Mexico
An Aztec Dance is a ritual, is art, is exercise and is a show.
Aztec Dancing has been preserved through many years throughout the center of Mexico. It is a legacy that will never disappear as long as the Aztec race exists. The Spaniards destroyed their temples and deities, but they couldn’t get rid of the dances and rituals.
Mexico
During the last few years, more ruins and archaeological pieces have been discovered and the history of the Aztecs is still being rebuilt. Now the Aztec Dances have more interest and value as important part of the Mexican identity.
Aztec Dancing represent a gratitude to the nature that they used to worship – the rain, the fire, the wind, the sun and the moon.
Mexico
The Dancers wear elegant headdresses or “Penachos” made of feathers from pheasant, pea*****, rooster, ostrich and turkey that represent greatness and pride. The costumes are made with different fabrics, in colorful designs, decorations and Aztec idols.
The Dancers use a rattler to sound when dancing. Many big seeds are fastened tightly around the feet in order to rattle like the feathered rattler serpent “Quetzalcoatl”. The sound of the drum means the thunder. The shield was used for protection in war.
With the coming of the Spaniards and the imposition of Christianity, the Aztec Dances and rituals have become a mixture of cultures. It is a tradition to dance during the day on the celebrations of Saints or Virgins for devotion outside the churches.
Usually 30 or more dancers make a circle and take turns to dance in the center. Before starting and when finishing everyone dances making a cross with their feet. Most of the dancers do it to show their faith and gratitude to God.
The Aztec Dancing give joy on the celebrations in Mexico and represent union, conformity and conquest.
Miami International Airport (IATA: MIA, ICAO: KMIA, FAA LID: MIA), also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area. The airport is in an unincorporated area in Miami-Dade County, Florida, eight miles (13 km) northwest of Downtown Miami, in metropolitan Miami, between the cities of Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Miami Springs, the village of Virginia Gardens, and unincorporated Fontainebleau.
The airport is a hub for passenger airlines American Airlines, Executive Airlines under the American Eagle name; cargo airlines, UPS Airlines and FedEx Express; and charter airline Miami Air. It is a focus airport for LAN Airlines and its subsidiaries, both for passengers and cargo operations. Miami International Airport has passenger and cargo flights to cities throughout the Americas and Europe, as well as the Canary Islands off the African coast, and cargo flights to Asia; it is South Florida’s main airport for long-haul international flights.
Flying
Miami International Airport is the largest gateway between the United States and Latin America, and is one of the largest airline hubs in the United States, owing to its proximity to tourist attractions, local economic growth, large local Latin American and European populations, and strategic location to handle connecting traffic between North America, Latin America, and Europe. In the past, it has been a hub for Braniff International Airways, Eastern Air Lines, Air Florida, the original National Airlines, the original Pan Am, United Airlines, and Iberia. Miami International is also the proposed hub of two new start-up airlines, one of which hopes to use the Eastern Airlines name.
In 2010 the airport ranked first in the United States by percentage of international flights and second by volume of international passengers, behind only New York-JFK. In 2010, 35,698,025 passengers traveled through the airport, making the airport the 28th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic. The Airport also ranks as the 12th busiest airport in the United States by annual passenger count and is the largest airport in the state of Florida, surpassing Orlando by a small margin. The airport also handled more international cargo than any other airport in the United States.
The airport opened to flights in 1928 as Pan American Field, the operating base of Pan American Airways Corporation, on the north side of the modern airport property. After Pan Am acquired the New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line it shifted most of its operations to the Dinner Key seaplane base, leaving Pan Am Field largely unused until Eastern Air Lines began flying there in 1934, followed by National Airlines in 1937.
Flying
In 1945 the City of Miami established a Port Authority and raised bond revenue to purchase the airport, which had meanwhile been renamed 36th Street Airport, from Pan Am. It was merged with an adjoining Army airfield in 1949 and expanded further in 1951. The old terminal on 36th Street was closed in 1959 when the modern passenger terminal (since greatly expanded) opened for service. Air Force Reserve troop carrier and rescue squadrons also operated from Miami International from 1949 through 1959, when the last such unit relocated to nearby Homestead Air Force Base, now Homestead Air Reserve Base.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s Air Florida had a hub at MIA, with a nonstop flight to London which it acquired from National upon the latter’s merger with Pan Am. Air Florida ceased operations in 1982 following the crash of Air Florida Flight 90.
