The 10 Most Amazing Deserts, a treat for eyes, to adventure unwise!
October 30, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Sun, sand and heat are the basic recipe for any amazing desert but like any creative cook, Mother Nature reaches for the spice to make things extra nice. These 10 desert delights are most definitely a treat for the eyes, though being stranded in any one of them might not be to your taste.
Kebira Crater Field, Egypt and Libya
(images via: RST, Meta-Religion and Robert Kenneth Johnson)
Archaeologists over the centuries have wondered where the ancient Egyptians came by the beautiful yellow-green glass found in their most exquisite royal jewelry. The answer, it seems, is outer space… by way of a huge meteorite that blasted the Sahara sands into glass many thousands of years before the pyramids were a glimmer in Pharaoh’s eye. Out in the trackless wastes where the borders of Egypt and Libya meet lies an eroded crater and around it; pebbles, nuggets and boulders of translucent glass created when the interplanetary visitor slammed into the sands, instantly vitrifying them.
(images via: JAXA)
It’s estimated the Kebira Crater Field – more than one crater has been discovered – is about 28.5 million years old, with the largest intruder measuring about 3/4 mile (1.2 km) across. The energy released must have been in the order of 100,000 megatons.
Fraser Island, Australia
(images via: Travelblog and Rieckborn)
“If you were marooned on a desert island…” now what’s up with that? All those Crusoe types didn’t have much of a “desert” to contend with (beyond the beach, anyway), just the opposite in fact: lush tropical vegetation, forests of palm trees and so on. Where are the real desert islands? One candidate is Fraser Island, just off the eastern coast of Australia near the city of Brisbane. At 76.5 miles (123 km) long, Fraser Island is the world’s largest “sand island”. It does boast rainforests but they grow in sand, not soil. The surrounding seas are said to be rife with hungry sharks and deadly jellyfish, so you’d might as well stay on shore… listening to your selection of Desert Island Discs.
(image via: Elvis Payne)
What an actual Desert Island might look like – taken in or around Dubai by Elvis Payne, this timeless scene of a lone palm on a blindingly white sand beach gives one pause… and gives one minimal shelter from the searing Persian Gulf sun.
Monument Valley, Utah, USA
(images via: Wikipedia, Vegas-Dreaming, Norman Koren and Azgenweb)
Any Hollywood Western worth its oats was filmed at least partially in Monument Valley. Situated on Utah’s southern border with Arizona near the Four Corners, the area is resplendent in contrasting shades rust red and blue-gray derived from different layers of rocks eroded over millions of years. Even in black & white, the valley is magnificent – some of the more spectacular buttes have been named, The Mittens, the Totem Pole, the Eye of the Sun and the Ear of the Wind arch.
(image via: Flickr: Nature’s Best)
Monument Valley is located on the Navajo Nation Reservation and the Navajo name for the valley is Tsé Bii’ Ndzisgaii (Valley of the Rocks). Though extensively eroded by wind and water, the iconic buttes and mesas in the valley look much the same today as they did when the ancestors of the Navajo first set eyes on them many millennia ago.
Atacama Desert, Chile
(images via: Go Chile, Travel By GPS and Grassroots Adventures)
Sheltered from the rains by the Andes and influenced by coastal inversions created through interaction with the chill Humboldt Current, Chile’s Atacama Desert is widely recognized as being the driest desert in the world – 50 times drier than California’s Death Valley! The regions extreme aridity has allowed mummies left by the ancient Incas (including “Miss Chile” above) to exhibit a remarkable degree of preservation.
(image via: A Byte of News)
The Atacama may be both isolated and hostile to humanity, but that doesn’t mean it remains untouched by the hand of Man… literally. This monumental sculpture of a human hand rising out of the desert sands was created by Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrazabal and stands 11 feet tall. “Mano de Desierto”, or Desert’s Hand, is located about 46.5 miles (75 km) south of the city of Antofagasta, Chile.
Namib Desert, Angola and Namibia
(images via: Wikipedia and Trees Never Meet)
Hundreds of miles south of the Sahara lies one of Africa’s oldest and most beautiful deserts, the Namib. Like the Atacama, the Namib Desert’s exceptional dryness results from an offshore cold current that induces the constant descent of dry air. Currently the Namib receives a mere 1/2 inch of rain annually and it’s been this way for the better part of the last 55 million years. The Namib is in many ways a “living desert”, constantly changing its appearance due to huge roving dune fields driven by howling desert winds.
(images via: Namibia Safari and Grandpoohbah)
Where it meets the South Atlantic ocean, the Namib is often obscured by thick, impenetrable fogs that bring some moisture to the hardy plants and animals that live there. The fogs have also been the bane of seafarers for centuries, leading to innumerable shipwrecks and the forbidding name, Skeleton Coast.
Tabernas Desert, Spain
(images via: Rezoom and Getty Images)
A desert, in Europe? It’s not only more likely than you think, it’s actually there, in Spain. The Tabernas Desert in the Spanish province of Almeria is cut off from humid winds off the Mediterranean Sea by several long mountain ranges and receives a searing 3000 hours of sunlight annually. The area receives about an inch of rain every year, most of which arrives in the form of sudden downpours that have caused picturesque erosion and rugged badlands.
(image via: Cuellar)
The Tabernas Desert has often been used for location shooting of so-called Spaghetti Westerns including The Magnificent Seven and Sergio Leone’s 1966 masterpiece, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
(image via: Trekearth)
Far north of Almeria in the province of Navarre, Las Bardenas Reales is another Spanish desert so distinctive that it’s been selected to be a UNESCO World heritage site.
Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia
(images via: Virtual Tourist, Duneguide and Stylefrizz)
The Rub’ al Khali, or Empty Quarter, is one of the most forbidding deserts on earth. Daytime temperatures approaching 131°F (55°C ) and sand dunes towering 1,100 feet (330 meters) high make the Empty Quarter no fit place for man or beast.
(image via: Platform Zero)
The Rub’ al Khali was not always such an extreme environment and in ancient times a series of desert oasis’ allowed trading caravans to traverse its wide open plains. Rumors of “lost cities” have echoed through time and several have been found using high-tech imaging equipment aboardthe Space Shuttle and NASA’s Landsat satellites. One such city is Ubar, the “City of a Thousand Pillars”, estimated to have thrived from 3,000 BC until the first century AD.
Khongoryn Els (”Singing Sands”), Mongolia
(images via: Duneguide and Boston.com)
The Singing Sands of Khongoryn Els are located in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park in southern Mongolia. The dunes really do “sing” – the movement of trillions of tiny sand grains against one another under pressure of the wind results in sounds variously described as roaring, booming, barking and even squeaking. The sound is only audible under certain conditions with the size & roundness of the grains, the humidity of the sand, and the sand’s silica content being the most relevant.
(image via: 123People)
Khongoryn Els isn’t easy to get to – which is part of their attraction – and the area is home to rare wildlife such as the Gobi Camel and the snow leopard.
Death Valley, California, USA
(images via: UND, Destination360 and Marc Adamus)
No post on amazing deserts would be compete without mentioning Death Valley. Aptly named for its lack of water and sweltering heat – the temperature at Furnace creek reached 134°F (56.7°C) in 1913 – Death Valley is the lowest point in North America and the second-lowest in the world.
(image via: George Bell)
The depth of the valley produces a convection oven effect on hot days with superheated air becoming trapped within the valley and circulating into any shaded areas.
(images via: Mystic Bren and Gconnect)
By all accounts the most mysterious part of Death Valley is The Racetrack, a flat dry lakebed that features dozens of “sailing stones” of various sizes at the ends of tracks sometimes hundreds of feet long. The tracks are sometimes straight, occasionally sinuous and in some cases reverse themselves. These aren’t mere pebbles either: one sailing stone, dubbed “Karen” by researchers, weighs over 700 pounds!
Antarctica’s Dry Valleys
(images via: Ross Sea and GDargaud)
Deserts, technically, don’t have to be hot; just dry. A series of valleys near Antarctica’s Ross Sea have been virtually ice-free for 2, 3, perhaps 12 million years! On “warm” summer days, glacial rivers flow into ice-covered lakes, freeze solid at night, then flow again the next day. Mostly though, ice and snow sublimates directly into the exceedingly dry air blowing out of central Antarctica; to the point where glaciers dry out before reaching the sea. These so-called “katabatic” winds have sculpted rocks in the Dry Valleys into bizarre shapes somewhat resembling the arches and hoodoos of much hotter deserts. The Dry Valleys are so unlike more typical earthly environments that researchers consider them suitable analogs for studies of Mars.
(image via: Virginia Butler)
The extreme dryness of the air and the lack of rain or snowfall in the Dry Valleys acts to preserve any organic matter for startlingly long periods of time. Freeze-dried by the katabatic winds and then slowly sandblasted away, the corpse of the seal above will someday be worn completely away though that could take thousands of years!
Our planet is blessed (or cursed, depending on one’s point of view) with an abundance of deserts, each offering unique environments and scenic vistas that are in many cases, out of this world. The 10 amazing deserts described above are, to mix metaphors, just the tip of the iceberg and you can expect a future showcase to disclose more of the hot, the dry and the sandy!
Steve
114 Cool Pumpkins, creating our fun Halloween grins!
October 29, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Around Halloween, pumpkin wizards create extreme pumpkin carvings in every category you could imagine. Patterns can even be downloaded or carved on the fly. Give a carving knife to a geek, gamer, or gory movie lover and watch out! They create what they most enjoy. Gamer fans of the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and even the hardcore old school retro games go for video game themes. Some pumpkins are carved into characters from scary, sci-fi, or gory movies. And geeks off the computer and focused on a pumpkin can create what reflects their favorite objects. This is a Halloween tribute to geeks, gamers, and gory flicks watchers. Trick or treat? Here are 114 treats, or cool pumpkin art as jack-o-lanterns with intricate carvings from freaky to geeky.
Geeky Pumpkin Carvings
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Geeks, we are both logically left-brained as well as creatively right-brained. Give a geek a carving tool and look at the cool pumpkin art that can be created. We love our RSS feeds so much that now we subscribe our pumpkins to them. Linux lovers carve cute Penguins. To many, only Firefox will do. But then you have big Microsoft fans like the ones who carved Bill Gates and IE pumpkins. A little Google android will light the way for some lucky trick-or-treaters. Then there are Mac fanboys like the ones who created a likeness of Steve Jobs and the Apple icon. Last but certainly not least, one crafty soul created little tux and no doubt loves Linux.
Horror & Gore Pumpkins
(image credits:walyou)
The Predator pumpkin is amazingly detailed and must have taken great skill and patience. Next in tribute to horror movies and sometimes gore are The Mummy, the Werewolf character Wolfman, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Pennywise from It destroyed the idea of happy clowns from many minds. Then comes Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw massacre which can attribute the revving sound of a chainsaw with the desire to run in the other direction. “Here’s Johnny!” also known as Jack Nicholson from The Shining. And if you ever dream of Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street, you had better wake up pronto. Knifes carve more than pumpkins like in the horror film Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
Classic Horror Movies: Pumpkins
(image credits:walyou)
Some horror flicks are classics like Psycho, so the first three pumpkins show tribute to Norman Bates, to the Bates Motel, and to the shower scene. Pinhead from Hellraiser was both creepy and freaky, but people have differing opinions on if it was a classic movie. The next pumpkin’s character was first written about in 1818 and is of course the Frankenstein monster. The last three carvings depict a German vampire film, Symphony of Horror and another classic horror character, Nosferatu.
