MAY 14, Lowcountry miscellany

 S

Ken Burns, famed documentary film-maker
 speaks at a press conference (public invited)
on his imminent release "The American Revolution"

a local shrimp-boat captain,

       recently installed lifelike replica 

a liquor-store giraffe

cool oldster at a public dance,
Marine Park, Mt Pleasant (under the Cooper River Bridge)

a loaded cargo ship proceeds up the darkening Cooper River.

MAY 7, birds at the beach

 To play the brief videos, click on the central (red) arrow, then immediately press the little silver arrow at the upper left of the box.

a noble-appearing laughing gull,
isle of Palms, SC

pigeons join in the fun

Grackles enjoy the beach scene, too.  

MAY 6: catching up with life in the Lowcountry

 

a weirdly gendered sago palm

MAY 5: editorial retraction

And a couple other pics, now that we're back in the Carolina Lowcountry.

laughing gull

great blue heron, hunting at dusk

reflected sun, setting at the boardwalk,
Ravenel Bridge in the background

a great egret surveys the boating scene

MAY 4: inscrutable signs of Japan

 

the Japanese inverted triangle stop sign

Such non-universal traffic signs (recently some display English translation) among others, have been in place since 1963. Inspired by increasing international tourism, including Olympic games, the National Police Agency slated the stop-signs for replacement by a bilingual version of the universal octagonal red sign; the total cost nationally was estimated at 25 billion yen, or 200 million US$.

remember to flip your card!

 for disposing of used food-wrappers from lunch
at an upscale Nagoya lunch self-serve

archaic font for an ultra-modern bus

It was inevitable that high-tech toilets with a bidet function, found very widely in modern Japan, would come up for discussion. The operation and instructions vary from model to model, but are always imposing. Here, the customer seems to be advised to not wash while his/her lamplight (?) is turned on.

MAY 3, state visit to Washington, DC

"state" = state of anxiety on re-entering the US at this time

Washington Monument

"bunny", obviously

 

at Yards Park

At the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944, plans evolved for the creation of the United Nations organization that would help manage  international relations after the end of World War 2.

Dumbarton Oaks is an estate in the Georgetown area of Washington (our guides knew this area well)

tadpoles in an elegant pond 

at Reagan National Airport:
flight crew of Sparrow Air prepare for takeoff

(To view the final picture in brief video format, click on the central arrow, then immediately on the silver arrow at the upper left of the enlargement.)

MAY 2, spring in Vancouver: van Dusen Gardens

 

a 10-minute flight from V. Island to Vancouver YVR

 

one feels small in comparison
to the magnificance of Nature