ANTILOPES, MUST BE VIEWED IN LARGE FORMAT:::

A adult male Impala, framed by bushes
and just about to step into the light.
He's looking back at me in a challange

Another adult male Impala,
nonchallantly taking a rest.

These horns tell you why this antelope
is called a "Sable"

An adult male Kudu, with two oxpeckers
busy cleaning his fur.

Male and female Kudu taking a rest.

Male Kudu on look out post.

Male Waterbuck showing his white circle target.

Male Nyala out for a stroll.

In the Kalahari: An adult male Oryx
and an adult female Duiker.

WHAT'S A HERO ?

I am getting a little sick of people calling Mr. Snowden a "Hero".
What makes a Hero ? There are a number of definitions.
1.) A Hero is a Demigod, who has one mortal parent and one immortal 'God' parent.
(Zeus was quite active with good looking mortals)
2.) The Lead in a book or a play. 
3.) A person who fights for a cause, often from a position of weakness, putting his life at risk.

A person who throws a stone through a window, because he does not like the merchandise displayed behind this window, and then runs away is surely NOT a hero.

Edward Snowden is definitely NOT a hero.

Whether or not we agree with the indiscriminate gathering by a government of information about its and other people is truly not the question. The question is rather, whether the information entrusted to you by others, to whom you swore loyalty, should be laid bare for all to see. The second question of course is "why" this information is gathered. Is it gathered for evil purposes, or is it collected to protect something which should be dear to all of us?

This, of course, leads to a second dilemma: Are we, is a freely elected government, allowed to use seemingly undemocratic methods to protect its people and its ideals ?
Does the use of undemocratic methods challenge and damage the very ideal to be protected?
A corner post of a Democracy surely is the "Right to Privacy", which, by a far flung method of listening posts, is clearly broken.

The ancient example of the need to protect a fragile egg from an attack by a person with a sledge hammer comes to mind: If, in order to protect the egg, I encase it in a thick layer of concrete, have I not changed the nature of the egg? 

If I wish to fend off attacks by terrorists and to this end I engage in activities not normally compatible with Democratic Freedoms, have I not changed the very Nature of Democracy ? 
It seems to me that, in order to protect the Whole I must be willing to accept small incursions into my democratic rights. 

But let me return to the question of Edward, the Hero. What did he do that was so heroic?
He did not like that his Government gathered information, which it considered vital to the defence of his country, so he fled to China and told the world about his own country's "evil deeds". From there he fled to Russia and issued asylum requests to almost every European country.. Three decidedly anti USA South American countries, to whom he had not then applied, offered him Asylum. So far the Europeans  have not displayed great enthusiasm for this Hero. They praise his deed, but when it comes to offering him a stay, they are not as eager to have him in their mids.

To sum it up: Mr. Snowden is Not a Hero, certainly not under any of the above definitions.
(unless Zeus is his father:)

This is the considered opinion of

Bertstravels.

"COMMON" DANDYLION:::

I'm not sure if this is this flower's true name. 
If it is, we should examine the meaning of the word "common"..
Please look at the three images below in the LARGE FORMAT..,
marvel at the beauty and complexity of this plant and then tell me
what is "common" about it.

As all other images on this Blog, this flower was photographed by
Bertstravels.

STARBURST

Dandylion with Macro Lens

 

 

I spy with my little eye, something that is ......

Remember that game we used to play in the car, when the kids were small...  what a lot of fun it was.
Well, now all of Europe is in an uproar, because they found out that the USA has been spying on them. 
There are so many aspects to this story, that one could write a Novel about it. (Somebody probably will.)
The one which I find most interesting is the reported "Shock" and "Consternation" which the papers report as being experienced by the European politicians.
One of the often used expressions is that "one does not do this to a friend"...   what a naive almost childish belief this is: There have been spying activities not only amongst enemies, but also amongst friends since "International Relations" began. Do you think that the Department of External Affairs, for instance of Germany, does not have its well placed information gatherers in France or in England? Of course they do.
And if indeed it is so despicable to spy on your friends, why do your friends have information they are not willing to share? Why does the E.U. not say: Hey, don't waste your money and effort, we have no secrets, because you are our friend. The Europeans do not take this approach, neither do the Americans. 
Because every political entity is most concerned with the well being of its own citizens, as, of course, they should be. When the chips are down, everybody is his own best friend.
The gathering and storing of telephone calls, e-mails, and other electronic means of communications, as evidently practiced by the USA is, I suspect, directed to the on-going fight against international terrorism, and not primarily to find out military or economic secrets.
Being an ardent defender of individual rights, among many others, the Right to Privacy, it does not make me deliriously happy to hear that my telephone calls with my golfing partner are being monitored by the Secret Service Institutions of America or any other country. When he tells me that he "got a hole in one" I would not want this to have any meaning other than that he is a damn good golfer.
When I call home and say:" Hi, I'll be home in an hour"... and my wife says: "Drive carefully"...I don't really care who else hears it.
But when the equivalent of the Austrian Secret Service  listens in on a phone conversation in which a non-farmer orders 10 tons of fertilizer, and by further investigation they discover a plot to blow up the Giant Ferris Wheel, then I say: Great Job.
Yes, it seems that giant computers are being used to intercept almost all electronic communications.
Since it is quite well known that organized Terrorism communicates in this way, I see not much wrong with the effort to undermine their plans. And since it is also quite well known that at the moment America is the main target of International Terrorism  I think that it would be criminally negligent if they did nothing to defend themselves.

Bertstravels.

Pilgrimmage Church on the Hemmaberg.

This church, atop the Hemmaberg,
was, so documents reveal, built
sometime between 1498 and 1519.
Around the periphery
ancient burial sites were found

 

From the Archeological Digs on the "Hemmaberg"

Burial Sites, dating back to the time of the
"East Goths" (Ostgoten)
sometime around the 3rd or 4th Century B.C.

Carefully restored mosaic wall decorations

 

Unearthed foundation walls of  an early Christian
Church. (15th Century)