Evil Stars: Pumpkins
(image credits:walyou)
The pumpkins once again were carved by talented fans as tributes to horror flicks. From left to right the movie and characters are: Frankenstein and his Bride, The Exorcist, Joker, Dracula, Dracula David from Lost Boys, Chucky times two, and the infamous hockey mask from Friday the 13th.
Video Games Pumpkin Carvings
(image credits:jjgames,walyou,gaygamer)
Jack-o-lanterns do not have to be scary. In fact, give a gamer a carving knife instead of a controller and look at what they come up with as cool, creative pumpkin art. These video game themed pumpkins are a tribute to WOW, World of Warcraft Alliance, Stormrage, Transformers Optimus Prime, and Pyramid Head.
Gaming Systems: Pumpkins
(image credits:jjgames,walyou)
Gamers love their gaming system as well as their games. Here are what a few hardcore gamers carved: Xbox logo, Xbox 360 power button, the always dreaded Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death, a pumpkin Playstation, several pumpkins to depict Playstation controller buttons, Wii, Will controller, and a Wii console.
Pacman Pumpkins
(image credits:walyou,jjgames)
Like in games, carving pumpkins comes in many skill levels. For these, the many pumpkins and creative carvings show that Pacman will always be a favorite for many gamers.
Gamers Tribute To Their Favorite Games
(image credits:jjgames,walyou)
Some games have extremely devoted players who don’t grow tired of their favorite game. These carved creations on the pumpkins represent a few of those favorite games. There are five Halo 3 pumpkins, Portal, BioShock, Gears of War and Shadow of the Colossus.
Old School Games: Pumpkins
(image credits: jjgames,walyou)
Old school gamers and even new gamers still love Tetris. This retro video game is among the most popular games ever and are the top two carvings. Space Invaders is another old favorite. The rest of the carved pumpkin art includes tributes to Sonic, Metroid, Link from Zelda, and Okami.
Pumpkins Rated E for Everyone Games
(image credits: walyou,jjgames)
And then there are the “happy games” that appeal to gamers young and old. These carved pumpkins are welcoming to trick-or-treaters. Many kids would recognize Belmont Castle, or the two of Little Big Planet’s Sackboy, Pikachu, Mario and Bowser, and who wouldn’t smile back at Mario? The houses with Mario pumpkins will no doubt serve up more treats and experience fewer tricks.
Movie Heroes or Villains
(image credits:,Screen Junkies)
Movie heroes and villains always seem to live forever. These characters have inspired more than pumpkin art. They’ve been made into movies, cartoons, comic books, lunch boxes and about anything that can be commercially marketed. From left to right, they include: Hellboy, two Spiderman pumpkins, The Hulk, Wolverine, Iron Man, Optimus Prime and Megatron, The Punisher, and Transformer Autobot Decepticons pumpkin-faces.
Even More Movies: Pumpkins
(image credits:Womans Day,digital burn,walyou,walyou,,Chicago Tribune)
We love to be entertained. We are great fanboys of movies and comic books. Some of those include: The Birds, Wizard of Oz, Ghost Rider, Batman, Green Lantern, Gollum from Lord of the Rings, Spock and Star Trek.
If you can imagine it…
(image credits:Womans Day,pixability,Womans Day,Womans Day,Womans Day,Womans Day,pixability)
If you can imagine it, then it has probably been carved into or fashioned with a pumpkin around Halloween. Some people are patriots above all else and create a pumpkin Statue of Liberty. The math equation was carved and meant to truly scare those who see it. Some people love food above all else and can change a pumpkin into a hotdog or hamburger. The big-toothed creature is scary yet creative. Then there are cat lovers with an artistic flair as well as castles carved into pumpkins.
Star Wars: Pumpkins
(image credits:walyou)
Say no more than Star Wars and the fans start flocking out from every corner to pay tribute. These pumpkins are more than art, they were created with love. From left to right: Death Star, Princess Leia, R2D2, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Master Yoda, Dark Lord of The Sith, and Boba Fett.
Happy Halloween!
Angie
Dogs making a difference! Man’s best friend much help they lend.
October 29, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Therapy dogs help so many people. Many correctional facilities have created special programs where inmates train the dogs. After that, the dogs goes on to help others, who may need help in a myriad of ways. Let’s hear it for this continually wonderful and evolving program making such a difference:
When Allison Winn was just seven years old, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and her carefree life as she knew it was over. She soon underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and then began a grueling regiment of radiation treatments and chemotherapy, leaving her weak and ill.One of Allison’s doctors had a suggestion to cheer the child up: a therapy dog. At the nearby Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, prisoners have trained dogs specifically to assist people with disabilities and illnesses, and Allison seemed like a perfect candidate to be partnered with one of the program’s graduates. Not long after her family sent in an application, Allison was paired with a beautiful Bichon Frisé, who she named Coco.
“She made me feel better,” Allison told the Denver Post. So, when Allison finally began to feel like her old self again this spring, she made it her mission to help other children with cancer get support from their very own therapy dogs.
All summer long, Allison baked thousands of dog biscuits from her own special recipe, and sold them at a stand in front of her house and in local shops. She raised more than a thousand dollars, which is enough to pay for three therapy dogs for other children.
Last Tuesday, Allison and her mother drove back to the correctional facility to watch as another child received Allison’s gift: two-year-old Krysta Mullen, who is legally blind because of a brain tumor that had recently been removed, was able to choose from three available dogs waiting there. The toddler sniffed around and stroked their fur before choosing a black Labrador named Lucky Bug.
