April Pictures

I have some pictures here taken during recent escapades that I have been meaning to share. The first set are some taken in Buffalo River State Park, east of the settlement of Glyndon, Minnesota, taken, oh, toward the beginning of this month. The second set, meanwhile, are some more photos – this time without snow on the ground, however – of Banning State Park, near Sandstone, Minnesota. In addition, I also have some photos taken within the city limits of Sandstone as well as along the very scenic part of MN highway 23 that runs northeast from Sandstone to Duluth. It’s kind of interesting to see these two sets of pictures juxtaposed, since they were in such divergent parts in the state. Buffalo River State Park, being very close to the border of eastern North Dakota, is on the edge of prairie and flat, former-Lake Agassiz land, and Banning State Park, being very close to the border of western Wisconsin, is in softwood forest and rather hilly land.

And while I’m on the topic of photography, I will soon be the owner of a telephoto lens for my camera! Actually, per UPS, it should arrive sometime today (Friday), which means, if the weather cooperates on Saturday or Sunday, I will probably be out experimenting to see what sorts of pictures I am able to take. If this were an ideal world, I would have gotten an entirely new digital camera, something along the lines of the brand-new Canon Digital Rebel XT. However, because the cost of a professional EOS (SLR) digital camera such as this one, without calculating the cost of the extra lenses that would indisputably have to go with it, can easily set a person back more than $1000 (Canon’s MSRP is $1499.99), I will have to be happy with my current camera for probably at least a year or two more. So that’s why I decided to upgrade to a 252mm (in 35mm film camera terms) telephoto: because I will have my current digital camera for some time into the foreseeable future.

Pictures
Buffalo River State Park – officially, the day was April 3, 2005:


Inside the park, at the visitors center, looking toward the entrance of the park


I've always been fond of spring scenes like this one, where the all the snow has melted to uncover brown grass and bare trees


Welcome to the prairie! Actually, from this point to end of the straight trail is a distance of over 1/4 of a mile


A very brown pairie that will soon turn green and fill with lush vegitation


Another prairie scene

Banning State Park – April 9, 2005:

Another shot, albeit this time without snow on the ground, of the railroad bridge in Banning State Park - compare to my February photo


Another vantage point of the bridge - notice how blue the water of Kettle River is


Likely a member of the Geomyidae family


Another shot of the Kettle River - notice, once again, how blue the water is


The mandatory sign of Sandstone


A non-mandatory sign of Sandstone, made out of, uhhuh, Kettle River Sandstone


The former high school, current elementary school, of Sanstone, made out of, uhhuh, Kettle River Sandstone


Highway 23 just north of Sandstone, between Askov and Bruno


Highway 23 is definitely in pine and birch country once you venture north of Sandstone


About 20 miles south of Duluth on MN 23


A closeup of the setting sun, nearly 17.43 minutes before sunset

Next time I post pictures, I do believe I will share some I took at night at Cragun's during the state Knowledge Bowl meet last week.

Weil der Papst Starb...

Anybody who knows me fairly well should know that I have a particular fondness for newspapers. I’ve always been an avid consumer of the art form known as the newspaper. I read all kinds of newspapers, from the small-town local ones to the nationally – and sometimes internationally – renowned ones. I suppose you could say my love of newspapers was something I inherited from my father’s side of the family, since both he and his father, my grandfather, have (well, had, in the case of my grandfather) an affinity to newspapers.

Although the bulk of the news that makes up the present-day newspapers can usually be found easily within the cornucopia of constantly-updating news websites, it is hard for the internet to replicate the feeling you get by holding a newspaper in your hands. Newspapers are also a truly portable source of information; it’s very easy to bring a newspaper with you wherever you go, but much harder to take the internet along, albeit it may a bit easer to do so now, thanks to the expansion of wireless internet "hotspots."

One more thing great about newspapers is their relatively cheap prices. Even the USA Today, a newspaper with so much to offer that it could literally take hours to read from cover to cover, is a mere $0.75 at the newsstand, and an even punier $0.60 for subscribers. Meanwhile, we in the Brainerd area are also lucky to be able pick up the St. Paul Pioneer Press, a fine, informative newspaper in its own right, for only $0.25. Just think, you can read about all that is happening in the world for a smaller price than a package of gum at most convenience stores and in most vending machines.

So anyway, where I’m going with this entry is to a link that I think will pique your interest in newspapers. The website I want to share is www.newsseum.org.

Now, ostensibly, this is the website for a Washington D.C. museum dedicated to the history and nuances of newsgathering in the United States and the world. Indeed, to read more about the actual museum, which is still in the process of a multimillion dollar move from Arlington, Virginia to Washington D.C., you can click here.

For me, however, one of my favorite parts about the Newseum’s website is its Today’s Front Pages section, which is available by clicking here. The Newseum has managed to partner with hundreds of newspapers all over the world to allow visitors to its website the chance to see what the front page of, oh, say, Der Tagesspiegel of Berlin looks like today.

As can be expected, the majority of the front pages on the Newseum’s website come from newspapers in the United States. Just about every major city in the United States has its newspaper featured in the collection, from the Abilene, Texas Abilene Reporter-News to the York, Pennsylvania York Daily Record. In addition to the United States newspapers, though, the Newseum also contains a sizable number of international papers; enough, anyway, to keep any international affairs aficionado satisfied.

In case you were wondering, the precise reason why I thought it'd be good to break out this link today is due to the Pope’s passing away. Anytime there is a major worldwide event as large as this, it is always interesting to see nearly all of the almost 350 newspapers on the Museum’s website have the same story in bold letters on the front page. I thought you would like to take a gander at what the headlines for Sunday’s newspapers look like, too, so that’s why I’m sharing this link with you.

A tip on using the Newseum’s front pages website: on the top of http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/, click on 'map view' or 'list by region' to get a better sense of just what newspapers the museum has in the collection. Also, the 'archived pages' section has front pages from dates of other major world events, like the December 2004 tsunami. It’s something to check out if you have a fast connection to the internet and are looking for something to do.

One last note, don't forget that the Newseum has PDFs of each of the newspapers, so you can easily zoom in and get a better look at the front pages. You could even read some of the articles as well.