After Frank Borman became president of Eastern in 1975, he moved Eastern’s headquarters from Rockefeller Center in New York City to a campus adjacent to MIA. Eastern remained one of the largest employers in the Miami metropolitan area until ongoing labor union unrest, coupled with the airline’s acquisition by union antagonist Frank Lorenzo in 1986, ultimately forced the airline into bankruptcy in 1989.
Flying
In the midst of Eastern’s turmoil, American Airlines CEO Bob Crandall sought a new hub in order to utilize new aircraft which AA had on order at the time. AA studies indicated that Delta Air Lines would provide strong competition on most routes from Eastern’s hub at Atlanta, but that MIA had many key routes only served by Eastern. American announced that it would establish a base at MIA in August 1988. Lorenzo considered selling Eastern’s profitable Latin American routes to AA as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization of Eastern in early 1989, but backed out in a last-ditch effort to rebuild the MIA hub. The effort quickly proved futile, and American purchased the routes (including the route authority between Miami and London then held by Eastern sister company Continental Airlines) in a liquidation of Eastern which was completed in 1990. Later in the 1990s, American transferred more employees and equipment to MIA from its failed domestic hubs at Nashville and Raleigh-Durham. Today Miami is American’s largest air freight hub and is the main connecting point in the airline’s north-south international route network.
Pan Am, the other key carrier at MIA, was acquired by Delta Air Lines in 1991, but filed for bankruptcy shortly thereafter. Its remaining international routes from Miami to Europe and Latin America were sold to United Airlines for $135 million as part of Pan Am’s emergency liquidation that December. United maintained a Latin American hub at MIA through the 1990s but ended flights from Miami to South America, and shut down its Miami crew base, in May 2004, reallocating most Miami resources to its main hub in Chicago.
Satellite view of the airport in 1999
Stricter visa requirements for aliens in transit (a result, in part, of the September 11, 2001 attacks) have lessened MIA’s role as an intercontinental connecting hub, but it nonetheless remains the most important hub between Europe and Latin America. In 2004, Iberia Airlines ended its hub operation in Miami, opting instead to run more direct flights from Spain to Central America. Air France continues to run flights to Port-au-Prince using Airbus A320 aircraft. Today, more European carriers serve Miami International Airport than any other airport in the United States, except New York City’s John F. Kennedy.
AeroSur, American Airlines, American Eagle, Gulfstream International Airlines, Sky King Airlines, TACA International Airlines, and Vision Airlines all operate regular flights between MIA and several airports in Cuba, one of a few airports with direct airlink between the two nations. However, these flights must be booked through agents with special authorization from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and are only generally available to government officials, journalists, researchers, professionals attending conferences, or expatriates visiting Cuban family.
Mexico
Mexico has one of the world’s largest economies, and is considered both a regional power and middle power.
In addition, Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD (since 1994), and a firmly established upper-middle income country. Mexico is considered a newly industrialized country and an emerging power. It has the thirteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity. The economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners, especially the United States. Mexico ranks fifth in the world and first in the Americas by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites with 31, and in 2007 was the tenth most visited country in the world with 21.4 million international arrivals per year.
The Tamales Connection. Mexico City, Mexico. 2012. Stereoscopic 3D.
After New Spain won independence from Spain, it was decided that the new country would be named after its capital, Mexico City, which was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Aztec capital of México-Tenochtitlan. The name comes from the Nahuatl language, but its meaning is not well known.
Mēxihco was the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica, and surrounding territories which became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence (compare Latium). It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley which became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result, or vice versa.
The suffix -co is the Nahuatl locative, making the word a place name. Beyond that, the etymology is uncertain. It has been suggested that it is derived from Mextli or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Aztecs, Huitzilopochtli, in which case Mēxihco means “Place where Huitzilopochtli lives”. Another hypothesis suggests that Mēxihco derives from a portmanteau of the Nahuatl words for “moon” (mētztli) and navel (xīctli). This meaning (“Place at the Center of the Moon”) might then refer to Tenochtitlan’s position in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans pareidolically associated with the moon. Still another hypothesis suggests that it is derived from Mēctli, the goddess of maguey.
