couple of stick insects were sent to the zoo - to reproduce.




Even the rocks of the island without interest. Rock - a volcanic origin, and it is believed that its submarine base - Tasmanian continent, a huge recessed plateau, whose apex - New Zealand and all the islands in this region. You can imagine how high Bols Pyramid is not above sea level, but from its inception - Tasmanian plateau of the continent!



Ball's Pyramid located next to another interesting island



Lord Howe (born Lord Howe Island) - a small volcanic island shaped like a boomerang, stretched from north to south for 10 miles and has a width of about 2 km. Coordinates - 31 ° 45'21 "w. sh. 159 ° 15'02 "to. Belongs on Australia (part of the State of New South Wales).
It has internal self-government. Located in the Tasman Sea, 770 kilometers north-east of Sydney (Australia), and approximately 1,200 kilometers to the southwest of the island of New Caledonia (overseas territory of France). The island is located about midway between the continental coast of Australia and Norfolk Island belonging to it. The area of Lord Howe Island - 14.6 km ². Resident population - 300-350 people, while on the island are allowed to remain for another 400 tourists.



Lord Howe Island is shaped like a boomerang 10x2 km in the Tasman Sea, quite remote from the mainland (about 770 kilometers from Sydney

Clickable 1400 px Location of Lord Howe Island


Age Lord Howe Island - about 20 million years, making it one of the oldest volcanic islands in the Pacific. The northern and southern islands are of volcanic origin, and the central part consists of packed coral sand. Thus, Lord Howe is the result of the merger of two volcanic islands. The area corresponding to the north are mostly occupied by hills and low mountains (up to 300 m above sea level). In the southern part of Lord Howe are two basalt mountain ranges - Lidgberd (650 m or 777 m) and Hoover (757 m or 875 m). Coral bridge is covered with dunes up to 45 m significant part of the bay, washing the island from the west, is occupied by a coral reef. Between him and poberezheem Lord Howe is a small island of coral origin Rabbit. Coastal waters of Lord Howe - the southernmost point on Earth, where there are colonies of coral polyps.



Lord Howe is on the boundary of the tropical and subtropical climatic zones. The temperature and lighting conditions on the island are critical for the development of woody vegetation in the Southern Hemisphere. There is a pronounced differentiation of the vegetation between the convex and concave slopes. A significant part of the island is covered by tropical forests, which are both single deck and bunk. Describes 209 species of higher plants, of which 70 are endemic to Lord Howe.

Lord Howe Island was opened on February 17, 1788 a British ship under the command of Lieutenant Lidgberda, sailing with the prisoners on board from Australia to Norfolk Island. The first settlers arrived on the island of New Zealand in 1834, the beginning of XX century there were the first tourists. Today's economy based on tourism. Also, the export of seeds of endemic palms Howea forsteriana (born kentia palm), widely used as an ornamental plant.


In the 16-25 km south-east of Lord Howe is the tiny islet of Ball's Pyramid. Its length - 200 m and the highest point - 562 m (or 650 m). Ball's Pyramid Island was discovered, along with Lord Howe in 1788 and administratively belongs to him.

Along almost the entire western coast of the island is a coral reef. Incidentally, the coast of Lord Howe is the southernmost habitat of coral on the planet






There are even some wonderful fluorescent corals



70 out of more than 200 species of plants growing on the island are unique and found only here















Here is a wonderful place!

Analysis: JPMorgan to be haunted by change in risk model

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  People exit the lobby of JPMorgan …

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co's decision to radically change the way risk was measured in its Chief Investment Office is likely to dog the bank in the developing crisis over the big trading losses it has suffered.

The move, which allowed the bank to disguise the level of risk that the CIO was taking in its trading, could become a major focal point of investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI, former regulators said. It also will likely become part of investor cases in lawsuits against the bank and its executives.

When JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon announced on May 10 that the company had lost at least $2 billion through "egregious mistakes" in trading, he also said for the first time that the bank had changed its model for measuring so-called value-at-risk in the CIO where the derivatives portfolio was managed.