Krysta’s mother, Shanell Mullen, was amazed by Allison’s generosity. “I just think that is an awesome little girl,” she said as she watched her daughter bond with her new dog.
Allison is still planning to pay for two other children to receive their own therapy dogs with her leftover money, but she’s not stopping there: she’s already working on her next giant batch of biscuits.
Source: Alltop
Beth
Gorgeous But Deadly: Check out this Poisonous Plants medley!
October 26, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Doll’s Eyes, Fairy Bells, Miracle Leaf – how can plants with names like these be dangerous? Eat them, and you’ll be sorry you fell for their deceptive names and unassuming appearances. From a tree that can make you go blind to flowers that even kill unsuspecting honeybees, these 13 (more) poisonous plants are anything but innocent.
Manchineel Tree
(image via: Hobo Traveler)
The Manchineel tree (Hippomane Mancinella) is so dangerous, it’s often marked with warning signs. Its leaves and small green fruit resemble those of an apple tree, hence the name – which is derived from “manzanilla”, meaning “little apple” in Spanish. But in Spain, this tree is more often known as “little apple of death”. All parts of this tree are so toxic that if you burn it and stand near the smoke, you can go blind.
Stand under this tree during a rainstorm, and you’ll get a nasty surprise in the form of blisters all over exposed parts of your body caused by contact with a white milky substance that the tree secretes when it rains. The Caribs used Manzanilla sap to poison their arrows and even tied captives to its trunk to ensure a slow and painful death.
Heart of Jesus
(image via: Wikipedia)
Eat the Heart of Jesus (Caladium x hortulanum), and you’ll end up praying for mercy. It actually wouldn’t be too difficult to accidentally set your mouth and throat on fire with this plant, since it shares its common name – Elephant Ear – with another genus of plants called Colocasia esculenta (taro) which have edible roots. While taro tastes akin to potatoes, Caladium tastes like the burning depths of hell thanks to its toxic compound, Calcium oxalate.
Doll’s eyes
(images via: Illinois Wildflowers)
With its broad green leaves and dainty white flowers, Doll’s Eyes (Actaea pachypoda) certainly doesn’t look dangerous. But, the striking white berries – once sewn into rag dolls as eyes, hence the name – are highly poisonous. They contain cardiogenic toxins that have an immediate sedative effect on human cardiac muscle tissue and can be fatal if eaten in large quantities. Even in small quantities, they can cause severe mouth pain.
Larkspur
(image via: Farmer Julie)
Like its cousin monkshood, larkspur (delphinium) is a highly popular ornamental plant, often planted in gardens for their dramatic spikes of showy blue blossoms. Larkspur is so pretty that children often just can’t resist touching them, but even brief contact with the flowers or leaves can irritate the skin. And, if you ignore the warning sign of this plant’s strong, acrid taste, you could die – it’s packed full of potent alkaloids. Before keeling over from respiratory paralysis, you’ll experience excitability, disoreintation, muscle tremors, stiffness, weakness and seizures.
Privet
(image via: Wikimedia Commons)
Neat, orderly rows of privet hedges (Ligustrum) look anything but frightening, but eat the berries and you’ll never want to go near this plant again. Some species, such as Ligustrum ovalifolium, contain toxic Glycosides which cause abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, weakness, cold and clammy skin. Equestrians should be especially careful not to let their horses munch on this unassuming plant, as it is often fatal to them.
Yellow Jessamine
(image via: KillerPlants.com)
Yellow Jessamine: it’s a pretty name for a pretty plant, but don’t be lulled into complacency by its Southern charm. This perennial evergreen vine, which is the state flower of South Carolina, can be deadly. Though Gelsemium sempervirens is sometimes used in herbal medicine to treat problems like sciatica, when used incorrectly, it can – and does – kill. All parts of this plant contain the toxic strychnine-related alkaloids gelsemine and gelseminine, which is even fatal to honeybees when they make the mistake of gathering its nectar.
Fairy Bells
(image via: Wikimedia Commons)
This plant’s attractive appearance earned it names like Fairy Bells, Virgin’s Glove and Fairy Thimbles – but it’s also known as Dead Men’s Bells and Bloody Fingers, with good reason. Digitalis purpurea, Common Foxglove which is often found growing wild in the woods, is an undeniably beautiful plant containing cardiac glycoside digitoxin. Eat it and you’ll experience nausea, vomiting, convulsions, cardiac arrest and finally, death.
Tree Tobacco
(image via: UBC Botanical Garden)
Considering how much tobacco is consumed around the world on a daily basis, you might imagine a plant called Tree Tobacco is okay to smoke or eat. Not so much. Nicotiana Glauca causes vomiting, diarrhea, slow pulse, dizziness, collapse, and respiratory failure and is known to frequently kill horses and cattle, especially in Texas where it grows wild.
Golden Chain
(image via: Gertie_DU)
Golden Chain (Laburnum Anagyroides) is a majestic tree, with cascades of sunny yellow flowers. It has a long-held reputation as poison in English lore, particularly since its seeds look very similar to peas. They contain both Lupinine and dangerous enzyme inhibitors, and as few as 20 laburnum beans can kill a child.
Mother of Millions
(image via: North West Weeds)
In 1997, 125 cows died in New South Wales after eating an ornamental succulent plant that’s common all over the drier parts of Australia. Mother of Millions (Kalanchoe tubiflora) is so named for its astounding ability to reproduce – each plant produces thousands of offspring. But this drought-resistant plant causes diarrhea, heart failure and death in stock animals that mistake it for food.