Mexico
The name of the city-state was transliterated to Spanish as México with the phonetic value of the letter in Medieval Spanish, which represented the voiceless postalveolar fricative. This sound, as well as the voiced postalveolar fricative, represented by a , evolved into a voiceless velar fricative during the 16th century. This led to the use of the variant Méjico in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most other Spanish–speaking countries México was the preferred spelling. In recent years the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish language, determined that both variants are acceptable in Spanish but that the normative recommended spelling is México. The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used. In English, the in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster .
Mexico
The official name of the country has changed as the form of government has changed. On two occasions (1821–1823 and 1863–1867), the country was known as Imperio Mexicano (Mexican Empire). All three federal constitutions (1824, 1857 and 1917, the current constitution) used the name Estados Unidos Mexicanos—or the variants Estados Unidos mexicanos and Estados-Unidos Mexicanos, all of which have been translated as “United Mexican States”. The term República Mexicana, “Mexican Republic” was used in the 1836 Constitutional Laws.
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots (including woodchucks), flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia. The earliest known squirrels date from the Eocene and are most closely related to the mountain beaver and to the dormouse among living species.
The word squirrel, first specified in 1327, comes from Anglo-Norman esquirel from the Old French escurel, the reflex of a Latin word sciurus. This Latin word was borrowed from Ancient Greek word σκίουρος, skiouros, which means shadow-tailed, referring to the bushy appendage possessed by many of its members.
The native Old English word, ācweorna, survived only into Middle English (as aquerne) before being replaced. The Old English word is of Common Germanic origin, with cognates such as German Eichhorn, Norwegian ekorn, Dutch eekhoorn, Swedish ekorre and Danish egern.
Squirrels are generally small animals, ranging in size from the African pygmy squirrel at 7–10 cm (2.8–3.9 in) in length and just 10 g (0.35 oz) in weight, to the Alpine marmot which is 53–73 cm (21–29 in) long and weighs from 5 to 8 kg (11 to 18 lb). Squirrels typically have slender bodies with bushy tails and large eyes. Their fur is generally soft and silky, although much thicker in some species than others. The color of squirrels is highly variable between—and often even within—species.
The hindlimbs are generally longer than the forelimbs, and they have four or five toes on each foot. Their paws on their forefeet include a thumb, although this is often poorly developed. The feet also have a soft pad on the underside.
Squirrels live in almost every habitat from tropical rainforest to semiarid desert, avoiding only the high polar regions and the driest of deserts. They are predominantly herbivorous, subsisting on seeds and nuts, but many will eat insects and even small vertebrates.
As their large eyes indicate, squirrels generally have an excellent sense of vision, which is especially important for tree-dwelling species. They also have very versatile and sturdy claws for grasping and climbing. Many also have a good sense of touch, with vibrissae on their heads and limbs.
The teeth of sciurids follow the typical rodent pattern, with large gnawing incisors that grow throughout life, and grinding cheek teeth set back behind a wide gap, or diastema.
Squirrels breed once or twice a year and give birth to a varying number of young after three to six weeks, depending on species. The young are born naked, toothless, and blind. In most species of squirrel, only the female looks after the young, which are weaned at around six to ten weeks of age and become sexually mature at the end of their first year. Ground dwelling species are generally social animals, often living in well-developed colonies, but the tree-dwelling species are more solitary.
Ground and tree squirrels are typically diurnal, while flying squirrels tend to be nocturnal—except for lactating flying squirrels and their offspring which have a period of diurnality during the summer.
Predatory behavior has been noted by various species of ground squirrels, particularly the thirteen-lined ground squirrel. For example, Bailey, a scientist in the 1920s, observed a thirteen-lined ground squirrel preying upon a young chicken. Wistrand reported seeing this same species eating a freshly killed snake. Whitaker examined the stomachs of 139 thirteen-lined ground squirrels and found bird flesh in four of the specimens and the remains of a short-tailed shrew in one; Bradley, examining white-tailed antelope squirrels’ stomachs, found at least 10% of his 609 specimens’ stomachs contained some type of vertebrate, mostly lizards and rodents. Morgart observed a white-tailed antelope squirrel capturing and eating a silky pocket mouse.
