Loony Doctor

Wish You A Wonderful 2012!

2011-12-31T11:03:00.001-08:00

Hope all of you are enjoying 2012 New Year celebrations!

Watch this video of Sydney Harbour fireworks heralding the New Year 2012. I like it very much, because as usual it is one of the best New Year fireworks!

Wishing you all, your families and friends a great year ahead, full of happiness, and a peaceful world around all of us,

Krishna

Dog scootering woman

2011-12-25T06:13:00.001-08:00

iditarod training, a photo by ashleigh290 on Flickr.

Dog scootering, a sport in which one or more dogs pull a kick scooter on which a person rides, is similar to riding dogsleds. The specially trained dogs, trained for dog scootering, also wear harnesses similar to the ones used for sled dogs.

The dog scooters, often called kick bikes, are un-motorized, with mountain-bike-style tires and brakes, and some may have front shock absorbers to absorb bumps and shocks.

As the sport became more popular better harnesses have been developed to take pressure off the dogs’ back. Though many dog breeds can be used as the scooter pullers, the preference seems to be for dog breeds such as Huskies, Great Danes, Pit Bulls and Schnauzers.

Training the dogs to pull the scooters and for better coordination by the rider are essential for this sport. The dogs have to be slowly trained to attained maximum fitness and to avoid injuries to their paws. Initially, too much of pressure on the dogs’ paws can make them bleed. So, special care has to be taken while training them with dog scootering.

Russian girl rides an ostrich in Vietnam

2011-12-25T05:34:00.001-08:00

Isn't it good way to go to work?)), a photo by Markiza on Flickr.

The photo above shows a Russian girl riding an ostrich in Vietnam, though such scenes are usually seen in African countries, especially in Southern Africa. As not much of photos or literature on such rides are found on the tourist literature or websites of these countries, it has to be presumed that the tourism potential of Ostrich Rides are not fully used in those countries.

In some countries, especially in African countries, people use Ostriches for racing, more or less similar to racing on horseback, though such scenes may not be seen in other places. Ostriches are also used to pull carriages by using specially made reins and other accessories.

The Ostrich Farm', established in Jacksonville, Florida, United States in 1892 became one of the topmost tourist attractions there. Also, ostrich races are a prominent feature of the annual 'Ostrich Festival’ of Chandler, Arizona, though ostrich races are reported to have been conducted at locations such as Canterbury Park (Minnesota), Ellis Park (Kentucky), Prairie Meadows (Iowa), and Virginia City (Nevada).

Ostriches, the largest living species of birds that lay the largest eggs of any living bird, have the ability to run at speeds of about 70 kilometers per hour (43 miles per hour), which is also the fastest land speed for any bird.

As a matter of self-protection, ostriches consider humans as their predators. As soon as they sense human presence, they run away to safety, and if they are cornered they turn back and attack humans. Their legs are quite powerful and they can rip apart the bowels or kill fully-grown humans with a single blow.

Jyoti Amge, the world’s shortest living woman

2011-12-16T10:41:00.001-08:00

Photo By Manish Swarup... Jyoti Amge the smallest woman in the world, a photo by Kingkongphoto & celebrity photos on Flickr.

Jyoti Amge, 18 years, (born on 16 December 1993), a student from Nagpur, India, who is only 62.8 cm tall (just over two feet, i.e., 24.7 in height), has been confirmed as the world's shortest living woman by Guinness World Records, reports from various sources said. She has been awarded the title on her 18th birthday on Friday at Nagpur.

According to the Limca Book of Records, she already held the title as the world’s smallest woman. In 2009, she was the world's shortest teenager with a height of only 61.95 cm.

The previous title holder was Bridgette Jordan, a 22-year-old college student and cheerleader from Sandoval, Illinois, United States, who with the height of 2ft 3 inches beat the previous record holder Elif Kocaman (2ft 4.5 inches) of Kadirli, Turkey. Bridgette Jordan is 7 cm taller than Jyoti Amge, whose restricted growth in height is because of achondroplasia, a growth anomaly or what is commonly called dwarfism, and she is not expected become taller further.

According to Guinness Book of Records, Pauline Musters (born Pauline Bennett, 26 February 1876 - March 1, 1895) of The Netherlands, with a height of only 23 inches (58 cm) is the shortest woman ever recorded.

Weighing only 11 pounds weight, Jyoti Amge dreams of becoming an actress and she is reportedly expected to act in two Bollywood movies shortly.

Pigs’ feet with rice from Chinatown during Chinese New Year

2011-12-15T23:17:00.001-08:00

Photo: A plate of pigs’ feet with rice and salad served in Chinatown, Singapore, during the Chinese New Year.

This photo shows a person eating a dish of pigs feet served with rice and salads in a restaurant in Chinatown, Singapore, during the Chinese New Year last year.

Pork has been eaten in many countries as meat from times dating back to 5000 BC, possibly from the times when pigs were domesticated for the first time from wild boars in China, the near east and the far east. From there, the habit of consuming pigs in several forms, such as hams (including Italian prosciutto), bacon, gammon or pancetta and as an ingredient in sausages, spread to the rest of the world. However, people of some religious faiths hate or prohibit the consumption of pigs’ meat and pork cuisines as their religions do not permit the consumption of pig meat and consider it as a sin.

Some of the regions where pigs meat/ pork is consumed as one of the most commonly used food items include China, Korea and Southeast Asian countries, European countries and the Americas.

The dish shown above seems to belong to one of the dishes of Pickled Pigs Feet, often associated with the cuisine of the African American soul food, dishes found in the southern United States and typically it resembles dishes of the Irish cuisine and Korean cuisine.

As the first step, pigs' feet are salted and smoked as is done in the case of any other pork cuts like bacon and hams. In some countries like Korea, China, etc., it may even be dried and preserved or sold in stores as a delicacy, though it is also commonly preserved using food preservation methods like home canning of pickled vegetables using hot vinegar brine.

Pig’s feet are noted for their high saturated fat and protein content. But some seasoned chefs in good restaurants and hotels remove the excess fat while preparing the dish.

The typical pigs feet dish shown above, is of Singapore cuisine, and slightly different from Jokbal, the Korean dish made of pigs' feet cooked with spices, herbs and soy sauce and, the Irish dish Crubeens (or Crúibíní in Irish) prepared from boiled pigs' feet.

Guaíra Falls (Salto das Sete Quedas do Guaíra)

2011-10-28T06:46:00.001-07:00

Photo Credit: Mario Cesar Mendonca Gomes (Brazil)

Thirty years ago, on 27 October 1982, the world’s largest waterfall, Guaíra Falls, submerged under a manmade lake constructed along the Brazil-Paraguay border. The waterfall simply disappeared forever under the reservoir of the Itaipu hydroelectric project dam, the first phase of which was completed in 1982. It took only 14 days to submerge the gigantic waterfall, as it was during the rainy season when the water level of the Paraná River, across which the dam was built, rose very high.

On 17 January 1982, while the construction of the Itaipu Dam was progressing, and when just a few months were left for the life of the falls, a flood of tourists flocked there to catch the last glimpses of the falls and to say goodbye. Unfortunately for them, some of the tourists stood on a badly maintained suspension footbridge over the Paraná River gorge, which afforded a spectacular view of the waterfalls. Under the weight of the unusually high number of visitors, suddenly the bridge collapsed killing 80 people.

Similar to the fate of the Guaíra Falls, now there are reports of construction of another huge dam, Belo Monte Dam, in north Brazil across the Xingu River (also called Rio Xingu), a 1,230-mile (1979 km) long tributary of the Amazon River. Several protests have been reported for years against the project by environmentalists and indigenous people, including the Caiapo indigenous men, against the construction of the dam. There are fears that the dam would displace thousands of indigenous people, damage the environment, and affect local fish stocks. The rare catfish, Hypancistrus zebra, is just one of a number of species found only in the area that would be affected by the planned dam. Construction was stopped last month on when Judge Carlos Castro Martins stopped all work that would affect with the natural flow of the Rio Xingu. It may be noted that in June 2011, the Brazilian government environment agency cleared the construction, dismissing concerns raised by environmentalists and indigenous groups of people who argue that the dam will harm the Amazon forests, the world's largest tropical rainforests, and displace several thousands of people. According to projections, the 11,000-megawatt hydroelectric project dam would be the third biggest in the world, after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu Dam.

The former Guaíra Falls, also known as Salto das Sete Quedas do Guaíra (Portuguese) and Saltos del Guairá (Spanish), were a series of waterfalls, consisting of 18 falls clustered in seven groups, on the Upper Paraná River along the Brazil-Paraguay border.

With a maximum drop of about 375 feet (114 meters), they were not the world’s tallest falls but they were the largest waterfalls in terms of volume of water flow. While published figures of water flow vary from 470,000 cubic feet (13,000 m3)/s to 1,750,000 cubic feet (50,000 m3)/s, Guaíra Falls’ flow rate was among the largest volume of falling water of any waterfalls on the planet.

The Guaíra Falls were formed when the Paraná River, after crossing the red sandstone Mbaracayú Mountains (Maracaju Mountains), forced through a very narrow gorge between canyon walls and reduced in width sharply from 1,250 feet (381 meters) to 200 feet (61 meters). It was so powerful that the roar of the falls was audible from a distance of 20 miles (32 km).

Now ranked as the world's second largest hydroelectric project dam after the Three Gorges in China, the artificial lake created by the Itaipu Dam, jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay, covered an area of 521 sq miles (1,350 sq km).

About 10,000 families living on the Paraná River basin were displaced when construction of the dam began and the Guaíra Falls National Park had to be liquidated. And the Brazilian government later blasted off the rock face of the submerged Guaíra Falls with dynamites to remove obstacles for navigation in the artificial lake.

Catfish Hypancistrus zebra from Xingu River

2011-10-28T01:34:00.001-07:00

The picture shows a juvenile Hypancistrus zebra, a rare catfish of the family Loricariidae, found only in the Big Bend area of the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon River. The species gets its species name zebra from its black and white stripes, resembling the coloration of a zebra. It is a very popular aquarium fish and it used to be caught and exported from Brazil in great numbers, before the Brazilian government banned the export of all species of Hypancistrus including H. zebra in 1998. However, now it is threatened by the construction of the Belo Monte Dam across the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon Rover, which will dry up all its known habitats and breeding ecosystems.

A young woman at Bryant Park

2011-10-24T22:39:00.001-07:00

Bryant Park, late Apr 2009 - 21, a photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr.

About this photo the American photographer Ed Yourdon writes, “The young woman here is beautiful, and I love the reflection of the keyboard in her sunglasses ... but I gotta tell ya: the combination of grass and green-glow on the back of her laptop is out of this world…”

This is just one of a set of photos Flickr.com has “identified as being the 300 ‘most interesting’ among the 22,000+ ‘public’ photos” in the collection of Ed Yourdon. I have come across his great collection of photo while looking for public domain photos or photos that allow republishing under creative commons or similar licenses.

However, though I am not a professional photographer, I do love good photography, as much as paintings, sculptures, etc. So, I view good photos as if I am looking at old-master paintings or modern art. From that perspective, I can only say that this gifted photographer’s work is just wonderful.

Click on the above photo and go to Ed Yourdon’s photo collection to view some great photos out of 22750 pictures posted on Flickr as on Oct 25, 2011.

Pumpkin carvings of Ray Villafane

2011-10-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

With Halloween fast approaching, the American artist and sculptor Ray Villafane has taken the tradition of pumpkin carving to new heights of bizarre art. Watch the video here for a slide show of some of his most interesting pumpkin carvings.

Turkey 7.2-magnitude earthquake kills over 200 people

2011-10-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey killing at least 200 people, mostly in the town of Ercis, where hundreds of buildings collapsed, and injuring thousands and many more trapped under the rubble and collapsed concrete structures. Reports say the death toll can be much more as many more people are trapped inside collapsed buildings.

Cries of panic, horror and sorrow filled the air, while people were running for cover as entire apartments and office buildings collapsed to the ground. The survivors were the first to start the rescue work, some digging the rubble looking for relatives and neighbors, and even some people were trying to reach the trapped people using their bare hands to move the rubble, desperately hoping to rescue the trapped people.

The devastating earthquake shook the Van province of eastern Turkey on Sunday, affecting a large geographical area, such as Ağrı, Batman, Bingöl, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Iğdır, Mardin, Muş, Şanlıurfa, Siirt, Şırnak and Tunceli.

According to the US Geological Survey, the powerful earthquake with its epicenter 16km north-east of Van province of eastern Turkey struck at 13:41 (10:41 GMT) at a depth of 20km (12.4 miles).

Many buildings including houses, offices and other structures collapsed to the ground in Van and the neighboring provinces, and the tremors shook and cracked buildings and other structures in the city of Chaldoran in the neighboring Iran and Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

Rescue operations continue throughout the region, while the area was hit by numerous aftershocks. The rescue workers are yet to reach many outlying villages.

Women wearing Gomesi at a wedding in Kampala, Uganda

2011-10-15T17:39:00.001-07:00

The Women, a photo by sarahemcc on Flickr.

The Gomesi (or Busuuti), a colorful long dress made of silk, cotton or linen fabric, is the national costume of women in Uganda. According to historians, Christian missionaries who owned and ran schools in Uganda hired Indian tailors to design the dress for schoolgirls. The first such Gomesi dresses were made for schoolgirls in Gayaza, Uganda, in the 1940s.