Miracle Leaf
(image via: Staff.it.uts.edu.au)
It’s called Miracle Leaf thanks to its medicinal properties, but use Kalanchoe pinnata improperly and you’ll need a miracle to emerge unscathed. It contains bufadienolide cardiac glycosides, which can cause cardiac poisoning, particularly in grazing animals.
Windflower
(image via: Wikipedia)
The delicate, starry white blossoms of the Windflower plant look like something that would adorn a bridal veil, but touch it, and you’ll get a nasty rash. The entire plant contains poisonous chemicals that are toxic to humans and animals, including protoanemonin, a skin and gastrointestinal irritant.
White Bryony
(image via: Roberto Verzo)
White Bryony sounds pleasant enough, but get a load of its other name: Devil’s Turnip. This vine-like relative of cucumber produces pale pink berries filled with a foul-smelling juice as well as a large, tuberous rootstock. When used properly by knowledgable herbalists, this plant treats a number of health disorders, but ingestion can cause vomiting, kidney damage, convulsions and miscarriage.
Steph
What is Social Business? Designed to assist with the help that is missed.
October 25, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Complete video at: fora.tv Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of The Grameen Bank, explains his “social business” model, a plan for addressing social issues through entrepreneurship. This program was recorded in joint collaboration with the Commonwealth Club of California and Link TV. —- Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of The Grameen Bank, speaks about his new book Creating a World Without Poverty. Muhammad Yunus is founder and managing director of …
20 Scary Animals, feel the spirit of halloween, would any of these make you scream?
October 24, 2009 by admin · View Comments
(Images via: Nose Digg, The Hostess, Somethin Beautiful, Wolaver)
With Halloween just around the corner, what better time than now to talk about some of the scariest and freakiest animals in nature. From the nocturnal primate (ayer ayer) that looks like a gremlin to the appropriately-named vampire bat that subsists on blood to a blobfish engulfing anything in its path to the hatchetfish with their ghostly apparitions, nature truly consists of some animals that can at times seem straight out of horror movies.
Hardly Out of Sight, Out of Mind Underwater
(Images via: Wild Animal Fight Club, L’s the Word, Epica Ceremony)
Thanks to the various “Jaws” movies of the late seventies and early 80s, it’s safe to say that this author has never placed a foot in the ocean out of fear of encountering the legendary monster, the “blood-thirsty” great white shark. Of course, movies tend to dramatize things, but the fact remains that the fear still exists all these years later. In simple terms, there is something very unsettling about floating in the water, with hundreds of miles and who knows what moving below you. Of course, the ocean’s waters are haunted by more than sharks, octopus and whatever this freaky, gap-toothed fish creature is.
Ghostly and Monstrous Deep Sea Creatures
(Images via: Flickr, Science Ray, Dark Roast Blend, Science Blogs)
The deeper the ocean gets, the stranger the fish become. Imagine scuba diving and running into some of these guys above, which are sure to send chills down the spine, cause you to clench your oxygen tank a little tighter and maybe even make you feel as if you’re in the depths of fiery hell (well at least this red fish in the upper-left hand corner). The monk fish (upper-right hand corner) looks more like a monster than a saint, while the viper fish has haunting eyes that cut right through you. As for the gulper eel (lower-right hand corner), it looks like a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong, at least from this point of view.
If Looks Could Kill
(Images via: Gateways Clearinghouse, It’s Nature, Wunder Ground, Science Ray, Ugly Overlord)
Reptiles are cold-blooded, which makes sense when considering the sheer intimidation that they can cast with a cold, blank stare. Simply looking into the eyes of these fellows can leave one feeling possessed and under their control. And when these creatures get mad, as evident above, their reactions are enough to leave you having nightmares for weeks to come. And let’s not enough talk about how the presence of a snake makes me feel.
Soft and Furry Until They Get Angry
(Images via: Flickr, Flickr, The Web site of Everything, Flickr, Flickr)
Various land-based animals that look cute or appear aloof for the most part can get quite nasty and vicious when need be. If you ever run across these critters on a bad day, be careful. These rabies-infested animals are not afraid of showing their teeth, hissing and letting you know who is in control. With all that said, most wild animals simply want to be left alone and are harmless unless they feel threatened. As has always been the case, respect the animals and they will typically respect you.
Chris
Stunning photos from around the earth, real patience needed for their birth.
October 22, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Outdoor photographers rely on a great eye to relay the picture they see in their heart and want to share. They travel the globe to capture images of gorgeous wildlife and lovely landscapes, using time-tested techniques and tremendous talent to touch our emotions with their recorded moment of time. Here are 14 of the best and the brightest contemporary outdoor photographers and 37 of their breathtakingly creative images.
Pam Wood
(image credits: Photography by Pame)
Pam Wood is a freelance photographer who offers a vast selection of photos from around the globe. She has a quest for capturing the world at its best with her camera, her quest is to capture the magic of moment in time. Wood hopes her pictures make people laugh or smile, while encouraging us to do what we can to preserve our planet for future generation to enjoy. “This is an incredible planet we all live on. Let’s celebrate life!” Her photo of a tiger underwater was one of the finalists in the Natural World category of Smithsonian magazine’s 6th Annual Photo Contest.
Galen Rowell
(image credits: Mountain Light)
Galen Rowell was an internationally beloved freelance photographer and global adventurer. His life was tragically cut short when a private plane with his wife and two friends crashed near his home. He offered worldwide wisdom on the environmental impact being wrought upon people and their lands. Some of his works include wild horses in Patagonia, Argentina, and a rare 360-degree rainbow over Na Pali Coast, Kauai Island in Hawaii. He captured another rainbow, many in fact, this one over Hidden Peak, Karakoram Himalaya, Pakistan. The next to lower right is called, Stormy Sunset over Evolution Lake. In the bottom right, Star streaks over South Gasherbrum Glacier in Pakistan.
