Madeline Pickens spends her life saving America's Mustangs. Here with her horse "Paint".

Saving America’s Mustangs

26.07.2023

Madeleine Pickens is a businesswoman, animal welfare activist and philanthropist of European descent. When, in 2008, the Bureau of Land Management declared that the United States government considered euthanasia and/or the sale of more than 30,000 Wild Mustangs to slaughterhouses overseas, Madeleine resolved to establish a sanctuary for endangered native horses. A year later, Madelene testified before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands in support of H.R. 1018, the Restoring Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act. After acquiring the sanctuary in North Eastern Nevada, she saved over 600 Mustangs from slaughter and endeavours to rescue and preserve the Wild Mustang have been an ongoing process. Also, until this day, the sanctuary’s survival relies on Madeleine’s charity foundation „Saving Americas Mustangs“, through which the funding for the Mustang Monument Eco-Resort and Preserve could be raised. A series of recurring obstacles had to be overcome before the resort could be run according to plan.

Saving America’s Mustangs is a not-for-profit organization accepting donations (tax-deductible).

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Flight simulator at Frankfurt Airport. A flight simulator excuses laymen's shortcomings

Flight or plight? Thank God it’s just a simulator!

6.07.2023

The dream of flying is perhaps nearly as old as mankind itself. We do not know for how many casualties innumerable trial-and-error experiments are responsible. The myth of Daedalus, the sly old Greek and his boisterous son Icarus, became the stuff for serious text-book entries. With a merciless sun gradually sizzling away Icarus’s wings of wax, the poor devil plummeted right into the sea – having been robbed of life-saving aerodynamics. In reality, crash tests with astonishingly inventive contraptions operated by bright, adventurous minds formed a never-ending chain of often fatal accidents over the course of time. Thanks to the courage and relentless efforts by these pioneers, aircraft have become a fast, comfortable and comparatively safe means of transport.

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Tempelhof Airport in Berlin is steeped in history and drama.

Berlin: Tempelhof Airport – a legend!

24.06.2023

Tempelhof Airport was closed for public air traffic in October 2008. 85 years earlier, in October 1923, ‘the first commercial airport worldwide’ was inaugurated by the German Reich’s Ministry of Transport; the initial route operated to Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) in former East Prussia. The first plane of the newly founded “Deutsche Luft Hansa” had its maiden voyage from Berlin to Zurich in 1926 and even gigantic Zeppelins majestically raised from the vast Tempelhof airfield. By the 1930s, it had developed into Europe’s busiest airport – ranging ahead of Paris, Amsterdam and London. But Tempelhof is unforgotten for the dramatic role it was to play in post-war Germany.

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Feasting in the streets: Adelaide's Food and Wine Festivals are legendary.

South Australia: All-rounder Adelaide

14.06.2023

Where the living is easy, fish are jumping and the conferencing is green

The dynamic city of Adelaide, situated west of where the cotton is high on the Australian continent, seems to have struck it lucky in many respects. Blessed not only with a mild, mediterranean climate and the flattering reputation of being cultured and inspiring, its fortunate citizens also benefit from a value-for-money ratio that allows them to maintain a pleasant and easy-going existence in a safe and clean environment close to a deep-blue sea brimming with resources. Adelaide also throws the frequent mouth-watering feast or festival, lushly catering to the gourmet side of life, and is thus rightly considered South Australia’s undisputed capital of fine cuisine and a good drop of wine here and there. Renowned wine regions – such as the Barossa – are a mere stone’s throw from the city.

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A curled blurr of colours in blues and pinks

TED Talk: How to beat stage fright

29.05.2023

Phobias: A Plague or Mutations of the Basic Instinct?

Phobia is Greek and means to be afraid of something. In the non-Greek world, it is mainly used in psychological terms, signifying severe fear as in: terrified and: neurotic and: in need of professional treatment. Those in the grip of a veritable phobia are panic-stricken and paralyzed when it comes to tackling certain situations. Phobias are relics of our evolutionary past and were quite useful back then. Should a ferocious sabre-toothed tiger – teeth bared – spring up inadvertently from the undergrowth with an intimidating roar, the primitive brain would switch to red-alert and reliably signal to the short-legged homo erectus: RUN as fast as you can! It was a matter of survival, and the same basic instinct takes control over us in perilous situations until this day.

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