Squirrel
The living squirrels are divided into five subfamilies, with about 58 genera and some 285 species. The oldest squirrel fossil, Hesperopetes, dates back to the Chadronian (late Eocene, about 40–35 million years ago) and is similar to modern flying squirrels.
During the latest Eocene to the Miocene, there were a variety of squirrels which cannot be assigned with certainty to any living lineage. At least some of these probably were variants of the oldest basal “proto-squirrels” (in the sense that they lacked the full range of living squirrels’ autapomorphies). The distribution and diversity of such ancient and ancestral forms suggests that the squirrels as a group may have originated in North America.
Apart from these sometimes little-known fossil forms, the phylogeny of the living squirrels is fairly straightforward. There are three main lineages, one comprising the Ratufinae (Oriental giant squirrels). These contain a mere handful of living species in tropical Asia. The Neotropical Pygmy Squirrel of tropical South America is the sole living member of the Sciurillinae. The third lineage is by far the largest and contains all other subfamilies; it has a near-cosmopolitan distribution. This further supports the hypothesis that the common ancestor of all squirrels living and fossil lived in North America, as these three most ancient lineages seem to have radiated from there; if squirrels had originated in Eurasia for example, one would expect quite ancient lineages in Africa, but African squirrels seem to be of more recent origin.
Squirrel
The main group of squirrels also can be split into three subgroups, which yield the remaining subfamilies. The Sciurinae contains the flying squirrels (Pteromyini) and the Sciurini, which among others contains the American tree squirrels; the former have often been considered a separate subfamily but are now seen as a tribe of the Sciurinae. The pine squirrels (Tamiasciurus) on the other hand are usually included with the main tree squirrel lineage but appear to be about as distinct as the flying squirrels; hence they are sometimes considered a distinct tribe, Tamiasciurini.
Two of the three subfamilies are of about equal size, containing between nearly 70 and 80 species each; the third is about twice as large. The Sciurinae contains arboreal (tree-living) squirrels, mainly of the Americas and to a lesser extent Eurasia. The Callosciurinae is most diverse in tropical Asia and contains squirrels which are also arboreal but have a markedly different habitus and appear more “elegant”, an effect enhanced by their often very colorful fur. The Xerinae—the largest subfamily—are made up from the mainly terrestrial (ground-living) forms and include the large marmots and the popular prairie dogs among others, as well as the tree squirrels of Africa; they tend to be more gregarious than other squirrels which do not usually live together in close-knit groups.
See other animals here.
The video of this Squirrel is taken in Florida on January 2012 using a stereoscopic rig.
Italy, Spain, Portugal
Walking around La Rambla, Barcelona, Spain.
Outdoor flower shops in La Rambla, Spain
Cuong Nhu (pronounced /Kung new/) Oriental martial arts was originally developed by Dr. Ngo Dong (O’Sensei) in 1965 in Hue, Vietnam. The Cuong Nhu Oriental Martial Arts Association (CNOMAA) is a federally recognized non-profit educational organization. Cuong Nhu is a martial art that blends elements of Shotokan, Wing Chun, Judo, Aikido, Tai Chi Chuan, Vovinam, and Boxing. It is this blending of hard and soft styles from which Cuong Nhu derives its name, which is Vietnamese for Hard (Cuong) / Soft (Nhu).
CUONG NHU
CUONG NHU
The first Cuong Nhu dojo in the United States was opened in 1971 in Gainesville, Florida, at the University of Florida, where Ngo Dong achieved his Ph. D in Entomology. The headquarters of the style was originally relocated to Gainesville Florida in 1977, following a daring escape from Vietnam by Ngo Dong and his family. The Cuong Nhu World headquarters is now permanently located in Jacksonville Florida; locally known as the Mandarin Martial Arts Center.
More videos about CUONG NHU here.