An ethnic group native to Buganda, the Baganda (or the Ganda/ Muganda), were the first African people to wear this dress. It is now worn as traditional dress by other ethnic peoples also in Uganda.

The Gomesi is a floor-length dress made of brightly colored cloth, and usually has a square neckline and puffed sleeves. Gomesis are usually made of cotton or linen. A Gomesi made of silk is very expensive (the traditional Ugandan clothing used to be made from bark cloth). For stitching a Gomesi about six meters of cloth is required.

Though the Gomesi can be worn for any occasion and it is the daily dress in rural areas, people of cities wear it on special occasions such as funerals and weddings. It is mandatory for all female members of the groom's family to wear Gomesi during the wedding introduction ceremony known as the Kwanjula.

Young Malaysian woman wearing a hijab

2011-10-11T00:14:00.001-07:00

Just been C41: Laugh Out Loud, a photo by anuarsalleh on Flickr.

Dan Shechtman won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for quasicrystal discovery

2011-10-06T02:14:00.000-07:00

Source: Photo Dan Shechtman - Photo Gallery. Nobelprize.org. 6 Oct 2011

Quasicrystals: Dr Dan Shechtman's Nobel Prize winning work was for his discovery of the structure of quasicrystals. This image shows the atomic model of an Ag-Al quasicrystal (Silver-Aluminium alloy crystal) as observed by the Nobel laureate under an electron microscope.

The Israeli scientist Dr Daniel Shechtman from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, won the2011 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of the mosaic-like structure of quasicrystals. The Nobel laureate will receive the entire prize money - Swedish kronor (SEK) 10 million (£940,000) - according to The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Dr Daniel Shechtman, born in 1941 in Tel Aviv, Israel, is a distinguished Professor of Materials Science, The Philip Tobias Chair, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, Professor of Materials Science at Iowa State University and Associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory.

On 8 April 1982, while he was at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., Dr Shechtman (Ph.D., 1972, from Technion, Israel) discovered the icosahedral phase that led to the discovery of quasiperiodic crystals. At first, he himself was surprised at the image he viewed under his electron microscope because it was counter to the then known laws of nature and the scientifically approved concepts on the atomic structure of matter. However, the head of Dr Shechtman’s research lab was not impressed with his findings and told him that what he was saying was ‘impossible’, and for defending his findings, Dan Shechtman was asked to leave his research team. He returned to Israel where he published his discovery of quasicrystals.

The established concepts of science and most scientists did not initially approve of Dr Shechtman’s findings. So, he had to face ridicule and hostility for many years to come because of his non-periodic interpretation of crystalline matter. However, after publication of his report, many scientists from around the world reported that they too observed similar crystalline structures. Gradually, his continued battle forced the other scientists too to fundamentally change their concept of the nature of matter (and eventually, quasicrystals were called ‘Shechtmanite’ in his honor).

Dr Shechtman created quasicrystals by rapidly cooling molten metal alloys such as aluminium (Al) and manganese (Mn). As a result, under his electron microscope he observed that the newly formed crystals were made up of perfectly ordered, but non-repeating, atomic structural units, unlike the established theory that all crystals are structurally regular and repeating. Dr Shechtman himself was reported to have yelled in Hebrew, "Eyn chaya kazo", which literally translates to "there can be no such creature".

However, quasiperiodical structures have been known to exist for a long time, from ancient times. For instance, scientists explain Shechtman's quasicrystals in terms of the ‘golden ratio’, a concept that has its roots in art and mathematics (as it appeared in geometry), and that attracted the attention of mathematicians in Ancient Greece. Similarly, the ratio of distances between atoms is related to the ‘golden mean’ in the case of quasicrystals.

Interestingly, shapes and patterns, as observed by Dr Shechtman, can be found in the fascinating medieval Islamic mosaics in Spain where the tiles that decorate the floors and walls of the Alhambra Palace are mathematically regular but never repeat themselves. Similar aperiodic mosaics can also be found in the Shrine of Darb-e Imam, a funerary complex built in 1453 and located in the Dardasht quarter of Isfahan, Iran.

Quasicrystals may form naturally as evidenced in a sample of minerals (containing zinc or iron) collected from a Russian river in 2009. The discovery of such aperiodic crystalline materials eventually brought about a fundamental change in crystallography too, as in 1991 the International Union of Crystallography amended the definition of crystals to allow for the ordering of crystals to be either periodic or aperiodic.

The first synthesized quasicrystalline materials were unstable thermodynamically, because, when heated they changed to normal crystals. But in 1987, the first stable quasicrystals were synthesized, followed by hundreds of other quasicrystalline materials developed by other scientists.

Quasicrystal materials are generally very hard, poor conductors of electricity and heat and they are non-sticky. Because of these properties, now Shechtman's quasicrystals are widely used for the development and manufacture of advanced engineering materials.

Some of the areas of the applications of quasicrystalline materials include light-emitting diodes (LED), ultra-fine needles for eye surgery, the most durable steel used in fine instrumentation and razor blades, development of improved diesel engines, coatings for frying pans and other nonstick utensils, insulating materials for electrical wires, and many more.

African Elephants (Loxodonta africana)

2011-07-03T01:46:00.000-07:00

Photo: African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) herd in Kenya

African elephants are species of elephants in the genus Loxodonta of the family Elephantidae. They developed in the middle Pliocene in Africa where they are found in the wild now.

Being larger than Asian elephants, the African elephant males weigh between 5000 kg and 6000 kg (about 10,000 to 13,330 lb), and stand up to 4 meter (13 feet) tall at shoulder level, while the females are much smaller in overall size than the males.

Elephant tusks are their transformed teeth (the second set of incisors) weighing from 23 kg to 45 kg (51 to 99 lb) and can grow up to 2.5 meter (about 8 feet) long. Both male and female African elephants have tusks, in contrast to Asian elephants the females of which do not have tusks. Inside their mouths, elephants have four molars weighing about 5 kg (11 lb) each. Elephants replace their teeth six times in their lives and by 40 to 60 years of age they lose all their teeth with no further growth of teeth, making them vulnerable to starvation and death.

Currently there are two species of African elephants: the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana), and the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis), the latter previously being considered as a subspecies of the former. The extinct species Loxodonta adaurora is believed to be the ancestor of the modern African elephants. The North African elephant, a subspecies named Loxodonta africana pharaoensis that inhabited the area north of the Sahara from the Atlas Mountains (extending through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) to Ethiopia, became extinct some decades after the Roman conquest of North Africa in the 2nd century BC. Two other extinct species are Loxodonta atlantica and Loxodonta exaptata.

Because of commonly occurring interbreeding or natural hybridization among African Elephants, often bush elephants and forest elephants look similar but on closer observation they can be distinguished from one another. The African forest elephant has straighter and downward tusks and rounder ears and they are considerably smaller size than bush elephant that normally has four toenails on the front foot and three toenails on the hind foot. In contrast, the African forest elephant normally has five toenails on the front foot and four toenails on the hind foot like the Asian elephant.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assesses the two species of African elephants as a vulnerable species because of their fast decline in population because of indiscriminate killing of elephants for ivory during the 20th century. In the decade prior to the international ban on ivory trade in 1990, the African elephant population was over 1.3 million which dwindled to around 600,000 by 1990. Despite the governmental protection of elephants, unchecked poaching for illegal ivory trade still devastates elephant populations in many parts of Africa. Often, elephant tusk ivory is illegally traded for arms and ammunition by militants and illegitimate regimes, thereby causing heavy human casualties, political instabilities and huge economic setbacks in some regions.

Bronze Age battle site found on Tollense River bank in Germany

2011-05-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Since 1997, the region named Tollensetal (the Tollense valley) in northern Germany started attracting the attention of Anthropologists, historians and evolutionary scientists after several reports appeared in German media about the findings of fossil remains of several humans, horses, and weapons dating from around 1200 BC, typical of the Bronze Age.

The 68-km-long Tollense River is in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northeastern Germany, and it is a tributary of the Peene, joining it at Demmin. Tollense originates from Lake Tollensesee in Neubrandenburg.

The earlier reported cases were mostly giving the impression of what was presumed to be a ‘Tollense massacre’. The reported cases gave way to further research and excavations that unearthed fragmented remains of about 100 human bodies, mostly of young men, as well as horse fossils.

But it is now estimated that about 200 people died there, probably, in a battle in the valley around 1250 BC and it would have been a major battle in Bronze Age Germany, considering the area was scarcely populated during that era. Several badly fractured skulls found there indicated serious head injuries that resulted in violent deaths, indicative of battle scenes. Though reports of more findings are coming in, the full facts remain yet to be unearthed.

A research paper was published in the journal Antiquity on the human and other fossils found at the Tollense Valley site of about two square kilometers. The findings were based on evidences received from both ground excavations and surveys conducted on the riverbed by divers.

What is baffling the researchers is the presence of human fossils on the river bed that suggests that either the deaths have occurred on the river banks or nearby areas and the bodies were dumped on to the river, or more logically, the bodies were dumped into the river upstream from where the river carried the bodies down and buried the remains under sand and silt that in the course of time got fossilized. So, fixing the exact spot where the presumed battle or massacre took place is more important.

It is highly unlikely that the battle or massacre took place on the planes or the valley where the remains got buried, because the river has not changed its course and started flowing through such an area.

Archaeological excavations brought out various human and other fossil remains such as bones of various parts of the skeletal system, fractured skulls, wooden clubs, sharpened stone arrowheads and remains of horses.

Normally such bones and other fossils are found on burial grounds, but the archaeologists found no such items associated with burials such as pottery, ornaments, constructed structures or paved grounds. No signs of any burial rituals were found and the positions of the bodies also showed the bodies were not buried, but people and horses were killed and left there in the same positions they fell on the ground.

According to the researchers, the fractured skulls show evidences of deep facial and skull injuries suggestive of close face-to-face fighting, possibly between warring tribes, or even distant invaders. The injuries found on skulls included serious head injuries caused by massive blows with blunt weapons, wooden clubs or inflicted with blunt arrowheads.

But yet another evidence that negates the possibility of inter-tribe battles is the evidence of a millet diet found among the human body remains. The fact that millet diet was not typical of Northern Germany of the period around 1250 BC can suggest the presence of invaders in the presumed battle. Similarly the bronze pins styled on Silesian designs found there were suggestive of the locals contact with the Silesian region that lies about 400 km to the south-east of the Tollensetal.

Archaeological findings from the beginning of the Neolithic period from Talheim in Germany show evidences of violence, but it is quite different from the evidence found in the Tollense Valley where several human beings’ fossils were excavated from under the riverbed.

The presence of wooden clubs, Flintstone arrowheads, and other wooden weaponry discovered at Tollense valley are not typical Bronze Age weapons, though they are dated so, but it also suggests that the culture and technology of the involved tribes were not as advanced as the typical Bronze Age people.

Yoga: a woman performing handstand on beach sand

2011-02-24T16:58:00.001-08:00

Handstand, originally uploaded by jodygunderson.

Handstand is similar to inverted Yoga poses such as Headstand (called Sirshasana and spelt sometimes as Sirsasana or Shirshasana) and Forearm Balance, and it is felt to be a bit difficult to practice for those who want to master Yoga through crash courses, or online courses that promise Yoga training for health, fitness and beauty.

The main problem a Yoga beginner can face is the fear of tumbling down or breaking necks. But under a trained Yoga teacher it can easily be learned within a few days.

This pose is sometimes referred to as Hasta Sirshasana (Shirshasana performed on hands, instead of standing on head), and even as Adho Mukha Svanasana (downward-facing dog pose), and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (downward-facing tree pose). In capoeira it is named bananeira.

There are some forms of this pose practiced in athletic activities such as gymnastics, acrobatics, acro dance, and even cheerleading. Even break-dancers perform handstands in freezes and kicks. Armstand dives that can be seen found in competitive platform diving begin with handstands.

In whatever form it is performed, or by whatever name called, handstands are very good for fitness and health, as it reverses blood flow and energizes the entire body. It also makes the upper part of the body, including the brain and sensory organs perform better.

Tree sculpture at the Fremont Fair

2010-12-14T23:56:00.001-08:00

Scary Tree at the Fremont Fair, originally uploaded by RicoBozo.

This is a wonderful tree-sculpture, in fact one of the rarest natural form of art I have ever seen. As you can see, there is the least chisel work, or intrusion in the domain of nature's beauty, excepting on the eyes and possibly nose. But that too is limited to the extent it is needed to bring out the real expression that was already carved by nature!

Eunuchs of India

2010-12-12T05:24:00.000-08:00

According to National Geographic, “in India, nearly half a million people live as eunuchs, not man or woman, but considered an entirely separate gender.” Watch this video to know more about their customs, lifestyles and livelihoods.

The Homeless in Japan

2010-12-11T14:35:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by Jesslee Cuizon.

The author of this photo says, "This is what most people don’t know about Japan... Homelessness was largely unknown in Japan until the economic bubble burst in the early 1990s and unemployment began to...". Well, the first and foremost thing that comes to mind as and when I come across the name Japan or anything related to Japan is the idea that it is a country of prosperity, a land of one of the most enterprising people in the world, etc.

Also, Japan fares far better than most developed economies in the world, as per most economic performance indexes I have read. Now this photo and the note below it shows a different picture. But I do not think it is very common or directly related to the developmental levels of Japanese economy. It may refer to other problems like personal reasons, and some uncared areas of state social security measures.