Curious Expeditions – Michelle Enemark and Dylan Thuras
(image credits:Curious Expeditions)
Aptly named Curious Expeditions, these photographers, Michelle Enemark and Dylan Thuras, travel the world snapping shots of bizarre yet beautiful places. The top photo is of beautiful Rose Valley, Göreme. Göreme, an area with fairy chimneys, is in Cappadocia, Turkey. The deep valleys and soaring rock formations are volcanic rock that has slowly eroded away to create strange “Fairy Chimneys”. The locals had believed them extraordinarily magical places that only fairies could have created. Ancient people hollowed out the fairy chimneys to carve out homes, chapels, and tombs from the soft inner rock. They also tunneled to create underground cities, some going down eight stories. The bottom picture is a fairy chimney hotel which is also located in Göreme.
Patrick Smith
(image credits:Patrick Smith)
Sometimes nature can take your breath away with her beauty. Patrick Smith has enormous talent taking photographs. The top picture is called Big Sur, Portal of the Sun. It was the winner in the 2009 Nature’s Best Ocean Views competition. Smith says, This sea arch opening in a cliff face at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur allows large waves to come through at high tide before a big storm. The waves often fill the entire portal to the top, and the portal becomes a giant water shotgun! The Tufoni formations in the rock are incredible and should be seen in person.” The bottom photo is of Trinidad Beach which is north of Eureka, California. At high tide, the amazing cloud layers and intense colors are spectacular.
James Neeley
(image credits:James Neeley)
James Neeley takes stunning photos, making it easy to see why landscapes are usually devoted to nature without mankind polluting the frame. At Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, buffalo still roam and graze on Antelope Flats as seen at Moulton Barn shortly before a storm broke loose. The top right photo is of Lower Antelope Canyon, also called The Corkscrew. It is a hot destination for photographers like James Neeley who titled this picture Nature’s Abstraction. On the bottom left, the lake has a majestic backdrop of the Teton Range in the morning light. There is no mistaking Monument Valley landscape for any other spot in the world. It once stood synonymous for the Wild West. The iconic sandstone buttes have been a famous landscape in media genres since the 1930s.
Stuck in CustomsTrey Ratcliff
(image credit:Stuck in Customs)
Trey Ratcliff is the creative photographer behind Stuck in Customs. He captured this stunning shot in the final hours of daylight, the rugged peaks near the southern tip of Argentina and the edge of Chile, just a glacier away from Antarctica. He stayed there watching icebergs float by until the last morsels of dusk remained. To capture this moment in time, Ratcliff stated, ‘I started on one edge of these rugged peaks and moved around to this side, to get the view from the glacial lake. The spiked mountains there are Cerro Torre, and I was very lucky to see them without cloud cover. I understand they are covered up 90% of the time, so to have crystal clear air was fortunate. The glacier there, which presents on the right but really goes back behind many more mountains, is called “glacier grande”.’
Mario Bertocchi
(image credits:Mario Bertocchi)
Photographer Mario Bertocchi possesses an uncanny knack for capturing captivating moments of time and stunning landscapes. Promise of a new day is the title of the top photo. After a morning storm, a rainbow shimmers over the Teton Mountains. There are no foothills along the Tetons, making the view dramatic as they rise sharply from the surrounding terrain to about 7,000 feet. In the bottom landscape, the rugged coast and steep terraces of Cinque Terre National Park overlook the sea. Cinque Terra is located on the Italian Riviera and is made up of five villages. This view is of Riomaggiore.
ZooBorns
(image credits:ZooBorns)
As their name implies, ZooBorns specializes in baby animals born in zoos. Many of their photos are taken outside, but taking pictures of newborn animals sometimes takes them indoors as well. They share their photographs online and hope you see something that brightens your day. Part of their mission is to help people learn about the need to protect these adorable animals in the wild and the ways in which accredited zoos and aquariums contribute to this cause.
National Geographic Photographers
(image credits:National Geographic, National Geographic Travel)
National Geographic consistently brings us amazing images, both of nature and of wildlife. The top left picture is a Banded Toad Fish, snapped by Takako Uno before publishing in National Geographic. That sea creature can be found in Western Australia. On the top right, Carlo Delli captured the shot of a Speckled Emperor Moth. It seems to have pupils staring at us. This stunning camouflage on an African moth frightens away predators by the “eyes” on its wings. On the bottom, beautiful and serene, the Belize sunrise is also romantic. Mark Lewis captured this photo for National Geographic Travel.
Per-Andre Hoffmann
(image credits:Per-Andre Hoffmann)
Professional photographer Per-Andre Hoffmann has been called a “magician of light”. Although he travels around the globe to find the perfect moment and capture it, these images were taken near where he is based, Makati City, Philippines. The top left photo of the starfish was captured at Palawan, Philippines, which was once named as the best island destination in East and Southeast Asia by National Geographic Traveler. The top right picture is of the Mayon volcano that erupted in 2007. The bottom photograph is of the famous Manila Bay sunset.
Jason Bradley
(image credits: Bradley Photographic)
Jason Bradley had wanted to be a marine scientist. As an aspiring researcher, photography was a vital tool. Becoming a photographer was an afterthought for Bradley. He adores nature and most of his freelance photos are marine related. He is an expert at capturing underwater shots and has many galleries showcasing his works.
BONUS SHOTS Pam Wood
(image credits: Photography by Pame)
Pam Wood is an unbelievably talented photographer. Although she also snaps landscapes, her animal shots are extraordinary. From Rainbow Flamingos to the bottom lion cub that she titled, Yummy, she showcases her skills. Expect to see more and more great pictures emerge from Pam Wood.
