Amazing Pictures

[Hungary Jack]

The Rockies are amazing.

I am pretty sure that is Longs Peak viewed from the northeast--maybe around Estes Park? Looks like you can see the Diamond Face (shadowed), the Cable Route, and that lovely ridgeline and gulley beyond the Keyhole. And that huge flat summit is unmistakable.

[Hungary Jack]

The Rockies are amazing.

hear hear.



Gore Range viewed from Boulder Lake?

[Freed Roger]

The Rockies are amazing.

hear hear.



Gore Range viewed from Boulder Lake?

Indeed it is. here's about 2 hours later.

[Hungary Jack]

For all the 14ers I have done around there, I think summiting some of the Gore peaks would be much harder. That is a craggy and formidable range.

[Radbird]

Space shuttle launch at night

This is an Endeavor launch captured by an airplane passenger.

[Fat_Bulldog]

[Tambourine Man]

Beautiful. I take my kids camping there every fall, and we knockout most of our shopping for the school year at the same time.

[Freed Roger]

Butte Montana

[Freed Roger]

Taum Sauk Mtn Reservoir before


After


further after

[Radbird]

Dominican Republic: ‘The Baseball Factory’

Outside of the United States, more Major League Baseball players are born in the Dominican Republic than any other country. Of the 846 players on opening-day rosters last year, 86 of them came from the Caribbean nation.

“Just like the young men in the Dominican Republic, all I had was baseball,” American photojournalist Billy Weeks said.

Growing up in a small town in the South, Weeks dreamed of playing for the Atlanta Braves. Instead, he became a sports photographer and covered three World Series championships and countless playoff games.

He was driven to capture the passion for baseball in the Dominican Republic by his love for the game and the similar humble background that connected him to the country’s young players.

Weeks began the project in 2008 while working for an aid organization, documenting its activity in the country. He spent his free time in the hot afternoons photographing games that he happened upon while roaming the neighborhoods of San Pedro.

“When I see the young men in the Dominican Republic play baseball in the sugar cane fields with a stick and a sock wound tight with tape, it reminds me of how important the game is,” he said.

For many Dominicans, the sport is more than a national pastime; it’s seen as one of the only ways to escape economic hardship. About 42% of the country’s 10 million residents live in poverty.

All 30 major league teams now operate training academies there. A study by the Entrena consulting group estimated that baseball contributes more than $84 million to the country annually.

“Here in America, we dream of the championships," Weeks said. "But in the Dominican Republic, the dream is different. It revolves around making a living for their family.”

– Robert W. Johnson, CNN