Video: How the world searched with Google's 2010 Zeitgeist

2010-12-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

Here above is a video report on how the world searched in 2010, incorporating some of the clips and images of the most gripping, eye-catching events of the year 2010. The video has the song ‘Good Life’ by OneRepublic.

Google Zeitgeist site: Google Zeitgeist

Tree House

2010-12-03T14:15:00.001-08:00

I often read ads and promotional material on tree houses that are built and maintained, complete with amenities as provided in hotels or rest houses, often to attract tourists or other people who want to spend some time in natural settings. Whenever I read these, I remember stories told by people of my grandfathers’ age about how they had similar experiences living on trees, whenever they visited forest areas where people either lived permanently or made temporary shelters while on hunting trips. The purpose of such tree houses used to be protection from wild animals, and other factors that made living on the ground difficult.

The ideal setting for a tree house is building a suitable place for living among the branches of big trees, at heights that are easy to climb up and down, and stairs or ladders were attached for climbing. Though documented, accurate information on tree houses is hard to be found, it has to be believed that tree houses existed on almost all parts of the world for many reasons, just like caves used to be the first dwelling units of humans in the early stages of evolution of Homo sapiens. In the modern times, tree houses are used for recreation or as temporary retreats. Houses built on stilts or props are very commonly used in areas that are flooded seasonally, or in low-lying areas such as the deltas of rivers. The Korowai, a Papuan tribe in Irian Jaya, live in tree houses that can be at heights of nearly 40 meters or about 130 feet high for protection against a tribe of neighboring head-hunters, the Citak.

Because of commercialization of tree houses, in some countries, there are regulations on building tree houses. But they are given many exemptions from most of the building laws and regulations, as they are not considered buildings in the normal sense of the word. There can also be regulations in view of protecting the natural habitats, and from the point of view of environmental issues.

There are many businesses in Europe and the United States specializing in the construction of tree houses of various degrees of permanence and sophistication, ranging from children's playhouses to full-fledged functional homes. Since the 1990, recreational tree houses have become popular in countries such as the United States and some European countries.

There are also some famous, functional tree house hotels, built with living trees as structural elements. One of the examples of such hotels is the Costa Rica Tree House in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica. Others are the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park (Kenya), the Ariau Towers (near Manaus, Brazil on the Rio Negro in the Amazon) and Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos, Turkey.

The History of String Bikini

2010-12-02T01:55:00.000-08:00

According to some incredulously fallible people who claim the title of historians, the history of bikini is many times more in volume than the history of the Second World War, or the history of the United States, or even the history of evolution of Homo sapiens. They stake this dubious claim quoting the availability and huge volume of photographs, literature, news and gossip on scantily clad celebrities lazing on nudists’ beaches, etc. on internet alone put together make up more than the volume of all histories taken together! Whatever that may mean, it makes interesting reading that deserves some thinking for the non-thinkers.

Anyway, as the picture above shows one of the best possible photos of a resting or sleeping woman in this celebrated attire that can contribute significantly to climate change, if everyone starts dressing like this, let us concentrate on the central issue, which is the string bikini. By the way, remember that you have to keep your shoes, high-heeled footwear, etc. in place even when sleeping so that you do not fall short of the high-fashion quotient.

To get to the real structural aspects of string bikinis, they essentially are made up of two triangles (of cloth, textile, or even transparent plastic sheet). Smaller the triangles, the higher your personal fashion rating. To hold the scanty triangles (possibly an attempt to outsmart cubism made popular by masters of modern art, such as Pablo Picasso), you just need some strings or threads to hold the triangles on the desired or undesired places. By the way, some antagonists of modern fashion claim that there is an undercurrent of conspiracy between the designers, bikini protagonists, naturists and the bigwigs of hair-removal products manufacture.

Some other experts claim that string bikinis are not the invention of the great fashion designers, but it was invented accidentally. Once, when the Brazilian fashion model Rose de Primallio tried to sew together a bikini, the fabric was woefully insufficient and she had no time to procure sufficient fabric or a ready-to-wear bikini. She just made two triangles, tied them together with some strings and put them on for an urgent pre-commissioned photo-shoot. And thus the string bikini was born.

However, the credit for the first formal presentation of string bikini was claimed unceremoniously by public relations agent Glen Tororich. Incidentally, his wife and fashion model Brandi Perret-DuJon was to appear for the opening of Le Petite Centre, a shopping area in the French Quarter of the New Orleans, Louisiana in 1974. The couple was on a high of inspiration as they saw a picture of a Rio de Janeiro fashion model in an issue of Women's Wear Daily. So, they conspired with a local fashion designer Lapin to create a string bikini for the event. Then the models recruited by the talent agent Peter Dasigner presented the string-bikinis by removing fur coats by Alberto Lemon on stage.

The show created a strong storm in the cerebrum and nearby areas of the genus known as journalists, and local television stations and even the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper. As a result pictures and news were sent out via the wire news services of the Associated Press and United Press International. Within no time the string bikini became the biggest fashion invention of all times, till then. And to this day, string bikinis are one of the most popular variations of bikini, bikini historians claim.

Bell Pepper

2010-11-29T07:45:00.001-08:00

94 - Poivron, originally uploaded by Sara in Montréal.

Bell pepper or sweet pepper belongs to the species Capsicum annuum (chili pepper), known by various other names such as sweet pepper, chili, capsicum, pepper, green pepper, paprika, groene paprika, gele paprika, poivron, piment, etc. Strangely, in the Ohio Valley, people sometimes refer to bell peppers as mangoes, because bell peppers were sometimes pickled, as when mango was imported to the American colonies in the 1600s any fruits which were pickled were called ‘mangoes’.

Cultivars of bell pepper produce fruits in different colors, including green, yellow, orange, red, purple, rainbow (between stages of ripening) and even white (rarely). Bell pepper is often consumed unripe when the fruit is still green, or used in salads.

Peppers are native to Mexico, and Central American and northern South American countries. Later pepper seeds were carried to Spain in 1493 and from there peppers spread to the rest of Europe, and African and Asian countries. Even now Mexico is one of the major pepper producers in the world.

The name ‘pepper’ (pimiento in Spanish) is, in fact, a misnomer, which was given by Christopher Columbus when he brought it to Europe. At that time peppercorns (Piper nigrum or black pepper), originating from India, were a highly priced condiment, and the name ‘pepper’ was used in Europe for all spices with a hot and pungent taste. So the newly discovered Capsicum genus also received the dubious name, though the innocent bell pepper has zero ‘heat’.

When it comes to ‘heat’, the hottest capsicum in the world is the Naga Jolokia (aka Bhut Jolokia, ghost chili, etc.), an interspecific hybrid of Capsicum frutescens and Capsicum chinense, mainly found in northeastern India and Bangladesh. In 2007, Guinness World Records certified the Naga Jolokia as the world's hottest chili pepper, 401.5 times hotter than Tabasco sauce.

The heat of peppers is measured on the Scoville Scale. In 2005, at the New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute, Professor Paul Bosland found that Bhut Jolokia grown from seed in southern New Mexico to have a Scoville rating of 1,001,304 units, while pure capsaicin (the chemical responsible for the heat) rates at 15,000,000 to 16,000,000 Scoville units.

Bell peppers are botanically fruits, but they are generally considered vegetables in common, culinary parlance. Though bell pepper is a member of the Capsicum genus, it is the only Capsicum that does not produce capsaicin, the lipophilic chemical that causes the ‘heat’ or burning sensation when it comes in contact with mucous membranes.

Green bell peppers are less sweet or slightly bitter than red, yellow or orange peppers. Also, compared to green peppers, red peppers have more vitamins and nutrients and contain the antioxidant lycopene. Carotene, another antioxidant in bell peppers, is nine times higher in red peppers, and red peppers have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers.

According to the USDA nutrient database, nutritional value per 100 g (gram or 3.5 oz) of bell peppers (sweet, green raw) is: energy - 84 kJ (20 kcal), carbohydrates - 4.64 g, sugars - 2.4 g, dietary fiber - 1.7 g, fat - 0.17 g, protein - 0.86 g, thiamine (vitamin B1) - 0.057 mg, riboflavin (vitamin B2) - 0.028 mg, niacin (vitamin B3) - 0.480 mg, pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) - 0.099 mg, vitamin B6 - 0.224 mg, folate (vitamin B9) - 10 μg, vitamin C - 80.4 mg, calcium-10 mg, iron - 0.34 mg, magnesium - 10 mg, phosphorus - 20 mg, potassium - 175 mg, and zinc - 0.13 mg.

Sea bass served in Ko Chang, Thailand

2010-11-14T04:56:00.001-08:00

Sea bass in plum sauce is a delicacy in Ko Chang, the second largest island of Thailand and the largest island in the Ko Chang Marine Park archipelago. Ko Chang is located on the Thai east coast, 310 km away from Bangkok near the border with Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. It is a very popular tourist destination and renowned for sea food delicacies.

The name ‘bass’ is shared by many species of popular game fishes, both freshwater and marine species, all belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes. The temperate basses, such as the striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and white bass (M. chrysops) belong to the family Moronidae. The black basses, such as the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), spotted bass (M. punctulatus), Guadalupe bass (M. treculii) and smallmouth bass (M. dolomieu) belong to the sunfish family Centrarchidae.

Other species of fishes known as basses include the Australian bass (Macquaria novemaculeata) of the temperate perch family Percichthyidae; the black sea bass (Centropristis striata) of the family Serranidae; the giant sea bass or the black sea bass (Stereolepis gigas) of the wreckfish family Polyprionidae; the Chilean sea bass or the Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) of the cod ice fish family Nototheniidae; and the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a member of the temperate bass family Moronidae.

As the name Ko Chang means Elephant Island, the island's attraction for tourists include trekking on the backs of domesticated elephants. But, local legends claim that Ko Chang was named for the elephant shape of its headland, although elephants are not indigenous to the island. The mountainous island is also known for several waterfalls, thriving coral reefs and rainforests.

Local food items are more or less similar to the rest of Thailand, and there are many restaurants at the beach. Ko Chang’s restaurants specialize in seafood, and the island also produces its own variety of fruity wines such as mangosteen, pineapple and grape wines. Also on offer are Thai cooking courses that the visitors can learn from experienced chefs. Thai cuisine chefs can teach to cook all their favorite dishes such as tom yum kung, sweet green curry and chicken with cashew nuts.

Hyperion, the world's tallest living tree

2010-11-11T21:09:00.000-08:00

Hyperion, a coast redwood tree (Sequoia sempervirens) in the Redwood National Park, Northern California, has been reported to measure 115.61 meters (379.3 feet), ranking it as the world's tallest known living tree. To reaffirm its status as the world’s tallest tree, in 2006, Stephen C. Sillett (STEVE STILLET, seen in the video), the botanist specializing in old growth forest canopies, verified its height as 115.55 meters (379.1 feet) by climbing on top of the tree and actually measuring its height.

The previous record-holder, as the tallest tree in the world, was Stratosphere Giant, another Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood) in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which is 112.83 meters (370.5 feet) tall. There are many other trees which are of the same height as Stratosphere Giant in the forest, and two other trees in this forest were found to be taller than Stratosphere Giant as well.

On August 25, 2006, naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor discovered the Hyperion in a remote area of the Redwood National Park. The tree is estimated to contain 502 cubic meters (18,600 cubic feet) of wood, and its estimated age is roughly 700 to 800 years.

However, Hyperion is not the largest known coast redwood tree, which distinction belongs to the Lost Monarch tree, another Coast Redwood tree located in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California. It is confirmed to be at least 26 feet (7.9 meter) in diameter and 320 feet (98 meter) in height. The Lost Monarch was discovered on May 11, 1998, by Stephen C. Sillett, and Michael Taylor.

Howard Carter and King Tutankhamen's tomb

2010-11-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

This video is a first-person account of the greatest archaeological discovery of all time, the discovery of Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb.

Views from Tutankhamen's tomb

2010-11-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun was relatively unknown until 1923 when the British Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered his tomb near the entrance to the entrance to the tomb of Ramses VI. Carter was the first person to enter it and to find the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen. Though the tomb had been robbed at least twice in antiquity, still it was otherwise intact. Tutankhamen is the most reported, filmed and exhibited Pharaoh of all other Egyptian Pharaohs (Kings).

The Largest Snake: Guinness World Records 2011

2010-11-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

This unusual video shows an active snake and a range of its behavior including swimming and climbing, and it shows Fluffy, the longest snake, instantly attacking, coiling and engulfing its prey. Her strike is surgically precise and she coils exactly around the body and neck of her prey, the video shows. The video also shows her keeper being interviewed.

According to the 2011 Guinness World Records book, Fluffy, the reticulated python from the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, USA, is the longest snake in captivity, with a recorded length of 24 feet (7.3m).

Python reticulatus, or P. reticulatus, also known as the ‘Asiatic reticulated python’ is a species of pythons found in Southeast Asia - from the Nicobar Islands (India), Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Indo-Australian Archipelago (Sumatra, Mentawai Islands, Natuna Islands, Borneo, Sulawesi, Java, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores, Timor, Maluku, Tanimbar Islands) to the Philippines (Basilan, Bohol, Cebu, Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Palawan, Panay, Polillo, Samar, Tawi-Tawi). Pythons are ambush predators, they can swim, climb trees, and can unhinge their jaws very wide to engulf a very large prey.