BONUS Patrick Smith
(image credit:Patrick Smith)
Patrick Smith calls this photo Maelstrom. He risked his life to snap this shot in Kauai, Hawaii. He states, “I had this near-death experience on my last trip to Kauai! This lava-ledge is 20 feet above the sea, and I suppose the incoming wave is twice that height. This is not the Sprouting Horn near Poipu and it is not Queen’s bath! It is called the Mokolea Lava Pools.”
Angie
Grameen Shakti, Bangladesh, Micro-finance solar home systems.
October 20, 2009 by admin · View Comments
www.ashdenawards.org Grameen Shakti won an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy in 2006. To find out more visit the link above and check out the Ashden Awards Blog ashdenawards.blogspot.com Grameen Shakti has sold and installed over 65000 solar home-systems (SHS) in rural Bangladesh, and brought major benefits to its users. Nearly 70% of households in Bangladesh are not connected to the electricity grid and depend on kerosene for lighting. This includes most rural areas and extends as far as …
Inland Seas Worth Seeing: The 10 Most Amazing Lakes
October 20, 2009 by admin · View Comments
There’s a lot to like about lakes. Big lakes, tiny lakes, freshwater lakes, briny lakes… and more than a few that are one-of-a-kind natural wonders. These 10 amazing lakes “shore” are special; inland seas that are truly sights to see!
Jellyfish Lake, Palau
(images via: Ah Boon)
Most people first learned about Jellyfish Lake while watching Survivor: Palau or Survivor: Micronesia, in which a trip to swim in a secluded lake full of stingless jellyfish was the prize for winning a reward challenge. Rewarding it was – and is, if you’re ever in Palau! The lake is on Eil Malk, one of Palau’s Rock Islands and formed around 12,000 years ago, when geologic uplift raised the island sufficiently above sea level that water was trapped in its central depression. Here’s a short video taken at – and in – Palau’s Jellyfish Lake:
Diving Jelly Fish Lake in Palau, via Talk.pa
(image via: ECheng)
Millions of jellyfish live in the lake, subsisting via a symbiotic relationship with algae they host within their bodies. El Nino events which occur roughly once every decade tend to raise the lake’s temperature and this can cause severe die-offs of the jellyfish population – but the tough li’l guys always bounce back.
Mono Lake, California, USA
(images via: Art.com, Earth From Space and E.J.Peiker)
Mono Lake, located near the California-Nevada border east of Yosemite Nat’l Park, is superlative in a great many ways. Considered to be “hypersaline”, the lake has no outlet and evaporation over tens of thousands of years has concentrated salts and minerals to extremely high levels. Even so, life thrives at Mono Lake – as many as 6 trillion brine shrimp (yes, “Sea Monkeys”) provide migrating birds with a crucial food source and anchor an ecological niche found nowhere else. Mono Lake, with its trademark tufa towers and the look of what Mark twain called “the loneliest place on earth” has inspired generations of artists, photographers and filmmakers.
(image via: The Living Moon)
The above photo perfectly captures the near-surreal atmosphere surrounding Mono Lake; a combination of the otherworldly tufa formations, the ethereal high-altitude skies and the soothingly familiar rippling surface of the lake itself.
Diego de la Haya, Costa Rica
(images via: Costa Rica Tourism & Travel, Travelblog, Selling CR and TravelExperta)
Diego de la Haya is a crater lake that fills one of the 5 main craters of 11,260 ft high Mount Irazú. The lake has been known to change its color from its usual brilliant green to gray, pink, or red depending on the type of gas released by underlying volcanic activity inside the mountain.
(image via: Sanchiri)
Mount Irazú last erupted from 1963 through 1965, with the initial blast coinciding with President John F. Kennedy’s arrival in Costa Rica for a state visit. The volcano is very active, having erupted 23 times since historians first noted a major eruption in the year 1723.
Lake Nyos, Cameroon
(images via: Water Encyclopedia, Environmental Graffiti and Dibussi)
Usually “before & after” photos show an improvement in the subject but that’s not the case with Cameroon’s Lake Nyos. The lake’s sickly, greenish-yellow hue is visible evidence of a deadly 1986 eruption of carbon dioxide that killed upwards of 1,700 people by suffocation. Scientists believe that an underwater rockslide tipped the delicate pressure balance that had kept CO2 dissolved in the lake. Once gas bubbles formed and rose, the pressure was reduced, much like popping the cap on a shaken bottle of soda.
(image via: Pagesperso-Orange)
Could the August 21, 1986 disaster at Lake Nyos happen again? Perhaps not – thanks to several outgassing “autosiphon” pipes sunk vertically into the lake like, well, soda straws. The international Nyos Organ project has succeeded in reducing the Lake Nyos’ CO2 levels and has also done the same at nearby Lake Monoun, scene of a similar event in 1984 that killed over 30 people.
Lake Baikal, Russia
(images via: Baikal Adventure and Chargelife)
Lake Baikal is the Queen of lakes, holding more fresh water than all of North America’s Great lakes combined! It’s also the world’s oldest lake, 25 million years or so, and around 2,500 unique species (such as the Nerpa, or Baikal Seal) are found in and around Lake Baikal – and nowhere else. This presents a problem… global warming is threatening to change the environment at Lake Baikal, and change is not a good thing to the uniquely adapted plants and animals who call it home.
(image via: Daily Galaxy)
A rocky outcrop standing out from Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal symbolizes the rugged beauty and echoing isolation of this magnificent lake that holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.
Loch Ness, Scotland, UK
(images via: Solar Navigator, Naturephoto and Pibburns)
As Scotland’s second-deepest loch (lake), Loch Ness is estimated to hold more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined. Both the loch’s depth (754 feet) and constant murkiness (due to peat in the surrounding soil) have contributed to the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. Some say that what has occasionally appeared to be a prehistoric plesiosaur is merely the occasional sunken log floating to the loch’s surface but we know better, don’t we?