The change made the CIO's portfolio, which totaled about $375 billion, appear to be a lot safer than it actually was and gave traders more leeway to make risky bets. The rest of the bank's divisions apparently kept to more conservative modeling.

The old model would have sounded alarms by showing that the CIO could lose $129 million, or more, in a day during the first quarter - a higher reading than during the financial crisis.

But the new model cut that figure almost in half, to $67 million, clouding the view inside and outside the bank of the danger it faced. That figure was lower than the $69 million reading at the end of the prior quarter.

So far, Dimon has not revealed exactly when the model was changed, or why.

Those questions now appear certain to be at the center of regulatory and shareholder inquiries into the losses, which are expected to grow. Some traders and analysts at other firms estimate the final loss tally could exceed $5 billion as the bank tries to unwind its positions. Dimon has said the losses could total $3 billion or more.

LAWSUITS ABOUT RISK

Investors have dumped JPMorgan's shares since the loss was announced, pushing them down more than 17 percent and erasing more than $27 billion of market value. Two shareholder lawsuits were filed against the company on Wednesday, accusing the bank and its management of taking excessive risk.

The SEC is investigating what happened at JPMorgan, the White House has confirmed. [ID:nL5E8GECMU] The FBI has also opened a preliminary investigation, according to agency director Robert Mueller. [ID:nL1E8GG9HX]

A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment. Spokesmen for the SEC and FBI declined to comment.

"It is logical to expect that the SEC will look at this issue" of the disclosures, as well as why and how the new model was adopted, said Harvey Pitt, a former SEC chairman.

"Regulators are going to want to know if changes were made consistently with the obligation to operate safely and soundly," said Pitt, who is currently CEO of Kalorama Partners, a business consulting firm.

An initial report on the bank's results for the first quarter, made April 13, disclosed the $67 million figure, the reading under the new risk model. It did not say that there had been a change in models.

On May 10, as it explained the losses, the bank showed the $129 million risk reading from the old model. On a call with analysts that day, Dimon said the bank had tried the new model, and then reverted to the old one, which it had used for several years.

"There are constant changes and updates to models -- always trying to get them better than they were before," Dimon said in the May 10 conference call. "That is an ongoing procedure."

That explanation, "does not pass the smell test," said Mike Mayo, analyst at investment firm CLSA. "It is a red flag for them to change the model," said Mayo, author of "Exile on Wall Street," about the inner workings of big banks.

Banks sometimes refine their value-at-risk, or VaR, models but those commonplace changes do not by themselves produce such dramatically different results, said Christopher Finger, one of the founders of RiskMetrics Group, which pioneered VaR models and is now a unit of MSCI Inc.

The model JPMorgan put back in place shows "a huge, huge increase in risk," Finger said.

Finding out how the company decided to change the model would reveal a lot about its internal controls and about how the traders apparently got the upper hand over risk managers, said Finger.

Risk controls on traders in the CIO were eased last year without Dimon knowing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unidentified sources.

Traditional value-at-risk models are not a perfect predictor -- for example, they only estimate the possible losses for most days, losses could be even bigger on a few occasions. But even so, they are widely used as a metric by risk managers, traders, and investors.

Changes in such risk models usually require several layers of approval going up the management ladder, said a risk manager at a large financial company, who declined to be identified.

Mayo said it is important for investors to know who at JPMorgan made the decisions and exactly when, so they can gauge if the loss is the result of bigger problems at the bank.

"I have yet to hear an answer that makes a lot of sense," he said. The lack of transparency makes him wonder: "What else is falling through the cracks?"

(Reporting by David Henry and Jed Horowitz in New York.; Editing By Alwyn Scott, Martin Howell and Kenneth Barry)

Japanese crash victim allegedly robbed

1. 

The Japanese woman who was caught in the horrific three-vehicle accident in Bugis was reportedly robbed minutes before her death.