Wild Florida
3D birds of Everglades, Florida.
Ten miles to the west of Homestead, Florida lie the endless wetlands and sawgrass prairies of Everglades National Park, the only ecosystem of its kind in the world, deemed an International Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
Lizard 3d=t
All kinds of animals here.
Biscayne, Miami
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Biscayne, Miami
Key Biscayne, Miami is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States on the island of Key Biscayne. Key Biscayne is located on the island of Key Biscayne, Miami and lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami, it has a population of about ten thousand. The Village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947. Because of its low elevation and direct exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually among the first Miami areas to be evacuated before an oncoming hurricane.
While there had been earlier schemes to develop a town on Key Biscayne, Miami it wasn’t until the opening of the four-mile (6 km) long Rickenbacker Causeway from Miami to Virginia Key and on to Key Biscayne in 1947 that the island was opened up to large scale residential development. The northern two-thirds of the island had been operated as the largest coconut plantation in the continental United States during the first half of the 20th century. In 1940 the Matheson family donated over 800 acres (3.2 km2) of their land to Dade County for a public park (Crandon Park) in exchange for a commitment that the county would build a causeway to the island. The remaining Matheson property, stretching across the middle of the island, was then sold off to developers. Starting in 1951, the Mackle Construction Company offered new homes on the island for US$9,540, with just US$500 down. A U.S. Post Office contract branch was opened, the Community Church started holding services in an old coconut-husking shed, and the Key Biscayne Elementary School opened in 1952.
The southern third of Key Biscayne, which included Cape Florida, was owned by James Deering and, after his death, by his brother Charles, for 35 years. In 1948 José Manuel Áleman, a Cuban politician in exile, bought the Cape Florida property from the Deering estate. After Áleman died in 1951, his widow, Elena Santeiro Garcia, added to her Cape Florida property by buying an ocean-to-bay strip that had been part of the Matheson property. This strip included a canal that had been dug by William Matheson in the 1920s, and which extended from the bay across most of the island. The land north of this canal was developed as part of what is now the Village of Key Biscayne. Garcia sold the Cape Florida property in 1966 to the state of Florida. This land became Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, which opened January 1, 1967.
President Richard Nixon purchased the first of his three waterfront homes, forming a compound known as the Florida White House, in 1969 to be close to his close friend and confidant, Bebe Rebozo and industrialist Robert Abplanalp (inventor of the modern spray can valve). Bebe Rebozo, owner of the Key Biscayne Bank, was indicted for laundering a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the Nixon election campaign. President Kennedy and Nixon met for the first time after the 1960 Election loss by Nixon in an oceanfront villa at the old Key Biscayne Hotel. Plans for the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters were discussed at the Key Biscayne Nixon compound and, as the Watergate scandal unfolded, Nixon spent more time in seclusion there. Nixon visited Key Biscayne more than 50 times between 1969 and 1973. The U.S. Department of Defense spent $400,000 constructing a helicopter landing pad in Biscayne Bay adjacent to the Nixon compound and when Nixon sold his property, including the helicopter pad, there were public accusations that he enriched himself at taxpayer expense.
The area was incorporated as a new municipality in 1991 – the first new city in Miami-Dade County in over fifty years. Rafael Conte was elected the first mayor along with members of the founding Village Council including Clifford Brody, Mortimer Fried, Michael Hill, Luis Lauredo, Joe Rasco, and Raymond Sullivan. The municipality’s first manager was C. Samuel Kissinger and the first clerk was Guido Inguanzo. The incorporation of the Village provided local control over taxes and future development.
Biscayne, Miami
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew flooded some homes and businesses on Key Biscayne, Miami but the eye wall passed over uninhabited Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park which received the brunt of the storm. The storm damage was a blessing for the park because it destroyed all the non-native vegetation that the state had been trying to eradicate. Federal and State funding allowed the replanting with native vegetation making the park a showplace natural area. In recent years, the construction of several large resort hotels, condominium complexes and shopping centers on the island has affected the once bucolic island life, as commercialism has continued to accelerate at a frenetic pace. The Village has its own fire, police and a newly expanded public elementary and middle school. The tax rate remains the lowest of any municipality in Miami-Dade County. The Village has just completed a new civic center including fire, police and administration buildings and a well appointed recreation and community center with indoor multi use courts, outdoor swimming pool and a renowned musical theater program.
