PETA Asia Pacific

Public Domain Photo: PETA Asia Pacific demonstrates at Hong Kong Fashion Week 08.

Public Domain Photo: PETA Asia Pacific Lettuce Ladies demonstrating in Guangzhou, China, photo dated September 25, 2008.

Public Domain Photo: PETA Asia Pacific anti-zoo demonstration by body-painted people with the banner, ‘Let Animals Show Their True Colors’, photo dated 26 August 2010.

PETA Asia-Pacific, an affiliate of PETA US, and its affiliates are dedicated to protecting the rights of all animals. Their campaign is based on the the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. PETA focuses mainly on ‘the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: in factory farms, laboratories, the clothing trade, and the entertainment industry’.

The Hong Kong based PETA Asia-Pacific campaigns in 15 countries in Asia, where more than one-third of the world's populationlives, and they have made an impact and created awareness about animal rights in countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, etc. Learn more about PETA Asia-Pacific from their site: www.petaasiapacific.com

A Giant Sequoia near Yosemite National Park

Public Domain Photo: A Giant Sequoia tree found near the Sequoia National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of Visalia, California, USA.

Sequoiadendron giganteum (generally known as giant sequoia, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, or Wellingtonia) is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees known as redwoods. The other two are Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood) and Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood). When only referred to as ‘sequoia’, it means Sequoiadendron giganteum, which grow naturally only in the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, United States.

Samuel Daniell: Khoisan busy barbecuing grasshoppers

Public Domain Image: Khoisan busy barbecuing grasshoppers (1805), aqua tint by English painter Samuel Daniell (1775-1811), scan from Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis in Beeld (1989) by Anthony Preston, Bion Books, printed in South Africa.

The aqua tint shows a Khoisan (Khoesaan, Khoesan or Khoe-San) family with the man busy barbecuing grasshoppers while his wife is looking on. The name Khoisan is for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally the Khoisan people are divided into the pastoral Khoi and the foraging San.

William Holmes Sullivan: Lady Godiva

Public Domain Image: Lady Godiva (1877), oil on cardboard painting by British painter William Holmes Sullivan, dimension 40 cm x 30 cm

African Red Devil pepper - Capsicum frutescens

Public Domain Photo: African red devil pepper with ripe and unripe fruits

African Red Devil pepper (other names: Piri Piri, Pili Pili, Bird's Eye Chili, African Devil) is a cultivar of Capsicum frutescens that grows both in the wild and as a cultivated crop. The plants grow 45 to 120 cm tall, and the fruits measure up to 8 to 10 cm. Thai Chili peppers (aka phrik khi nu, siling labuyo, etc.) of the subspecies Capsicum frutescens L. are a similar and related variety commonly found in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore. It can also be found in India (mainly in Kerala, known as Kanthari Mulagu) and rural Sri Lanka (known as Kochchi in Sinhalese).The name Bird's Eye Chili is also used for the North American Chiltepin pepper.

It is an extremely spicy member of the Capsicum genus, with its ‘heat’ measure up to 175,000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units), while Bell Peppers rank at 0 SHU, New Mexico green chilies at about 1,500 SHU and Habaneros at 300,000 SHU. The record for the hottest chili pepper was assigned by Guinness World Records to the Naga Jolokia from India (also known as Bhut Jolokia, Ghost Chili, Nai Mirris, Cobra Chilli, etc), measuring over 1,000,000 SHU, while pure capsaicin (the substance that make chili peppers hot), measures only 16,000,000 SHU.

Photos of similar varieties are below:

Public Domain Photos: Peppers of the subspecies Capsicum frutescens L. variously known as Thai chili peppers, phrik khi nu, siling labuyo, Kanthari Mulagu, Kochchi, etc.

Lotus Temple, the Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi

The Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi, India, popularly known as the Lotus Temple, was completed in 1986. It is constructed in the shape of a nine-sided lotus flower having 27 free-standing marble clad "petals". It has become one of the most visited buildings in India, attracting about 4.5 million visitors a year. The Lotus Temple is open to all persons regardless of their religion or any other distinctions.

The nine doors of the Lotus Temple open onto a central hall capable of housing up to 2,500 people. The hall is slightly more than 40 meters tall and its surface is made of white marble from Penteli mountain in Greece. The Lotus Temple, along with the nine surrounding ponds and the gardens around it comprise 26 acres (105,000 squire meters).

Public Domain photos of Lotus Temple: Click on the photos to download or view the large/ full resolution photos.

John Collier: The Sleeping Beauty

Public Domain Photo: The Sleeping Beauty(1921), oil on canvas painting by the pre-Raphaelite English writer and painter John Maler Collier (1850-1934), dimension 91 cm x 112 cm.

Paul Gauguin: In the Waves

PD Image: In the Waves (1889, aka ‘Dans les vagues, ou Ondine’, ‘En les onades, o Ondina’, and ‘Undine’), oil on canvas painting by French painter and writer Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), dimensions 92 x 72 cm (36.22 in x 28.35 in), located at The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH.

Paul Cézanne: Bathsheba 2

Public Domain Image: Bathsheba 2, oil painting on canvas painting by French artist and Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

US$500 Bill Portraying William McKinley

US$500 bill (not in use now), series: 1928 & 1934, with the portrait of William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected to that office in 1896. McKinley was reelected in the 1900 presidential election, but was assassinated by an anarchist Leon F. Czolgosz in 1901.