(image via: Modern Mechanix)
Though the first “reported” mention of the Loch Ness Monster dates from St. Columba’s encounter with it in the 6th century AD, modern reports date from the early 1930s and didn’t always depict the creature actually in the lake, er, loch. The above illustration was composed to complement a 1934 article about a motorcyclist who claimed Nessie crossed his path during a midnight ride. Was alcohol involved? Neither the rider nor Nessie are telling.
Dead Sea, Israel/Jordan
(images via: Standing With Israel and GSI)
The Dead Sea, regardless of its name rooted in ancient origins, is a lake with some very odd characteristics. Like Mono Lake and other hypersaline lakes, the Dead Sea has only one main inlet – the Jordan River – experiences minimal rainfall and has no outlet save for evaporation. It is also exceptionally low: at 1,385 ft below sea level, the shores of the Dead Sea are the lowest dry areas on earth. How low can it go? Step into the Dead Sea itself and you’ll find its deepest point 1,240 feet below the surface.
(image via: Travelblog)
The waters of the Dead Sea are over 8 times as salty as ocean water, though the “salt” in the seas are 97 percent sodium chloride… only 30.4 percent of the Dead Sea’s salts are NaCl with the rest being potassium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and various bromides. With an average salt concentration of 33.7 percent, the Dead Sea is unusually dense and thus allows people to float much easier due to the property of natural buoyancy.
Lake Toba, Indonesia
(images via: Wayfaring and SkyscraperCity)
Located in northern Sumatra in Indonesia, Lake Toba is one of the most serene and silent places one could visit… 73,000 years ago, not so much. Lake Toba, you see, is a water-filled caldera formed after the largest volcanic eruption to occur in the last 25 million years. In the aftermath of the eruption, the Indian subcontinent was buried beneath an average 7 inches of ash and the entire planet entered into a “volcanic winter” for approximately 6 years.
(image via: The Travelrag)
The eruption of the Toba super-volcano had severe human consequences as well. It’s estimated that the population of Homo Sapiens was reduced to just a few tens of thousands, and that tribes living east of Sumatra migrated to Australia in an effort to escape the disaster.
Aral Sea, Russia
(image via: Think Twice)
Once one of the world’s largest lakes, the Aral Sea has become the poster child for environmental mismanagement. We can blame Soviet central planning for this one; though the present governments of successor states Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have to share the blame for their reluctance to repair the damage. In a nutshell, a grand scheme to convert the wider region into a cotton-growing center saw the rivers which formerly fed the Aral Sea damned and/or diverted to provide irrigation. Without incoming water, the sea began to evaporate, becoming progressively saltier and ever more polluted with agricultural runoff. The disappearance of the Aral Sea – over the course of a single human generation – is a shockingly sad story chronicled by orbiting satellites and spacecraft.
(images via: Global Vacations and TAMU)
Today the situation has somewhat stabilized though only the northern part of the lake (the North Aral Sea) stands a reasonable hope of survival over the long term. Effects on the region’s climate are mainly negative – reduced rainfall stunts non-irrigated crops while fierce westerly winds blow powdered pollutants and acrid, salty dust over urban and rural areas, contributing to a massive health crisis among the people living there.
Lake Vostok, Antarctica
(images via: LDEO-Columbia and Discover)
Deep beneath nearly 12,500 feet of Antarctic ice lies, improbably, a lake – Lake Vostok. Approximately the size and shape of Lake Ontario, this most isolated lake somehow manages to stay liquid while being totally deprived of sunlight for tens of millions of years.
(images via: Daily Cognition, Fabristol and Atomic Rockets)
A Russian expedition has been trying to drill down into Lake Vostok to sample the water and any possible bacteria it may contain. Perhaps more than just bacteria have managed to survive – lakes in caves often host specialized plants and animals who have evolved and adapted to survive extremes of heat, cold, darkness and pressure. Since it’s likely Lake Vostok had a varied and viable ecosystem when Antarctica began to freeze over 40 million years ago, one wonders what, if anything, has survived in its depths… and if so, will those lifeforms take kindly to being disturbed?
Our planet’s lakes have always been a source of fascination mixed with an undercurrent of fear – who can say what lurks unseen beneath their placid surfaces? Perhaps this combination of appreciation and anxiety is what draws us to lakes. According to Dr. Seuss, Luke Luck likes lakes… do you?
Steve
“We’ve Got Time to Help”
October 20, 2009 by admin · View Comments
The current recession is creating more than stress - it provides us with time. Here’s an example of a couple who took advantage of their spare time and put it back into the community:
After Portland, Oregon man Seth Reams lost his job in December, he spent all his time searching want ads and sending out resumés with no luck. But rather than getting down about his situation, he decided to start doing something useful with all his extra time until he could find a new job. He and his girlfriend, Michelle King, decided to create a blog, We’ve Got Time to Help, which would compile community volunteer opportunities for everyone who had a few extra hours to pitch in.
There are so many people out there who are willing to help, willing to step out of their lives and their homes to help their neighbors, their community and their city.
Since launching the website in January, Reams’ group has grown to more than 100 volunteers, including fellow laid-off employees, retirees, and stay-at-home moms, who have together tackled more than 60 local volunteer projects for Portland residents in need. Even though Reams is still looking for work, his new project has taught him that “there are so many people out there who are willing to help, willing to step out of their lives and their homes to help their neighbors, their community and their city,” he told Seattle’s KOMO News. “I think that’s probably the most positive lesson that I’ve learned.”
Source: Gimundo
Seth Reams, co-founder of We’ve Got Time To Help, digs a hole for a fence for someone in need.
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Beth