Fluffy, is a Python reticulatus female, recorded as the world's largest exhibited snake, and the 24-feet long, 15-year-old snake weighs 300 pounds. Jack Hannah of the Columbus zoo has taken Fluffy on the David Letterman show, where Hanna said that Fluffy could grow to 30-40 feet long, and live till 50 years old, according to the producers of this video.

The Largest Pythons, Anacondas and Giant Spiders

2010-11-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

View some of the largest and heaviest snakes - pythons and anacondas - and of course a few giant spiders in the world in this video

Evolution of denim jeans as a casual fashion wear

2010-11-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

It was quite sometime ago that I read an article about Jeans and Denims and how they originated. As now Jeans have substantially progressed from a rough workers’ wear to a high-fashion staple of any modern wardrobe, and after studying the colors, fitting and styling of the Jeans worn by the three girls above, I thought of refreshing my knowledge about this ‘wonderful fashion statement’. And I share with you what I little Jeans/Denim knowledge picked up from various sources.

Denim is ‘a rugged cotton twill textile, in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads’. The word Jeans is derived from the French phrase ‘bleu de Gênes’, which literally means ‘the blue of Genoa’. The word ‘Denim’ originated independently in two places: (1) the French town of Nîmes, from which 'denim' (de Nîmes) gets its name, and (2) from Dongari Killa in India from which the word 'dungarees' came from. (In the beginning of the 20th century, Denim trousers were known as dungarees).

Denim trousers, first made in Chieri, a town near Turin, during the Renaissance, were sold through the harbor of Genoa, a city and an important seaport in northern Italy. In those times, the Genoese Navy sailors required tough trousers while swabbing the deck and the Denim fulfilled this need.

During World War II, Jeans were simply sturdy trousers worn by workers in factories. Classic, old photographs show that before they became a staple of fashion, Jeans generally were worn quite loosely. It can also be seen that until 1960, Levi Strauss called its flagship product ‘waist overalls’, and not Jeans.

From the beginning of the 20th Century, Jeans (then known as dungarees) became part of the official working uniform of the United States Navy. The same type of uniforms, consisting of Jeans and chambray tops, were issued to prisoners as uniforms because they were considered suitable for the rugged manual labor carried out by American prison inmates.

During 1950s, after James Dean wore Jeans in the movie ‘Rebel without a cause’, wearing jeans by youngsters became a symbol of youth rebellion, because of which Jeans were sometimes banned in theaters, restaurants and schools. In the 60s, wearing Jeans became more acceptable, and in the seventies it had become a common fashion in the United States. Through the 1980's and 1990's Jeans became more and more popular, and the popularity of Jeans continued to grow till now.

In its evolution as a fashionable casual wear, Jeans underwent many innovations in styling, fitting and designing and manufacturing. In the transition from a ‘loose fitting overall’ to the tight-fitting fashion clothing, the rough, tough material posed some fitting problems, especially for females. The introduction of ‘Stretch Denim’ solved this problem, by giving women wearing them a look as if they just have ‘bodypainting’ emulating Jeans. To achieve this effect, Stretch Denim blends an elastic component (such as elastane) into the fabric. A small percentage of it in Denim, as low as 3%, allows a stretch capacity of around 15% to the fabric.

Be wise, don't play with firecrackers

2010-10-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

Photo: Be wise, don't play with firecrackers – a vintage poster warning of the dangers of playing with firecrackers, showing the face of a boy with an injured eye issued by the Department of Health, New York City in 1936 or 1937.

Photo: Small consumer firework, an example of a firework in California, July 4 2008

In the case of fireworks or firecrackers, though fireworks competitions are also regularly held at a number of places, individualized bursting of firecrackers are common throughout the world, especially during festivals. They are integral to many religious and cultural celebrations. Fireworks are used mainly for the primary effects of noise, light, smoke, and floating materials to enrich the festive occasions. It may be by creating colored flames and sparks, in addition to the noises, for example sounds of explosions.

As a natural outcome of the invention of gunpowder by the Chinese, fireworks were also invented in ancient China in the 12th century, and used them ‘to scare away evil spirits’. Extensive use of fireworks continues to dominate their important festivities such as the Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. Currently, China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks in the world.

There is no doubt that fireworks add more colour, sound, entertainment and enhance the happiness quotient during festivals, or any occasion worth celebrating, such as even marriage ceremonies, birthdays, winning competitions or matches, etc. But at the same time there are some disturbing factors like very high levels of air and noise pollution, buildings and valuables catching fire, deaths and grievous injuries caused by fireworks, etc., which are regularly reported after most celebrations involving fireworks.

Mainly because of human casualties, many governments publish advisories of do’s and don’ts weeks before some main celebrations. There are many regulations on fireworks, if not complete ban, especially on their production, licensing, storage, transportation, sales, time of the day when fireworks are allowed, including the noise levels in terms of decibels of noise created by fireworks.

In the United States, the laws governing consumer fireworks vary widely from state to state, and from county to county, and dealers generally sell fireworks only to persons over 18 years of age.

In U.K., fireworks cannot be sold to people less than 18 years of age. Also, setting fireworks is not permitted between 11PM and 7 AM, though relaxations are there for some occasions including New Year, Bonfire Night (5 November), the Chinese New Year and Diwali. Also, the Net Explosive Content of a UK firework available to the public is limited to 2 kg. Usage of typical firecracker items such as Jumping Jacks, Strings of Firecrackers, Shell Firing Tubes, Bangers, Mini Rockets, Air Bombs and Bottle Rockets has been banned.

In Australia, though Type 1 fireworks are permitted to be sold to the public, for using anything that has a large explosion or gets airborne, users need to register for a Type 2 License. To some extent, there are restrictions on backyard fireworks, and restrictions based on age (18 years).

In New Zealand, fireworks are available from 2 to 5 November, around Guy Fawke's Day, and firecrackers are allowed to be sold only to those who are 18 years and older. There is no restriction regarding at what time of the day fireworks may be used.

In France, fireworks are traditionally displayed on the eve of Bastille Day (July 14) to commemorate the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille (on July 14, 1789), when every city in France lights up the sky with fireworks, and Paris that offers a memorable spectacle around the Eiffel Tower.

In Chile, manufacture, importation, possession and use of fireworks is prohibited to unauthorized individuals. Only certified firework companies can legally use fireworks. As they are considered a type of explosive, offenders can be tried before courts, though this provision of law is not often used.

In Finland, persons under 18 years haven't been allowed to buy any fireworks since 2009, and safety goggles are required by law during fireworks. Fireworks are allowed on the evening and night of New Year's Eve. With the fire station's permission, fireworks can be used the year round, though in some municipalities of Western Finland fireworks are allowed without a fire station's permission on the last weekend of August.

In Iceland, anyone may purchase and use fireworks for a certain period around New Year's Eve, and the age restrictions differ from place to place, though generally it is around 16. The people of Reykjavík spend enormous sums of money on fireworks and as the midnight approaches on December 31, city is lit up with fireworks displays.

In the Netherlands, fireworks cannot be sold to anyone under the age of 16. It may only be sold during a period of three days before New Year.

In Norway, fireworks can only be purchased and used by people of 18 years or older, and the sale is restricted to a few days before New Year's Eve.

In the Republic of Ireland, fireworks are illegal and possession of fireworks is punishable by huge fines and/or imprisonment. However, around Halloween, a large amount of fireworks are set off, due to easy availability of fireworks from Northern Ireland.

In Sweden, people under 18 years are not allowed to purchase fireworks. The only type of fireworks allowed in Sweden is rockets. Firecracker types are banned since 1 December 2001.

In Switzerland Fireworks are often used on August 1, which is a national celebration.

These are just a few cases of restrictions on fireworks in some countries. The very idea behind the passing of such laws is the personal safety of people using fireworks, the safety of people around them, and the safety of homes and other valuable properties around them.

Careless use of fireworks can set of fires, injure or kill people including the user, and cause severe burns and can cause dismemberment, blindness, deafness, etc., as some of these crackers are as powerful as small explosive devices, or mini bombs. So, be careful during the festivals, and enjoy your celebrations!

The Koch Curve, Fractal Geometry and Nature

2010-10-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

Image: First steps for creating the von Koch curve; notice the parallel corresponding diameters present in the inner rhomboids - JAVA animation created by António Miguel de Campos.

“Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.” - Benoît B. Mandelbrot, in his introduction to The Fractal Geometry of Nature. Mandelbrot, best known as the father of fractal geometry, born on 20 November 1924, spent much of his life living and working in the United States, worked on a wide range of subjects, including mathematical physics and quantitative finance, coined the term ‘fractal’ and described the ‘Mandelbrot set’. Recipient of several reputed awards and recognitions, Mandelbrot died in a hospice in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 14 October 2010 from pancreatic cancer, at the age of 85.

The Koch snowflake (aka Koch curve, von Koch curve, Koch star and Koch island) is a mathematical curve and one of the earliest described fractal curves. It appeared in a 1904 paper titled ‘On a continuous curve without tangents, constructible from elementary geometry’ by the Swedish mathematician Helge von Koch.

The Koch star or Koch curve can be constructed by starting with an equilateral triangle and then replacing the middle one-third of every line segment with a pair of line segments that form an equilateral ‘bump’. The same procedure is performed again on every line segment of the resulting shape. With every iteration like this, the perimeter of the resultant shape increases by one-third of the previous length. If the iterations are extended infinitely, the perimeter will have an infinite length, but the area encompassed by the resulting figure will be finite.

Because the perimeter increases infinitely with every new addition of curves, but the area remains the same, the Koch snowflake and similar constructions are often called ‘Monster Curves’.

The infinite increase in perimeter without any increase in area can be explained with a simple example. Take a piece of paper and measure its four sides and add up to find out the perimeter. Then cut it into two equal parts and measure the lengths of the sides again and find out the perimeters. You will find the total perimeter increases, but the area remains the same. Repeat the process, and with every repetition, though the area remains the same perimeter keeps on increasing.

In the case of construction of the Koch curve (as illustrated in the animated image above), after one iteration, the result is a shape similar to the Star of David. As the process is repeated over and over, the Koch curve is the limit approached, or the final shape, though, the iterations can be repeated endlessly, as the edges become too small (microscopic) to be visible by naked eyes.

The Koch curve has an infinite length because each time the steps above are performed on each line segment, the total length increases by one third and thus the length at the nth step will be (4/3)n of the original triangle’s perimeter. So the fractal dimension is log 4/log 3 ≈ 1.26, greater than the dimension of a line, but less than Peano's space-filling curve.

The final Koch curve is continuous everywhere but the line segment lengths become unidentifiable everywhere. On this concept, several variants of the Koch curve have been designed, using right angles (quadratic), other angles (Césaro) or circles and their extensions to complex designs (Sphereflakes).

The Koch curve is an example of a fractal, ‘a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole’, a property called self-similarity. The origins of fractals can be traced back to mathematical functions expounded by Karl Weierstrass, Georg Cantor and Felix Hausdorff. But the term ‘fractal’ was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 from the Latin root ‘fractus’ meaning ‘broken’ or ‘fractured’.

You can identify many natural objects that are approximately fractals including clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, snow flakes, vegetables (cauliflower and broccoli), and animal coloration patterns (spots or patterns on leopards, snakes, etc.). But not all self-similar objects are fractals, for example, the real line (a straight Euclid’s line).

Fractals have infinite possibilities in arts, designing and in animatronics. Now, fractals can be created using fractal-generating computer software, and all images created by such software are generally called fractals, even though they may not have fractal properties.

Though, the mathematics behind fractals began to take shape in the 17th century when mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz studied recursive self-similarity, in the 1960s, Franco-American mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot started investigating self-similarity in his papers such as, "How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension" (1967).

Approximate fractals are easily found in nature. Examples include clouds, snow flakes, crystals, mountain ranges, lightning, river networks, cauliflower or broccoli, and systems of blood vessels and pulmonary vessels. Coastlines may be loosely considered fractal in nature.

The connection between fractals and leaves are currently being used to determine how much carbon is contained in trees. Cyberneticist Ron Eglash has suggested that fractal-like structures are prevalent in African art and architecture. Such scaling patterns can also be found in African textiles, sculpture, and even cornrow hairstyles.

Applications based on fractals are used in many modern technological developments, including medicine, fractal landscapes, generation of new music, signal and image compression, digital photographic enlargements, seismology, soil mechanics, video games design and computer graphics, fractography and fracture mechanics, fractal antennas, and, T-shirts and other fashion articles (this is not inclusive, but there are many more uses of fractals).

Click HERE to see how simple designs are converted to complex patterns.

Burj Khalifa's design inspired by Hymenocallis flower

2010-10-23T04:18:00.000-07:00

The design of the triple-lobed footprint of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building in downtown Dubai, was inspired by the flower Hymenocallis, according to the design architect, Adrian Smith. According to the structural engineer Bill Baker of SOM, the building's design incorporates cultural and historical elements particular to the region, and based patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture.

The tower has three elements arranged around a central core, and as the height increases, from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiraling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky, and that allows for 27 terraces in Burj Khalifa.

At the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest manmade structure ever built on the earth, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan provides the maximum views of the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the shape of the building also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture.

While designing it, the engineers and architects rotated the building 120 degrees from its original layout to reduce stress from prevailing winds that make the steel and concrete tower sway a total of 1.5 meter (4.9 feet) at its tallest point.