Key Biscayne, Miami increasingly caters to an elite population of business moguls, high-income professionals, and a significant influx of Latin American tourists and part-time residents fleeing political and economic instability in their home countries
Biscayne Beach, Miami
Biscayne, Miami
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Key Biscayne, Miami is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States on the island of Key Biscayne. Key Biscayne is located on the island of Key Biscayne, Miami and lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami, it has a population of about ten thousand. The Village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947. Because of its low elevation and direct exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually among the first Miami areas to be evacuated before an oncoming hurricane.
While there had been earlier schemes to develop a town on Key Biscayne, Miami it wasn’t until the opening of the four-mile (6 km) long Rickenbacker Causeway from Miami to Virginia Key and on to Key Biscayne in 1947 that the island was opened up to large scale residential development. The northern two-thirds of the island had been operated as the largest coconut plantation in the continental United States during the first half of the 20th century. In 1940 the Matheson family donated over 800 acres (3.2 km2) of their land to Dade County for a public park (Crandon Park) in exchange for a commitment that the county would build a causeway to the island. The remaining Matheson property, stretching across the middle of the island, was then sold off to developers. Starting in 1951, the Mackle Construction Company offered new homes on the island for US$9,540, with just US$500 down. A U.S. Post Office contract branch was opened, the Community Church started holding services in an old coconut-husking shed, and the Key Biscayne Elementary School opened in 1952.
The southern third of Key Biscayne, which included Cape Florida, was owned by James Deering and, after his death, by his brother Charles, for 35 years. In 1948 José Manuel Áleman, a Cuban politician in exile, bought the Cape Florida property from the Deering estate. After Áleman died in 1951, his widow, Elena Santeiro Garcia, added to her Cape Florida property by buying an ocean-to-bay strip that had been part of the Matheson property. This strip included a canal that had been dug by William Matheson in the 1920s, and which extended from the bay across most of the island. The land north of this canal was developed as part of what is now the Village of Key Biscayne. Garcia sold the Cape Florida property in 1966 to the state of Florida. This land became Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, which opened January 1, 1967.
President Richard Nixon purchased the first of his three waterfront homes, forming a compound known as the Florida White House, in 1969 to be close to his close friend and confidant, Bebe Rebozo and industrialist Robert Abplanalp (inventor of the modern spray can valve). Bebe Rebozo, owner of the Key Biscayne Bank, was indicted for laundering a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the Nixon election campaign. President Kennedy and Nixon met for the first time after the 1960 Election loss by Nixon in an oceanfront villa at the old Key Biscayne Hotel. Plans for the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters were discussed at the Key Biscayne Nixon compound and, as the Watergate scandal unfolded, Nixon spent more time in seclusion there. Nixon visited Key Biscayne more than 50 times between 1969 and 1973. The U.S. Department of Defense spent $400,000 constructing a helicopter landing pad in Biscayne Bay adjacent to the Nixon compound and when Nixon sold his property, including the helicopter pad, there were public accusations that he enriched himself at taxpayer expense.
The area was incorporated as a new municipality in 1991 – the first new city in Miami-Dade County in over fifty years. Rafael Conte was elected the first mayor along with members of the founding Village Council including Clifford Brody, Mortimer Fried, Michael Hill, Luis Lauredo, Joe Rasco, and Raymond Sullivan. The municipality’s first manager was C. Samuel Kissinger and the first clerk was Guido Inguanzo. The incorporation of the Village provided local control over taxes and future development.
Biscayne, Miami
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew flooded some homes and businesses on Key Biscayne, Miami but the eye wall passed over uninhabited Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park which received the brunt of the storm. The storm damage was a blessing for the park because it destroyed all the non-native vegetation that the state had been trying to eradicate. Federal and State funding allowed the replanting with native vegetation making the park a showplace natural area. In recent years, the construction of several large resort hotels, condominium complexes and shopping centers on the island has affected the once bucolic island life, as commercialism has continued to accelerate at a frenetic pace. The Village has its own fire, police and a newly expanded public elementary and middle school. The tax rate remains the lowest of any municipality in Miami-Dade County. The Village has just completed a new civic center including fire, police and administration buildings and a well appointed recreation and community center with indoor multi use courts, outdoor swimming pool and a renowned musical theater program.