According to The Straits Times (ST), an eyewitness said that he saw a man pick up notes and coins discarded around the taxi which appeared to belong to Shigemi Ito, the female passenger of the taxi that a Ferrari rammed into at the junction of Rochor Road and Victoria in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Ito, who according to Lianhe Wanbao, was a student at Raffles Design Institute, was reportedly still alive at that point in time.

The 57-year-old eyewitness, who only wanted to be known as Lim, added that he estimated the man to have picked up cash amounting to about S$300, reported ST, which quoted a Lianhe Wanbao report.

Lim said that he ran to the accident scene after he heard a loud bang and he saw Ito crying out in pain as the man stole the money.

Ito, who was in her 20s, died at the Singapore General Hospital on Saturday after the accident.

[Watch the video of the accident here]

The high-speed accident claimed two other lives. The driver of the limited edition Ferrari, Ma Chi, died on the spot and was cremated on Monday while the taxi driver, 52-year-old Cheng Teck Hock, succumbed to his injuries and died in the intensive care unit of Tan Tock Seng Hospital on Sunday.

Another two people -- 26-year-old motorcyclist Muhammad Najib Ghazli and a 20-something female passenger in the Ferrari were also injured in the accident.

Muhammad Najib is currently at Tan Tock Seng Hospital recovering from his injuries, which includes a spine injury, a dislocated right arm and a rib fracture.

Deal reached over Palestinian hunger strike

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike have agreed on a deal with Israel to end their fast in return for an easing of their conditions, officials on both sides said.

The deal was reached after talks mediated by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority and made possible by the agreement of Palestinian groups "outside the prisons," Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency said in a statement on Monday.

Most of some 2,000 prisoners, more than one-third of the 4,800 Palestinians in Israeli jails, began refusing food on April 17 although a few had been fasting much longer - up to 77 days.

Their protest centered on demands for more family visits, an end to solitary confinement and an easing of so-called "administrative detention", a practice that has drawn international criticism on human rights grounds.

After the announcement of the deal Al Jazeera learned that Thaer Halahleh who had threatened to continue will also end his hunger strike as well. Halahla has been fasting for 76 days.

Al Jazeera's Cal Perry, reporting from Jerusalem, said the celebrations that erupted in Gaza after the deal was announced may be premature.

"We haven't heard that this deal is going to change [the Israeli policy of] administrative detention. There are at least 308 Palestinians held in administrative detention and in this deal they will continue to serve out their sentences," Perry said.

"We're not seeing sentences being shortened and people aren't going to be going free tonight. I think these celebrations will be short-lived especially because it's close to Nakba Day," he said in reference to May 15, the date Palestinians commemorate as "day of catastrophe" that followed Israel's independence in 1948.

Deal brokered by Egypt

An Egyptian official involved in the talks said that under Monday's deal to end the strike, Israel had agreed to end solitary confinement for 19 prisoners and lifted a ban on visits to prisoners by relatives living in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel also agreed to improve other conditions of detention,and to free so-called administrative detainees once they complete their terms unless they are brought to court, according to the official.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri confirmed the deal, telling the Reuters news agency that "the prisoners signed the deal after their demands were met. The deal was brokered by Egypt".

The talks, held in Israel's Ashkelon jail, south of Tel Aviv, between senior prisoners and Israeli authorities, had hit
a snag earlier, but an Egyptian mediator apparently managed to break the deadlock.

Israeli authorities had balked at the agreement's call for the release of any inmate whose detention term, usually a six-month period that can be renewed by a military court, has ended, according to officials involved in the talks.

Relatives' visits from Gaza were suspended after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants and taken to the Hamas-ruled territory in 2006. He was released last October in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

awesome

Canadian Dollar Correction To Gather Pace On Sticky Inflation

The Canadian dollar continued to weaken against its U.S. counterpart, with the USDCAD rallying to a fresh monthly high of 1.0062, but we may see the pair consolidate next week as it maintains the range-bounce price action from earlier this year. Indeed, the loonie snapped back on Friday as the ongoing improvement in the labor market spurred increased bets for a rate hike, and the economic developments on tap for the following week may continue to fuel speculation for higher borrowing costs as the recovery gathers pace.