To support the unprecedented height of the building, a new structural system called the buttressed core, which consists of a hexagonal core reinforced by three buttresses that form the ‘Y' shape was developed by the architects so that the system enables the building to support itself laterally and saves it from twisting.

The Burj Khalifa, previously known as Burj Dubai, stands 828 meter (2,717 feet) tall. The construction began on 21 September 2004, the exterior was completed on 1 October 2009, and the building was officially opened on 4 January 2010.

The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill of Chicago, with Adrian Smith as the chief architect, and Bill Baker as chief structural engineer. The total cost for the project was about US$1.5 billion, and the cost for the entire Downtown Dubai development was US$20 billion.

And have a look at the beautiful Hymenocallis flower (photo from the United States Department of Agriculture Website) that inspired the design of the Burj Khalifa.

Principles of Naturopathic Medicine & Natural Healing

2010-10-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a highly useful video on ‘Principles of Naturopathic Medicine and Natural Healing!

Naturopathy, aka naturopathic medicine or natural medicine, an alternative medical treatment system, focuses mainly on natural remedies and the human body's vital natural inbuilt ability to heal itself. It emphasizes on a holistic approach and minimal use of surgery and drugs. The practitioners of this system of medicine are generally known as ‘Naturopaths’.

Naturopathy has its origins in the Natural Cure movement of Europe. The term was coined in 1895 by John Scheel and popularized by Benedict Lust, who is often credited as the ‘father of American naturopathy’.

Naturopathy is practiced in many countries, especially in the United States and Canada, and also in most Asian countries such as India and China, and several African countries. In Asia and Africa of modern times, though there are medical colleges and other institutions educating, training, and standardizing Naturopathy treatment and procedures, there are many naturopathy practitioners who come from families practicing this system of treatment for generations, and trained by experienced practitioners and gurus.

In USA and Canada, the designation of Naturopathic Doctor (ND) or Naturopathic Medical Doctor (NMD) is awarded after completion of a four year program of study at an accredited Naturopathic Medical School. Naturopaths in unregulated jurisdictions may also call themselves Naturopathic Doctors, without any formal, scientific education, and some may be remarkably good doctors, while there can be potent danger in getting treatment from an unaccomplished practitioner. To overcome this problem, and to address the lack of medical facilities, there are licensing Government agencies in such countries.

Unlike most people believe, naturopathic medicine, systems, and treatment need not be in loggerheads with modern medicine/ allopathy. In countries like the United States, there are many top level doctors who are basically qualified and trained in modern medicine, but who also have learned naturopathy and recommend a regimen of both the systems at various stages of their treatment.

In India there is a 5½ year degree course offering a Bachelor of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences (BNYS) degree from about a dozen topmost colleges, in states such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. These colleges and other institutions, controlled by authorized agencies, conduct research, standardize systems and train doctors in the systems of treatment such as Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Naturopathy.

The fury of Typhoon Megi on Philippines, a video report

2010-10-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

In this video, Al Jazeera's Jamela Alindogan reports from Manila, and captures the fury of Super-Typhoon Megi.

After Typhoon Megi hit Philippines on Monday morning as forecasted, a state of calamity has been declared in Isabela Province, as the region is pounded by winds topping 225 kilometers an hour, says this video report.

A few deaths have been already reported, including a political leader who was to contest a forthcoming election. Meanwhile, the Philippines President Benigno Aquino ordered all government agencies to be on high alert to prevent casualties.

Typhoon Megi is expected to head out of Luzon towards the South China Sea on Tuesday. It will grow stronger over the warm waters by Sunday, when it is expected to hit southern China already plagued by floods.

Super-Typhoon Megi hits Philippines

2010-10-17T22:31:00.001-07:00

The Super-Typhoon Megi has hit northern Philippines, lashing the area with heavy rains and winds of more than 225 km/h (140 mph). It is the strongest storm hitting Philippines in the last four years.

As, reported by agencies, thousands of people on the path of the typhoon have already fled their homes. Cagayan and Isabela provinces are on the highest storm alert. Schools in north Philippines were closed on Monday.

Reports say that a man, named as Vicente Decena, a candidate in next week's local elections, in Cagayan was reported missing after he fell into the fast-flowing Buntun River.

Disaster management teams are on high alert, stockpiling food and medicines, and preparing boats and helicopters to rescue people affected by the typhoon. But the authorities are under huge pressure to get their rescue effort right this time.

Super Typhoon Megi heads for Philippines

2010-10-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Various agencies report that thousands of people in the Philippines have fled their homes ahead of the powerful Super Typhoon Megi, which is expected to hit north Philippines early on Monday.

The Philippines government sources said Typhoon Megi, which has winds of up to more than 280 km/h (175 mph), has developed into a ‘super’ typhoon and is expected to slam into the extreme northern Philippines today.

The northern provinces of Cagayan and Isabela are on the highest storm alert. Government sources say waves off the east coast could be greater than 14 meters/ 46 feet.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the US Navy says Megi is expected to weaken intensity as it crosses the Cordillera mountain range. However, it will then reemerge into the South China Sea and re-intensify as it heads for southern China.

Benito Ramos, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said, "Some are still gauging the situation but those who are living in low areas have voluntarily gone to higher ground." He told AFP that thousands of people have already relocated from communities along the Cagayan river system, which had overflowed during previous typhoons.

Trucks, rescue boats and food packs have been pre-positioned near vulnerable areas, said Benito Ramos, adding, "This is like preparing for war… We know the past lessons and we're aiming for zero casualties."

Farmers have been urged to harvest their crops as much as possible before the typhoon hits, because the area in the typhoon’s path is one of the main rice-growing regions of Philippines.

Typhoon Megi can uproot trees, blow away houses constructed of light materials, cause landslides and cause storm surges in coastal areas, according to the Philippines authorities, who began evacuating people from vulnerable areas. They also are warning of heavy rains and high winds that could damage buildings, power supplies and agriculture.

The Philippines President Benigno Aquino has already ordered all government agencies to be on high alert to prevent casualties and the coastguard has been instructed to ban all fishing vessels from setting out to sea in the north.

"The president is reiterating that all agencies concerned should be ready for the approaching super typhoon Juan (Megi)," said Abigail Valte, a deputy spokeswoman for President Aquino. She warned the public against complacency.

In Manila, food packs, medicines and rescue equipments, including rubber boats, were ready in areas expected to be lashed by the typhoon. Additional search and rescue teams from Manila were en route to the north to bolster forces there.

In July, President Benigno Aquino sacked the head of the weather bureau after he failed to predict a typhoon that unexpectedly changed course and hit Manila, killing more than 100 people.

In 2006, a storm with winds of 155 km/h triggered mudslides, burying villages and killing about 1,000 people in Philippines.

The typhoon is expected to hit China, and it will be the country's strongest typhoon this year, and prompting the weather agency to issue its second-highest level of alert, Xinhua news agency reported.

China has already warned its vessels to take shelter in ports and urged local authorities to prepare for emergencies caused by winds and rains, the Xinhua report said.

Girl posing with a python on her shoulders

2010-10-13T17:31:00.001-07:00

Jessica and friend-by-dr33139, originally uploaded by dr33139.

Pythons made great BREAKING NEWS type headlines in the last decade with reported deaths attributable to them, deaths that could have been avoided if the owners of the pythons knew enough about them. In recent years pythons have been introduced to pet trade and can be bought from traders in many countries.

There are some interesting cases quoted by David Chiszar, Hobart M. Smith, Albert Petkus and Joseph Dougherty in an article published in the Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society, recounting the death that occurred July 1993, in “A Fatal Attack on a Teenage Boy by a Captive Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus) in Colorado”.

A15-year-old boy, 1.52 meter tall weighing 43 kg, while in bed was bitten on the right instep. His hand had several tooth marks indicating that he tried to pry open the snake's jaws from around the instep. The article said as follows:

“Autopsy photographs revealed scleral ecchymotic hemorrhage, and venous congestion in the cerebrum (petechial and ecchymotic hemorrhage both present), all being signs of agonal breathing consistent with a diagnosis of suffocation as a cause of death. No attempt was made during autopsy to distinguish between suffocation and circulatory arrest (Hardy, 1993) as causes of death; however, in subsequent correspondence the pathologist hypothesized that circulatory arrest would more likely be the cause of death of smaller prey, whereas suffocation would be more likely with larger victims. Although blood was present on the victim's face, hands arms and legs, there was no blood present on the neck or on the middle of the torso, suggesting that the snake's coils had been wrapped around this area. Bruising of the victim's skin, consistent with this hypothesis, was visible in the photographs. There was no evidence that the snake had attempted to swallow any part of the victim.”

The female snake, which was 3.36 meter/ 11 feet 2 inches long weighing 24 kg, had not been fed for 10 days. It had been raised since hatching by a close relative of the victim, and it had the freedom to move about the house.

It is well-known that pythons and other snakes that are constrictors will sometimes attack the prey that cannot be ingested in whole easily, and “the most significant point to emerge from this Colorado case is the fact that a 24kg python, modest in size by comparison with full grown specimens of this and several other species, was able to kill a healthy 43kg adolescent human”.

Interestingly, most people rearing pythons and other constrictors just do not know how big their snakes will grow, and override common sense. Several snake-owners and ill-educated pet store owners recommend Burmese as "good starter snakes".

The authors of the article quote the case of a woman whose infant niece was killed by a pet python, and another case of a young man who, while sleeping at a friend's house, was awakened by the friend's Burmese python that was trying to wrapping itself around him. When he had gone to bed, the snake was on the top of the refrigerator, and its owner did not want to disturb it by caging it.

The authors observe, “…no matter how tame and friendly the snake, it is and always will be a wild animal, and as such, subject to what appears to the owner to be unpredictable behavior… hunger, fear, unease and other factors can trigger instinctual behaviors”.

Meditating Buddha at Bodh Gaya

2010-10-04T09:18:00.001-07:00

Meditating Budha in Bodh Gaya, Was HE doing it under Hot Sun?, originally uploaded by Sunciti_Sundaram.

Photo: The giant marble statue of Buddha in deep meditation at Bodh Gaya. For more info about the photo and the photographer, click on the photo.

Birds' Nest Soup

2010-10-02T14:24:00.001-07:00

Birds' Nest Soup as served in Yokohama Chinatown, Yokohama, Japan.

These are caves on the rocks where birds like swifts make their nests. The scaffolds are setup to go to the caves and collect the birds’ nests. The nest-pickers earn very good amount of money from their harvest of nests that are used to make Birds’ Nest Soup.

Birds’ Nest Soup is a delicacy in Chinese cuisine, prepared from nests of some species of swift, especially the cave swifts or swiftlets. These are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans.

Hong Kong, China and USA are the largest importers of Birds’ Nests. In Hong Kong a bowl of Birds’ Nest Soup would cost US$30 to US$100. A kilogram of white Birds’ Nest cost up to US$2,000 and a kilogram of ‘red blood’ Birds’ Nest up to US$10,000.

Commonly consumed Birds’ Nests are from White Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) and the Black Nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus maximus). These nests are rich in nutrients believed to provide health benefits such as aiding digestion, raising libido, improving the voice, alleviating asthma, improving focus and improved immune system.

Birds’ Nests are composed of interwoven strands of salivary laminae cement that have high levels of calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium. When dissolved in water the Birds’ Nests have a gelatinous texture useful for soups. The nests are often served simmered in chicken broth.

Swiftlets or cave swifts are mostly endemic to southern Asia, south Pacific islands, and northeastern Australia. Birds’ Nests were earlier harvested from caves, mainly limestone caves at Gomantong and Niah in Borneo, Indonesia, and now in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand (see picture above). The high increase in demand since the late 1990s has encouraged creating purpose-built nesting houses for swifts.

The nutritional value of 100 gram of dry Birds’ Nest includes 49.9 gram of water-soluble protein, 30.6 gram carbohydrate, 4.9 gram iron, 2.5 gram mineral salts (salts of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, phosphorus, silica and trace elements), and 1.4 gram of dietary fiber. The calorific value is 345 kcal/ 100 gram of Birds’ Nest.

James Bond Island (Khao Phing Kan)

2010-10-02T11:17:00.001-07:00

Khao Phing Kan (or Ko Khao Phing Kan), popularly known as James Bond Island, is a two-island pair on the west coast of Thailand in the Phang Nga Bay, Andaman Sea. Ko Tapu (or Khao Tapu), a 20 meters (66 feet) tall islet, lies about 40 meters (130 feet) from the shores of Khao Phing Kan. The island is a part of the Ao Phang Nga National Park in Thailand.

Ko Tapu can be literally translated as ‘nail’ or ‘spike’ island, reminiscent of its shape. After the James Bond (Roger Moore) movie ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ was filmed here, Khao Phing Kan, and often Ko Tapu, became famous as James Bond Island in tourism literature, and the original names are rarely used by the local Thais.

Before 1974 Khao Phing Kan Island was rarely visited, even by local people. However, it was chosen as one of the locations for ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ as the hideout for Bond’s antagonist Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). The island was filmed as a personal island of Scaramanga with his home built there and living lavishly drawing enormous sums of money to carry out high profile assassinations.

After ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ was released, the island became a very popular tourist destination. In 1981, James Bond Island became the most famous part of the newly established Ao Phang Nga Marine National Park.

Khao Phing Kan island is located in the north-western part of the Phang Nga Bay, about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from mainland Thailand, amidst a group of a dozen of other islands. The island has a few caves and two sandy beaches, on the south western part and between the twin islands. Bay waters around the island are very shallow.