More about Miami, U.S.A. here.
Key Biscayne, Miami increasingly caters to an elite population of business moguls, high-income professionals, and a significant influx of Latin American tourists and part-time residents fleeing political and economic instability in their home countries
Cruising Daytona
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Daytona
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Daytona
Daytona
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Biscayne, Miami
Biscayne, Miami
More about Miami here.
More about Florida here.
More about United States here.
Key Biscayne, Miami is a village in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States on the island of Key Biscayne. Key Biscayne is located on the island of Key Biscayne, Miami and lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami, it has a population of about ten thousand. The Village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947. Because of its low elevation and direct exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually among the first Miami areas to be evacuated before an oncoming hurricane.
While there had been earlier schemes to develop a town on Key Biscayne, Miami it wasn’t until the opening of the four-mile (6 km) long Rickenbacker Causeway from Miami to Virginia Key and on to Key Biscayne in 1947 that the island was opened up to large scale residential development. The northern two-thirds of the island had been operated as the largest coconut plantation in the continental United States during the first half of the 20th century. In 1940 the Matheson family donated over 800 acres (3.2 km2) of their land to Dade County for a public park (Crandon Park) in exchange for a commitment that the county would build a causeway to the island. The remaining Matheson property, stretching across the middle of the island, was then sold off to developers. Starting in 1951, the Mackle Construction Company offered new homes on the island for US$9,540, with just US$500 down. A U.S. Post Office contract branch was opened, the Community Church started holding services in an old coconut-husking shed, and the Key Biscayne Elementary School opened in 1952.
The southern third of Key Biscayne, which included Cape Florida, was owned by James Deering and, after his death, by his brother Charles, for 35 years. In 1948 José Manuel Áleman, a Cuban politician in exile, bought the Cape Florida property from the Deering estate. After Áleman died in 1951, his widow, Elena Santeiro Garcia, added to her Cape Florida property by buying an ocean-to-bay strip that had been part of the Matheson property. This strip included a canal that had been dug by William Matheson in the 1920s, and which extended from the bay across most of the island. The land north of this canal was developed as part of what is now the Village of Key Biscayne. Garcia sold the Cape Florida property in 1966 to the state of Florida. This land became Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, which opened January 1, 1967.
President Richard Nixon purchased the first of his three waterfront homes, forming a compound known as the Florida White House, in 1969 to be close to his close friend and confidant, Bebe Rebozo and industrialist Robert Abplanalp (inventor of the modern spray can valve). Bebe Rebozo, owner of the Key Biscayne Bank, was indicted for laundering a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the Nixon election campaign. President Kennedy and Nixon met for the first time after the 1960 Election loss by Nixon in an oceanfront villa at the old Key Biscayne Hotel. Plans for the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters were discussed at the Key Biscayne Nixon compound and, as the Watergate scandal unfolded, Nixon spent more time in seclusion there. Nixon visited Key Biscayne more than 50 times between 1969 and 1973. The U.S. Department of Defense spent $400,000 constructing a helicopter landing pad in Biscayne Bay adjacent to the Nixon compound and when Nixon sold his property, including the helicopter pad, there were public accusations that he enriched himself at taxpayer expense.
The area was incorporated as a new municipality in 1991 – the first new city in Miami-Dade County in over fifty years. Rafael Conte was elected the first mayor along with members of the founding Village Council including Clifford Brody, Mortimer Fried, Michael Hill, Luis Lauredo, Joe Rasco, and Raymond Sullivan. The municipality’s first manager was C. Samuel Kissinger and the first clerk was Guido Inguanzo. The incorporation of the Village provided local control over taxes and future development.