As the headline and core reading for consumer prices are expected to hold steady in April, the stickiness in price growth certainly raises the risk for inflation, and we may see the Bank of Canada continue to strike a hawkish tone for monetary policy as private sector activity picks up. According to Credit Suisse overnight index swaps, market participants see a 25bp rate hike in the next 12-months, but it may only be a one-time deal as the central bank tries to address the record rise in household indebtedness. As Governor Mark Carney continues to highlight the risk generated by the surge in private sector lending, it seems as though the central bank head is making an effort to talk down the rise in household borrowing, but the BoC may have little choice to but to raise the benchmark interest rate from 1.00% as the board raises its fundamental assessment for the economy. In turn, we do not expect to see a series of rate hikes amid the uncertainties surrounding the region, and Governor Carney may revert back to a more balanced tone following a rate hike as external headwinds continue to pose a threat to the recovery.

As the USDCAD maintains the range from earlier this month, we may see the short-term pullback in the exchange rate turn into a larger correction, and we may see the pair fall back towards the 0.9900 to test for interim support. However, should the inflation report top market expectations, a marked rise in interest rate expectations could spur another run at the 0.9800 figure, but we may see the dollar-loonie threaten the sideways price action ahead of the second-half of the year as the BoC is scheduled to meet on June 5th. - DS

Euro Tumbles the Start of a Much Bigger Breakdown

The Euro broke decisively lower against the US Dollar as disappointments in Greek elections and broader Euro Zone difficulties proved enough to force a major shift across financial markets. It was initially a feeling of déjà vu as the EURUSD dropped sharply into the first week of May—just as it had done in April only to finish where it began. Yet clear fundamental and sentiment shifts suggest this may be the break many have expected, and volatility seems all but guaranteed in the week ahead.

A clear disappointment in Greek general elections sparked renewed market tensions, and a deterioration in Spanish fiscal and financial conditions only stoked further European financial market turmoil. Successive years of biting austerity for Greece meant that voters forced out the ruling party and showed record support for a fiercely anti-austerity party on the far left. Yet the sharp swings essentially produced a stalemate as the top three parties seem unable to form a majority government. In effect this leaves Greece to unable to comply with stringent fiscal rules attached to recent bailouts. And indeed, it seems as though the election results leave Greece even closer to hard default and likely exit from the single currency union.

Spain likewise drew headlines as the Spanish government announced it would fail to meet targets for fiscal tightening, while officials nationalized another domestic bank at clear risk of insolvency. The combination served as clear reminder of the difficulties surrounding the Euro Zone’s fifth-largest economy.

Years of impressive real estate growth left the Spanish banking system with massive loan portfolios, and a sharp economic downturn has produced significant losses. All the while, the central government not-so-subtly depends on Spanish banks to buy government debt as international investors turn away. In short: the Spanish government needs continued bond purchases from domestic banks to avoid seeking international bailouts. Yet those same banks may need bailouts of their own, and the risks to Spanish sovereign debt and credit markets are clear.

Is this all enough to force a sustained Euro breakdown? If so, why haven’t previous episodes of fiscal tensions been enough to force the Euro/US Dollar significantly lower? The US CFTC Commitment of Traders report shows that Non-Commercial traders—typically professional speculators—have remained aggressively net-short Euro futures despite an important EURUSD bounce through 2012. In other words: many have kept their Euro-bearish bets through choppy market conditions.

Recent COT data shows that speculators increased their net-short Euro position by the most since the week ending May 10, 2011. The shift came soon after the Euro set an important top above the $1.48 mark, and the most recent sharp shift warns of the potential for similar price action in the future. In subsequent weeks the pair fell another 400 pips before bouncing sharply and consolidating for the next four months. Could we see similar moves in the weeks ahead? Given such a sharp week-over-week shift in positioning, we think further volatility seems all but guaranteed. - DR