Ko Tapu islet is a limestone rock with its diameter increasing from about 4 meters (13 feet) near the water level to about 8 meters (26 feet) at the top.

In the Permian period, the area was a barrier reef that ruptured due to tectonic plate movements, and its parts were dispersed over the area and flooded by the raising ocean. Winds, waves, water currents and tides gradually eroded them forming the islands, sometimes producing peculiar shapes, such as Ko Tapu. Erosion by tides is visible at the bottom of Ko Tapu.

James Bond Island has tropical marine climate. The temperature varies between 23 °C (73 °F) and 32 °C (90 °F) and the average relative humidity is 83%. Most of the island is covered with deciduous limestone shrub land and evergreen trees. Some plants, such as pandanus, cycads, euphorbs and prickly pear cactus grow on cliffs, such as those of Ko Tapu.

The bay around the island hosts many species of reptiles, fishes, shrimp, crabs, manta rays, sharks and game fish. Most fishes are typical of coral reefs. There are more than 100 species of birds in the area such as Striated Heron, Pacific Reef Heron, Little Egret and others.

Love Hormone Oxytocin Can Cure Shyness

2010-10-01T14:11:00.000-07:00

A team of scientists, whose research is published in Psychological Science, have discovered that Oxytocin could help cure shyness, though it makes no difference to confident persons. The chemical dubbed as “Love Hormone" is known to increase empathy and bonding. The new finding might help those with severe social deficiencies, often apparent in conditions like autism.

The hormone Oxytocin is a peptide of nine amino acids (a nonapeptide), with the sequence: cys - tyr - ile - gln - asn - cys - pro - leu - gly - NH2 (CYIQNCPLG-NH2), very similar in structure as vasopressin. Oxytocin and vasopressin were first isolated and synthesized by Vincent du Vigneaud, in 1953, for which he was honored with the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1955.

A team of researchers at Israel's Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment and Columbia University were examining whether the hormone Oxytocin, which occurs naturally in the body could, make people more understanding of other persons.

They conducted a test of 27 healthy adult men, giving them the hormone or a placebo via a nasal spray and then asking them to perform an 'empathic accuracy task' which measures their powers of reading the thoughts and feelings of others.

While more socially comfortable participants performed well on the empathetic task regardless of whether they were on Oxytocin or placebo, less socially proficient participants performed significantly better on Oxytocin.

Prof Jennifer Bartz of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine said, "Oxytocin is widely believed to make all people more empathetic and understanding of others. Our study contradicts that. Instead, Oxytocin appears to be helpful only for those who are less socially proficient. Our data show that Oxytocin selectively improves social cognition in people who are less socially proficient, but had little impact on more socially proficient individuals.”

Prof Jennifer Bartz added further, "While more research is required, these results highlight the potential Oxytocin holds for treating social deficits in people with disorders marked by deficits in social functioning like autism."

Oxytocin, also known as alpha-hypophamine (α–hypophamine), is a hormone that acts primarily as a neurotransmitter in the brain. Oxytocin is best known for its roles in sexual reproduction. It is released in large amounts after distension of the cervix and vagina during labor, and after stimulation of the nipples, facilitating birth and breastfeeding.

Some recent studies were conducted to investigate Oxytocin’s role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, pair bonding, anxiety, and maternal behaviors. For this reason, Oxytocin is often called "Cuddle Hormone" or “Love Hormone”.

The actions of Oxytocin are mediated by specific, high affinity Oxytocin receptors. The Oxytocin receptor is a G-protein-coupled receptor which requires Mg2+ and cholesterol.

In breastfeeding mothers, Oxytocin stimulates the mammary glands in the breasts, causing milk to be 'let down' into subareolar sinuses, from where it can be excreted via the nipples. Oxytocin release during breastfeeding causes mild but often painful uterine contractions during the first weeks of lactation. This also helps the uterus in clotting the placental attachment point postpartum.

Two earlier studies have found increases in plasma Oxytocin at orgasm, in both men and women. Plasma Oxytocin levels are notably increased during self-stimulated orgasm and are still higher than baseline when measured five minutes after self-arousal.

In a study that measured Oxytocin serum levels in women before and after sexual stimulation the author suggested that Oxytocin serves an important role in sexual arousal, and found that genital tract stimulation resulted in increased Oxytocin levels immediately after orgasm.

Another study reports that increases of Oxytocin during sexual arousal could be in response to nipples/ areola, genital, and/ or genital tract stimulation. A more recent study on men found an increase in plasma Oxytocin immediately after orgasm.

However, more studies have been done to examine sexual arousal in women compared to men. Women experience longer orgasms compared to men and have a more complex reproductive endocrine system with phases such as, menstruation, pregnancy, lactation and menopause.

Oxytocin also creates feelings of contentment, anxiety reductions, and calmness and security around a mate. In order to reach full orgasm, it is necessary that brain regions associated with behavioral control, fear and anxiety are deactivated well before mating. There is a positive correlation between Oxytocin plasma levels and an anxiety scale measuring the adult romantic attachment, studies show.

It has been noticed that Oxytocin injected into the cerebrospinal fluid causes spontaneous erections in rats. Centrally administrated Oxytocin receptor antagonists can prevent non-contact erections, which is a measure of sexual arousal.

The drug MDMA (ecstasy) may also increase feelings of love and empathy to others by stimulating Oxytocin activity via activation of serotonin 5-HT1A receptors. The anxiolytic Buspar (buspirone) also appears to produce some or all of its effect via 5-HT1A receptor-induced Oxytocin stimulation.

Oxytocin is destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract. So it must be administered by injection or as nasal spray. Oxytocin has a half-life of typically about three minutes in the blood. Oxytocin given intravenously does not enter the brain in significant quantities because it is excluded from the brain by the blood-brain barrier.

Synthetic Oxytocin is sold as proprietary medication under the trade names Pitocin and Syntocinon, and also as generic Oxytocin. Oxytocin is relatively safe when used at recommended doses.

Excessive dosage or long term administration, over a period of 24 hours or longer, have been known to result in tetanic uterine contractions, uterine rupture, postpartum hemorrhage and water intoxication, sometimes fatal.

Oxytocin can be administered to bovine animals in order to increase the production of dairy milk. Also reports have emerged about serious misuses of the ‘Love Hormone’ Oxytocin.

Recently, there were reports that hundreds of girls are being kidnapped from across India and brought to some villages (Sodhawas and Geerwar) in the Alwar District of Rajasthan, where they are administered oxytocin injections to hasten their puberty and pushed into prostitution.

Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid verdict delivered by Allahabad High Court

2010-09-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

Video report on the verdict of the Allahabad High Court on the much-awaited Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid case.

A Psychic Image: Perforated

2010-09-24T01:58:00.001-07:00

Perforated, originally uploaded by Alesa Dam.

This is one of the best Psychic Images I have seen on Flickr. Either move the image up and down and watch it, or concentrate on it for a few seconds. The image is capable of inducing psychedelic or psychic illusions in you. Concentrate a bit longer on the image, it can cause mood swings in you. If you feel listless and devoid of concentration, try images like these. Depending on the image, it can either improve your mental condition or depress you.

Similar images can induce hypnotic effects, as described by Dr. Franz Mesmer, or a similar effect induced by animal magnetism, which is the essence of hypnotizing anyone.

German physician and astrologist Franz Mesmer (1734-1815), known for his theories of animal magnetism (magnétisme animal), which is generally termed as mesmerism, and other spiritual forces, is highly regarded by scholars and scientists studying the psychic phenomena. Mesmer was criticized too for some of his unorthodox practices in treatment of patients, and volunteers for his experiments on animal magnetism.

Franz Mesmer found only one physician of high professional and social standing, Charles d'Eslon, to become a disciple, who encouraged Mesmer to write an 88-page book “Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal” to which he appended his famous 27 Propositions.

Franz Mesmer’s ‘27 Propositions’ outlined his theory on animal magnetism at that time. According to d'Eslon, “Mesmer understood health as the free flow of the process of life through thousands of channels in our bodies. Illness was caused by obstacles to this flow. Overcoming these obstacles and restoring flow produced crises, which restored health. When Nature failed to do this spontaneously, contact with a conductor of animal magnetism was a necessary and sufficient remedy. Mesmer aimed to aid or provoke the efforts of Nature. To cure an insane person, for example, involved causing a fit of madness. The advantage of magnetism involved accelerating such crises without danger”.

Among Franz Mesmer's followers was Armand-Marc-Jacques Chastenet, Marquis de Puységur (1751-1825), the inventor of ‘artificial somnambulism’. In his early writings, Mesmer used a way of exposing his ideas similar to the way of ancient alchemists. He sees three basic elements: God, Energy (movement), Matter (on the top left in the guide), analog to Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, (Soul, spirit and body) of the alchemists.

Franz Mesmer used symbols and images to represent his concepts, over 100 images in a text sometimes, making it difficult to read without a guide to the symbols. The idea behind it is that images are the basis for a true understanding while instead words can lead to many different and opposite meanings.

Franz Mesmer’s influence on popular culture of the present times can be seen in the multiplayer online role-playing game series “Guild Wars featuring a profession called the Mesmer, which focuses on illusion and hypnotic spells. Also, a magical ability in Artemis Fowl series of novels is named after Mesmer.

Look at the image below showing Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the film Devdas. The image has been placed in the middle of a circle of rose flowers. This image too has the illusion of the circle turning when moved up, down or any side, though the images are stationary. Concentric circles are known to produce hypnotic effect on the onlooker.

Indian faces by Geographic location

2010-09-23T16:08:00.001-07:00

Typical Indian faces by Geographic location, originally uploaded by Comparison38.

Indo-Aryan girl compared with a Dravidian girl

2010-09-23T15:57:00.001-07:00

pakistani indo-aryan girl compared with a dravidian south indian girl , originally uploaded by Comparison38.

Esti Ginzburg models with a cobra

2010-09-23T00:12:00.001-07:00

And now watch Esti Ginzburg shooting in India and listen to her experience about India on video

The SI Swimsuit 2010 models Hilary Rhoda, Esti Ginzburg, Sonia Dara and Julie Ordon travelled to India, most importantly to the exotic and historical locations in Rajasthan for some of the most beautiful location shootings for Sports Illustrated 2010 issue. They had a wonderful time in India as the celebrated international fashion and lingerie models themselves explain in various video clips as the one above featuring Esti Ginzburg.

As one may expect, the 20-year-old Tel Aviv born Israeli model Esti Ginzburg posed in various Indian locations, with Indian Rajasthani women, the dreaded and highly poisonous Indian black cobra, caparisoned Indian elephant, with camels in the deserts of Jaisalmer (part of the Thar Desert), travelled in funny looking but highly functional three-wheeler auto rickshaw and it seems the SI team found the Indian Ambassador car the right choice for some of the shoots. (Interestingly, the auto rickshaw, also known as tuk-tuk, trishaw, autorick, mototaxi, or baby taxi in popular parlance, a motorized version of the traditional rickshaw or velotaxi, can be found in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Guatemala, Peru, Ethiopia, Sudan, and in some parts of Egypt).

The Indian cobra (or Naja naja), one of the Big Four member which is responsible for causing the most snakebites cases in India, is a species of venomous snakes found in Indian subcontinent. This cobra snake is revered in Indian mythology and culture. It can be often seen with snake charmers. The cobra that Esti Ginzburg puts around her neck as if it is a toy, probably, is provided by snake charmers who either might have removed its poison fangs or sewed its mouth allowing only the tongue to come out through the special slit present in the closed mouths of snakes. The members of the Big Four (poisonous snakes) are the Indian cobra (Naja naja, probably the most famous of all Indian snakes), Common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), Russell's viper (Daboia russelii), and the Saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus).

The Indian state of Rajasthan is very popular with western tourists, especially international celebrities, supermodels, Hollywood stars, etc. The state encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert). Jaipur, a major tourist attraction is the capital and the largest city of the state. Every third foreign tourist visiting India also travels to Rajasthan as it is part of the Golden Triangle for tourists visiting India. Endowed with natural beauty and a great history, and the historical palaces of Jaipur, lakes of Udaipur, and desert forts of Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer as well as many old and neglected palaces and forts now converted into heritage hotels, the state also attracts celebrities from the world around for film shoots, photo-commercial ad shoots and also for spending some of their most memorable vacations.

The most sought after geographical features and tourist destinations include Jaipur (famous for its rich history and royal architecture), Jodhpur (fortress-city famous for its blue homes and architecture), Udaipur (the ‘Venice of India’), Jaisalmer (for its golden fortress, hawelis and some of the oldest Jain Temples), Bikaner (hawelis, palaces and temples), Mount Abu (highest peak in the Aravalli Range, famous for the 11th century Dilwara Jain Temples), Pushkar (has the first and one of the very few Lord Brahma temples in the world), Ranakpur (large Jain Temple complex with 1444 pillars and exquisite marble carvings), Nathdwara (temple of Shrinathji), Ranthambore (one of the largest and most famous national parks in India), Shekhawati (100 to 300 years old frescoed havelis) and Barmer (a perfect picture of typical Rajasthani villages).