Biscayne, Miami
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew flooded some homes and businesses on Key Biscayne, Miami but the eye wall passed over uninhabited Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park which received the brunt of the storm. The storm damage was a blessing for the park because it destroyed all the non-native vegetation that the state had been trying to eradicate. Federal and State funding allowed the replanting with native vegetation making the park a showplace natural area. In recent years, the construction of several large resort hotels, condominium complexes and shopping centers on the island has affected the once bucolic island life, as commercialism has continued to accelerate at a frenetic pace. The Village has its own fire, police and a newly expanded public elementary and middle school. The tax rate remains the lowest of any municipality in Miami-Dade County. The Village has just completed a new civic center including fire, police and administration buildings and a well appointed recreation and community center with indoor multi use courts, outdoor swimming pool and a renowned musical theater program.
Key Biscayne, Miami increasingly caters to an elite population of business moguls, high-income professionals, and a significant influx of Latin American tourists and part-time residents fleeing political and economic instability in their home countries
3D birds, stereoscopic Florida
3D birds of Everglades, Florida.
Ten miles to the west of Homestead, Florida lie the endless wetlands and sawgrass prairies of Everglades National Park, the only ecosystem of its kind in the world, deemed an International Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica, which means “Rich Coast”, constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949.
It is the only Latin American country included in the list of the world’s 22 older democracies.
Costa Rica has consistently been among the top Latin American countries in the Human Development Index, ranked 62nd in the world in 2010, and is cited by the UNDP as one of the countries that have attained much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels. The country is ranked third in the world, and first among the Americas, in terms of the 2010 Environmental Performance Index.
Costa Rica is the ideal tropical paradise for your vacation. Tourists can enjoy the pristine beaches and see whales and dolphins play. For Nature lovers there is a great variety of exotic wildlife and tropical plants. Butterflies and orchids, crocodiles and sharks, turtles and Toucans´ are everywhere. The rainforest covering the mountains are a paradise for eco tourism.
Life is good in Costa Rica, a friendly, democratic and peaceful country.
Costa Rica Means: Rich Coast
For action vacation you can surf, hike, do rafting, canopying, diving, deepwater fishing and snorkeling. You can go with a low budget or seek the more exclusive resorts.
For relaxation there are beautiful unique golf courses and luxury spas. The hotels have all the modern comforts in the most private and secluded environments.
More 3D movies from South America here.
ENTRY / EXIT REQUIREMENTS FOR U.S. CITIZENS: For entry into Costa Rica, you must present a valid passport that will not expire for at least thirty days after arrival and a roundtrip/outbound ticket. Because of possible fines levied by Costa Rican Immigration, many Airlines will not permit passengers without a roundtrip ticket to board flights to Costa Rica unless they have Costa Rican citizenship, residency or a visa. There is a departure tax of $26 USD for visitors.
Visit Costa Rica for fun and adventure. Costa Rica has it all.
New York, Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City.
Manhattan Island, N.Y.
Located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York. The borough and county consist of Manhattan Island and several small adjacent islands: Roosevelt Island, Randall’s Island, Wards Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, part of Ellis Island, Mill Rock, and U Thant Island; as well as Marble Hill, a very small area on the mainland bordering the Bronx. The original city of New York began at the southern end of Manhattan, expanded northwards, and then between 1874 and 1898, annexed land from surrounding counties.
The County of New York is the most densely populated county in the United States, and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles (59.47 km²), or 71,201 residents per square mile (27,485/km²). It is also one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a 2005 personal income per capita above $100,000. Manhattan is the third-largest of New York’s five boroughs in population, and its smallest borough in size.
Manhattan is a major commercial, financial, and cultural center of both the United States and the world. Anchored by Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City vies with the City of London as the financial capital of the world and is home of both the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Many major radio, television, and telecommunications companies in the United States are based here, as well as many news, magazine, book, and other media publishers.
Manhattan
Manhattan is home to many famous landmarks, tourist attractions, museums, and universities. It is also home to the headquarters of the United Nations. It is the center of New York City and the New York metropolitan region, hosting the seat of city government and a large portion of the area’s employment, business, and entertainment activities. As a result, residents of New York City’s other boroughs such as Brooklyn and Queens often refer to a trip to Manhattan as “going to the city”, despite the comparable populations between those boroughs.
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City.
Museum
At the Museum
