Experiments are presented and discussed which were carried out in the time since the Beijing conference at the University of Zürich and in collaboration with other laboratories. These comprise: susceptibility measurements, torque data on mu-single crystals, isotope effects in XANES as well as in enelastic neutron scattering, and EPR. Together with EXAFS as well as time resolved optical data, and NQR obtained by other groups, they support the existence of polarons at higher temperatures which, upon cooling, form bipolarons at Dp/k. After further reducing the temperature to T*, stripe formation sets in. Both T* and Dp/k are doping-dependent and larger for smaller carrier concentration, where, in the two-component paradigm of high-temperature superconductivity, the ratio of bipolaronic (bosonic) quasiparticles to those of Fermi-ionic quasiparticle character is larger.