Geographical distribution of human races

2010-09-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

Map of distribution of human races by Thomas Huxley, roughly drawn based on "On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind", Journal of the Ethnological Society of London (1870)

1: Bushmen

2: Negroes

3: Negritoes

4: Melanochroi

5: Australoids

6: Xanthochroi

7: Polynesians

8: Mongoloids A

8: Mongoloids B

8: Mongoloids C

9: Esquimaux

1. Bushmen

Bushmen are the indigenous people of southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Angola. They are also known by many other names including San, Sho, Basarwa, Kung and or Khwe. Bushmen were hunter-gatherers belonging to the Khoisan ethnic group and also they are related to the pastoral ethic group Khoikhoi. Due to the increased risks associated with their traditional professions of hinting and gathering, and as a result of implementation of modernization programs and technological developments, from the 1950s through the 1990s, the Bushmen switched to farming and other occupations. The Bushmen are an important human race from the point of view of anthropological research, as they have provided a wealth of information for the fields of anthropology and genetics. A study of African genetic diversity completed in 2009 found that the San people were among the five populations with the highest measured levels of genetic diversity among the 121 distinct African populations used as samples for the studies.

2. Negroes

Negroes from the point of view of anthropology, as it was used in the earlier periods, refer to the Negroid race, one of the three great races, further divided into subtypes, the black people of sub-Saharan Africa. The concept of the Negroid race originated with the method of racial classification and is still used by many anthropologists such as physical anthropologists working in the forensic field of craniofacial anthropometry.

The term has its roots in the Latin word niger (black) and in the modern usage, the term is associated with the indigenous peoples of central and southern Africa. According to Ashley Montagu, the neotenous structural traits in Negroids are characterized by flattish nose, flat root of the nose, narrower ears, narrower joints, frontal skull eminences, later closure of premaxillary sutures, less hairy, longer eyelashes, and cruciform pattern of second and third molars.

The term Negroid is commonly associated with notions of racial typology, and its usage is discouraged, as it is potentially offensive. Even so, the term ‘Negroid’ is still used in disciplines such as craniometry, epidemiology and forensic archaeology.

3. Negritoes

Negritoes are several ethnic groups spread over isolated packets all across Southeast Asia, consisting of 12 Andamanese tribes (mostly in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India), 6 Semang tribes (Malaysia), the Mani tribe (Thailand), and the Aeta, Agta, Ati and 30 other tribes of the Philippines, though earlier reports mentioned their presence in Borneo.

In physical features Negritos resemble the African pygmies including short stature, natural afro-hair texture and dark skin. They are quite separated from Asians indicating that they are either the surviving descendants of an early migration out of Africa or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans.

Negritoes are the least known of all human races on whose origins, there is much debate. Their features suggest a common origin for the Negritos and African pygmies, especially in the Andamanese tribes who have long been isolated from Asiatic and Indo-Aryan peoples, as no other living human population has experienced such long-lasting isolation from contact with other groups.

Typical Negrito features include short stature, very dark skin, woolly hair, scant body hair and occasional steatopygia (very large accumulation of fat in the buttock area, especially in females).

4. Melanochroi/ Mediterranean race

The Melanochroi/ Mediterranean race is one of the three sub-categories into which the Caucasian race and the peoples of Europe were classified by anthropologists, the others being Nordic and Alpine. They were prevalent in southern Europe, parts of Eastern Europe, most of North Africa, Northeast Africa, West Asia and parts of South Asia and in parts of Wales. They are characterized by moderate to short stature, long (dolichocephalic) or moderate (mesocephalic) skull, aquiline nose, dark hair, dark eyes and olive complexion.

In scientific debates on classification of distinct races, in 1870, Thomas Huxley argued that there were four basic racial categories, Xanthocroic, Mongoloid, Australoid and Negroid.

According to Huxley, “On the south and west this type comes into contact and mixes with the "Melanochroi" or "dark whites"... In these regions are found, more or less mixed with Xanthochroi and Mongoloids, and extending to a greater or less distance into the conterminous Xanthochroic, Mongoloid, Negroid, and Australoid areas, the men whom I have termed Melanochroi, or dark whites. Under its best form this type is exhibited by many Irishmen, Welshmen, and Bretons, by Spaniards, South Italians, Greeks, South Slavics, Armenians, Arabs, and high-caste Brahmins...I am much disposed to think that the Melanochroi are the result of an intermixture between the Xanthochroi and the Australoids. It is to the Xanthochroi and Melanochroi, taken together, that the absurd denomination of "Caucasian" is usually applied.”

By the end of the nineteenth century Huxley's Xanthocroic group was reclassified as the Nordic race and his Melanochroi became the Mediterranean race.

5. Australoids

The Australoid race is a broad racial classification. The concept originated with a typological method of racial classification. They were described as having dark skin with wavy hair, in the case of Aboriginal Australians, or hair ranging from straight to kinky in the case of Papuan, Melanesian and Negrito groups.

Australoid peoples ranged throughout Australia, New Guinea, and Melanesia, as well as different parts of Oceania, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and the Southern Middle East. In the mid-twentieth century an argument emerged that Australoids were linked to proto-Caucasoids.

The ancestors of the Australoids, the Proto-Australoids are thought to have been the first branch off from the Proto-Capoids to migrate from Africa about 60,000 BCE, migrating along the now submerged continental shelf of the northern shore of the Indian Ocean and reaching Australia about 50,000 BCE.

Huxley's original model included populations in India. Some scholars still use the term Australoid denote the small populations, mainly in India and Sri Lanka, usually associated with Veddas.

R S Balgir in Spectrum of hemoglobinopathies in the state of Orissa, India: A ten years cohort study designates tribes as Australoid or Proto-Australoid according to language family as below:

“It may be mentioned here that the major scheduled tribes of Orissa belong to three linguistic groups, namely, Indo-Aryan or Indo-Europeans, i.e. Non-Australoid, Austro-Asiatic (Mundari) speakers, i.e. Proto-Australoid, and Dravidian (Gondi or Kuvi) speakers, i.e. Australoid. Proto-Australoid racial group includes Bhumiz, Gadaba, Juang, Kharia, Koda, Kolha, Mahali, Mirdha, Munda, Santal and Saora tribes. Tribes like Bathudi, Bhatra, Binjhal, Bhuyan, Lodha and Saunti belong to non-Australoid racial stock while Australoid racial stock is represented by Gond, Kondh, Kissan, Oraon, Paraja and Pentia Halva tribes.

Australoids have the largest brow ridges with moderate to large supraorbital arches, their hair is usually silky, black and wavy, they usually have large, heavy jaws and prognathism, and their skin is the color of chocolate and the irises are dark brown or black.

6. Xanthochroi

Xanthochroi, as described by Thomas Huxley, are the “white people” (also Caucasian) and they are characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin. The term White also is used as a color term for race, a common definition for a white person being a person of primarily European ancestry. Various social constructions of whiteness have had implications in terms of national identity, consanguinity, religion, population statistics, racial segregation, public policy, affirmative action, eugenics, racial marginalization and racial quotas. The term “white” has been used in disciplines including sociology, biology, medicine, biomedicine, politics, genetics, language, culture and law.

7. Polynesians

Polynesians or the Pacific Islanders, also known as Pacific People or Oceanics, describe the Austronesian inhabitants of the three major sub-regions of Oceania consisting of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. Some examples of the ethnic groups that would be considered Pacific Islanders are the indigenous peoples of Hawaii, the Marianas, Samoans, Guamanian, Chamoru, Tahitians, Mariana Islanders, and Chuukese. But the inhabitants of the islands and regions such as Russia’s Kuril Islands, Alaska's Aleutian Islands, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia are not included in this group of people. The classification seems to be more geographical and political rather than related to the development of ethnic races or evolution of human races or Homo sapiens.

8 A & B. Mongoloids

The terms Mongoloid and Mongolic are used to describe people of East Asian, North Asian and Native American origin, and have their origin from the word Mongol. The term is regarded by many people as potentially offensive. The usage may have originated by referring to the Mongol people of East Asia who invaded much of Eurasia during the 13th century and established the Mongol Empire.

Thomas Huxley used the term Mongoloid to include American Indians as well as Arctic Native Americans, apart from its general connotation. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (The Vedic Age, Vol. 1, S. Roma Krishnan, India 1962) identifies Northeast Indian Mongoloids to be a sub race called the Paleo-Mongoloid, being the dominant element in the tribes living in Assam, Sikkim, Mizoram, Bhutan, Nepal, and the Tibetan mongoloids.

In 1999 Peter Brown evaluated three sites with early East Asian modern human skeletal remains -- Liujiang, Liuzhou, Guangxi, China; Shandingdong Man of (but not Peking Man) Zhoukoudian's Upper Cave; and Minatogawa in Okinawa -- dated to between 10,175 to 33,200 years ago. A 2006 study of linkage disequilibrium finds that northern populations in East Asia started to expand in number between 22,000 and 34,000 thousand years ago.

The physical features of the Proto-Mongoloid were characterized as, a straight-haired type, medium in complexion, jaw protrusion, nose-breadth, and inclining probably to round-headedness.

8 C. Mongoloids C

What was classified as Mongoloids C are the indigenous peoples of the Americas who are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants, and many other ethnic groups, often also referred to as Native Americans, Aboriginals, First Nations, Indians (because of the historic mistake of Christopher Columbus, now disambiguated as the American Indian race), American Indians, Amerindians, Amerinds or Red Indians.

A migration of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The most recent point at which this migration could have taken place is 12,000 years ago. These early Paleo-Indians spread throughout North America and South America, and diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.

Several parts of the Americas are still populated by the original, indigenous Americans. Countries such as Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Ecuador, have sizable populations of these Indigenous peoples. About a thousand different indigenous languages are spoken by these Americans. Some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western society, and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples or lost tribes.

9. Esquimaux

Esquimaux or Eskimos are the indigenous peoples who inhabited the circumpolar region spanning from eastern Siberia (Russia), Alaska (United States), Canada and Greenland. Two main groups are referred to as Eskimos, Yupik and Inuit, and the Aleut, a third group, is related to Esquimaux.

The earliest known Eskimo cultures were Pre-Dorset Technology, a fully developed Eskimo culture that dates to 5,000 years ago. They evolved in Alaska from people using the Arctic small tool tradition, who had possibly migrated to Alaska from Siberia at least 2,000 to 3,000 years earlier, though they might have been in Alaska as far back as 10,000 to 18,000 years, as some tools and artifacts found in Siberia dating back to 18,000 indicate.

The word Eskimo is considered derogatory because it means "eaters of raw meat." In 1977, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference meeting in Barrow, Alaska, officially adopted Inuit as a designation for all circumpolar native peoples, regardless of their local view on an appropriate term.

Earth quake in New Delhi

2010-09-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

It was about a minute ago that I felt that my chair and table were being rocked by someone! I had the doubt that there it could be a minor quake! I just pulled back my legs from the footrest of my computer table to see if I was rocking myself. I felt the rocking again. Then I watched the telephone wire that was hanging near my computer. It was also swinging and swaying. Well, it was a quake, but a minor one.

Cheeky monkey taunts tigers

2010-09-16T10:46:00.000-07:00

Watch this video of a gibbon taunting tiger cubs. This video has attracted over 3.4 million viwers from July 24, 2006 and it is one of the best wild life videos on the web.

Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno)

2010-09-06T11:36:00.001-07:00

A male Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno), photo taken at San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica at the Quetzal Education Research Station operated by the the Biology Department of Southern Nazarene University, Bethany Oklahoma. It is perched atop the branch of an aguacatillo, a wild avocado tree (lauraceae) which has plenty of its favorite food.

Ethiopia : Hamar women waiting for bull jumping festival

2010-09-04T03:50:00.001-07:00

Ethiopia : Hamar, bull jumping #5, originally uploaded by foto_morgana.

The photo's note says, "Hamar women waiting for dancing and singing before the beginning of the bull jumping ceremony."

Ethiopia: bull of the Hamar Tribe

2010-09-04T03:47:00.001-07:00

Ethiopia : Hamar, bull #1, originally uploaded by foto_morgana.

Quite interesting photo! I have seen thousands of Hamar women whose bodies are decorated like this with a kind of body-piercing. But it is the first time that I see a bull like this. The author of this photo says, "Not only men and women decorate and beautify their bodies. Some bulls are decorated as well and treated like human beings."

Leopard atop a dead tree with its prey

2010-09-04T03:29:00.001-07:00

Raw in tooth and claw ..., originally uploaded by The Renaissance.

This is a photograph from the Kenyan Wildlife Sanctuary Masai Mara taken in August 1987 by this gifted photographer. Apart from the immense patience and courage to follow this BIG WILD cat, the talented photographer has made good use of the early morning sunlight to give the picture a dramatic effect!

Liger, a lion-tiger hybrid

2010-08-26T15:57:00.000-07:00

The Liger (Lion-tiger, species: Panthera leo x Panthera tigris) is a hybrid cross between a lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress (Panthera tigris). It is different from the hybrid tiglon or tigon, a hybrid cross between a tiger and a lioness (Panthera leo).

Ligers inherit characteristics of both lions and tigers. Ligers enjoy swimming which is a characteristic of tigers and are very sociable like lions. Ligers exist only in captivity because the parental species do not overlap naturally in range. Ligers grow as large as both parents put together.

The history of ligers is documented from at least the early 19th century in India. In “Animal Life and the World of Nature” (19021903) A.H. Bryden wrote about lion-tiger hybrids bred by Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913), a merchant of wild animals who supplied animals to many European zoos, and who is considered as the father of the modern zoo. According wrote as follows:

“It has remained for one of the most enterprising collectors and naturalists of our time, Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, not only to breed, but to bring successfully to a healthy maturity, specimens of this rare alliance between those two great and formidable felidae, the lion and tiger. The illustrations will indicate sufficiently how fortunate Mr. Hagenbeck has been in his efforts to produce these hybrids. The oldest and biggest of the animals shown is a hybrid born on the 11th May, 1897. This fine beast, now more than five years old, equals and even excels in his proportions a well-grown lion, measuring as he does from nose tip to tail 10 ft 2 inches in length, and standing only three inches less than 4 ft at the shoulder. A good big lion will weigh about 400 lb… the hybrid in question, weighing as it does no less than 467 lb, is certainly the superior of the most well-grown lions, whether wild-bred or born in a menagerie. This animal shows faint striping and mottling, and, in its characteristics, exhibits strong traces of both its parents. It has a somewhat lion-like head, and the tail is more like that of a lion than of a tiger. On the other hand, it has no trace of mane. It is a huge and very powerful beast.”

I found the above photos on the photo-sharing site Flickr.com and posted them from there. No details about this LIGER, or its trainers or other details were shown there. The only description posted there was Linger "The Tiger Lion Hybrid", which is wrong. It should have been "Liger, The Lion Tiger Hybrid".

Also, it seems the name of the LIGER shown above is Hercules, from Jungle Island, an interactive animal theme park in Miami, and if so, this liger is “the largest non-obese liger, who is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest living cat on Earth, weighing over 410 kg (904 lb)”. And, it seems, the liger's trainer is Dr. Bhagavan Antle, photographed by Andy Carvin at a Renaissance Festival in Massachusetts, USA, on October 2005. CLICK here to view the photo of the liger and its trainer Dr. Bhagavan Antle and read the Wikipedia article on liger by CLICKING HERE.

A python swallowing its prey

2010-08-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

The snake in the picture is a python, most probably a Python reticulatus and the animal being swallowed is a kangaroo, a marsupial endemic to Australia. I found these photos on Flickr with no details. So what I write here is based on my understanding of pythons. The six pictures above show a sequence after the python catching the kangaroo till it is almost swallowed.

Pythons are non-venomous reptiles found generally in Africa, Asia and Australia, and similar types/ species of snakes are found elsewhere too, with about 17 species recognized by zoologists/ scientists. And this particular species of snakes Python reticulatus or Asiatic Reticulated python are generally found in Southeast Asia; Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma) Nicobar Islands (Southern most islands of India), Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Indo-Australian Archipelago and the Philippines.

The adult pythons can grow to over 28 feet (8.7 meters) in length, but they generally are found with a length of 10-20 feet. They are the world's longest snakes and longest reptiles, and like all pythons, they are non-venomous constrictors.

The color pattern of Python reticulatus help them in shadowy jungle environments amid fallen leaves and debris to virtually disappear, their disruptive coloration protects them from predators and helps them to catch their prey. The python lives in rain forests, woodlands, bushes and grasslands, even near farms and residences. It is an excellent swimmer and can easily cross rivers, lakes and even go far out in the sea.

Python reticulatus prey on mammals and birds. Rodents such as rats, Viverridae (civets and binturongs), and even primates and pigs are hunted and swallowed by pythons. Near human habitations, they catch stray chickens, cats and dogs. Among the largest preys, it is known to have been taken a half-starved Sun Bear of 23 kilograms, as well as pigs of more than 60 kg (132 lb).

As a thumb rule, pythons can swallow a prey up to one-fourth of their own length, and up to their own weight. Like other pythons, Python reticulatus are ambush hunters, waiting until the prey wanders within their strike range before seizing it in their coils and killing by constriction.

It is technically possible for a full-grown Python reticulatus to open its jaws wide enough to swallow a human child, teenager, or even a small adult human being. The victim would almost certainly be dead by the time the python starts swallowing the victim.

Santhals of Eastern India

2010-08-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

"This girl in her twenties, most probably married and a mother, just waiting for her call to dance", says Dr. Roy.

Tribal Dance 4: These are Rava's from Cooch Behar in North Bengal.

Tribal Dance 5: Tribal women performing a dance.

Traditional tribal dance for our pleasure by tribal women of Chhattisgarh, India

These are photos by Dr. Pradip Roy, a Physician from Durgapur, West Bengal, India. Dr Roy says, “Tribals are said to be the original and indigenous people of India. There are hundreds of tribal groups. One such is Santhals of Eastern India. Although they are increasingly changing to the mainstream society, still at pockets the culture survives. This was at one such annual festival, where various groups joined to sing and dance for two days. This particular event was held at the foothill of Susunia hill in Bankura District, West Bengal, India.” Yes, he is right. I have visited Dr. Roy’s Flickr site and found wonderful photographic work there.

As Dr. Roy says, with an estimated population of over six million spread mostly over the Indian states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Orissa, mainly, the Santhal (often written as Santal or Sonthal) people have a very rich cultural heritage. They constitute the largest tribal community in India and they have a significant presence in the neighboring Bangladesh, and a small population in Nepal.

Some of the Indian anthropologists believe that humans first came to India about 65000 to 55000 years ago, and they were the ancestors of the tribal people in eastern India. It otherwise indicates that Kols and Mundas also may be the descendants of the first humans that arrived in India; may be after millenniums after the original humans from Africa spread to the rest of the world.

Unlike many other tribal groups of the Indian subcontinent, the Santals have preserved their native language and culture despite waves of migrations and invasions of Aryans, Huns, Mughals, Europeans and others. Santali culture is depicted in the paintings and artworks in the walls of their houses.

Music and dance are integral to Santal culture. Like other Indian ethnic groups, their culture too has been influenced by mainstream Indian culture and by Western culture, but they have not lost their original music, dance and other heritage. The Santal dances and music has the accompaniment of two drums traditionally, the ‘Tamak' and the ‘Tumdah'. The flute is considered the most important Santal music instrument.

Santal dance and music traditionally revolved around Santal religious celebrations. The names of many Santal tunes are derived from the traditional rituals with which they were once associated.

The best thing that I noticed is that the Santal community does not have any caste system and there is no discrimination on the basis of birth. However, Santals believe in supernatural beings and their ancestral spirits, as is common with most tribes all over the world. The commonality in this aspect might have been brought to the respective tribes from the original settlers, most probably spreading from one area to the rest of the world. For instance, Santali rituals consist mainly of sacrificial offerings and invocations to the spirits, or bongas, which might be the same as Bhaga or Bhagavan meaning God.

Albino Pygmy Marmoset baby monkey

2010-08-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

This handout photo made available by Froso Zoo on August 24, 2006, shows the survivor of a pair of albino Pygmy Marmoset monkeys born at Froso Zoo in Ostersund, Sweden. The baby monkey is shown clinging to a zoo keeper's thumb in this photo taken on August 22, 2006. This South American monkey is the world's smallest monkey weighing only 100 to 140 grams when it is fully grown.

The Pygmy Marmoset or Dwarf Monkey (Cebuella pygmaea) is a South American native, found in the rainforests of western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru and northern Bolivia. There are two subspecies of the Pygmy Marmoset: Cebuella pygmaea pygmaea (Western Pygmy Marmoset) and Cebuella pygmaea niveiventris (Eastern Pygmy Marmoset). Pygmy Marmosets live 11 to 12 years in the wild, but in zoos they live up to their early twenties. They often live in families or groups of 2 to 6 members, an adult pair and baby monkeys.

It is the smallest true monkey. Its body length ranges from 14 to 16 centimetres (5.5 to 6.3 in) excluding its tail (15 to 20 centimeters or 5.9 to 7.9 inches). At an average, the male Pygmy Marmoset monkey weighs 140 grams (4.9 oz) and female only 120 grams (4.2 oz). It is also known by nicknames such as ‘mono de bolsillo’ (pocket monkey) and ‘leoncito’ (little lion) because of its very small size.

Adi Minyong Tribal War Dance

2010-08-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

Photo: Adi Minyong Tribal War Dance, usually seen in the seven states, called “The 7 Sisters” of North-East India. These dancers are from Pasighat area of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Adi or Bangni-Bokar Lhoba people are a major tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Nyingchi Prefecture, mostly found in the districts of East Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh in India. Some Adi tribal people are found in Southern parts of Tibet in areas near the Indian border. The word Adi literally means ‘hill’ or ‘mountain top’.

The Adi people celebrate a number of festivals, for instance Solung, a harvest festival performed after the sowing of paddy seeds and transplantation of seedlings in September for five days. Songs and dances, such as the Tapu War Dance, are performed during the festival, and tribal weaponry is displayed along the passage of houses to protect people from evil spirits, as Adi’s believe. Yakjong is another kind of Adi tribal dance in which dancers carry sticks with designs created by removing the barks in certain patterns and seasoning them in fire to create intricate designs.

Various Tribal Cultures

2010-08-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

Tribal Circus at the Medieval Fair 2008: Aerial Acrobatics by Jade of Tribal Circus at the Medieval Fair of Norman Oklahoma USA

Handcrafted Tribal Masks

The note below this image read, "Tribal origins... understanding and respecting our ancestry..." These masks were originally created by the artist and his people from whose Flickr page this is posted here, for their Capoeira opening ceremony performance called ROOTS at the Førde International Folkmusic Festival in Norway last year. "The presentation was a great success as were these masks, which are now being incorporated with AfroBreak's latest dance production called Tribal Union", says the author of this great art.

African Tribal Dance, Togo

2010-08-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

Ugandan woman in Narkawa Market in Kampala

2010-08-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

An Ugandan woman in the Narkawa Market in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

Red beans and other agricultural products on offer in a market in Kampala, Uganda.

Young African woman from Rwenzori Mountains

2010-08-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

Photo of young African woman from the Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda carrying her child tucked to her bosom and carrying agricultural/forest produce for food, fodder and firewood on her back.

The Rwenzori Mountains (Ruwenzori Range or Mt. Rwenzori), a mountain range of central Africa situated on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with heights of up to 5,109 meters (16,761 feet), is permanently snow-capped at its highest altitudes.

Kenyan woman peddling a boat

2010-08-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

A Kenyan woman and her children peddle a boat in a lake in Kenya, Africa. Most women here have been given the responsibility of looking after her children alone. Photo by: Fredrick Onyango

Kenyan women in search of water

2010-08-17T18:39:00.001-07:00

Insearch of Water, originally uploaded by DEMOSH.

Women from the Borana community walk several miles in search of water in the Northern District of Marsabit in Kenya.

Dipo Ceremony of the Krobo tribe of Ghana

2010-08-17T16:47:00.001-07:00

People of the Krobo Tribe, living mainly in the Republic of Ghana in Western Africa, are among the oldest and most famous makers of ground glass beads in Africa. The beads known as Akori or Aggrey are made locally and others are imported from Italy or The Netherlands.

The Dipo Ceremony is celebrated to announce the transformation of girls into womanhood by performing a series of rituals known as Dipo practiced since the eleventh century.

To begin with each girl enters a ritual house, throws away her old clothing of childhood and dresses in new clothes allowed for the ceremony. The next morning they shave their heads, and carry their calabashes to the river for a ritual bathing to cleanse their bodies and spirits. Then the girls are fed a ritual feast prepared by their mothers.

The climax of the Dipo initiation ceremony is called the blessing of Tekpete, a legendary sacred stone which the Krobo people carried down from Krobo Mountain when the British colonial rulers displaced them in the nineteenth century from their ancestral homeland.

The girls are splashed with lime water (Calcium Hydroxide – CaOH dissolved in water) to ward off evil spirits. Then they are carried by their fathers or other relatives after they sit on the sacred stone of virginity. During this test of virginity, if a girl is found not a virgin or found pregnant she will be excommunicated, and no man of Krobo tribe will marry her.

Now the girls are ready for the Outdooring Ceremony during which they will be presented to the community and potential suitors. By the final week of Dipo the girls are trained in dance, music and the subtleties of seduction and special techniques of making love.

The Republic of Ghana is located in West Africa, bordered by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Burkina Faso, Togo, and it has the Gulf of Guinea in the south. Ghana has a population of 24 million people belonging to over 60 ethnic groups/tribes, speaking fifty two major languages and hundreds of dialects, with English as the official language. Ghana has rich traditional cultures, rituals and ceremonies that differ from one ethnic group to the other.

Nepal: Birds and elephant stay away from this tree

2010-08-17T10:34:00.001-07:00

NN-Rupendehi-Birds and Elephant Stay Away from this Tree, originally uploaded by mysansar6.

The note below this photo says in Nepali language, "चरा र हात्ती निशेधित रुख: रुपन्देहि देवदह गाविस ६ मा रहेको अन्दाजी २५ सय वर्षपुरानो पाँकडीको रुख । गौतमवुद्धको मावली इलाकामा रहेको उक्त रुखमा चराहरु वस्तैनन् साथै हात्ती सो रुखको छेउछाउमा समेत नजाने स्थानिय वासी वताउछन । नारायण न्यौपाने रासस". Well I do not understand much of Nepali. Will any one visiting this page tell us more about this tree, and/or what is written in Nepali?

Grand Canyon Skywalk - Video

2010-08-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

The Langkawi Sky Bridge

2010-08-16T20:10:00.001-07:00

The Langkawi Sky Bridge on Gunung Mat Cincang, a marvelous feat of engineering and a perfect harmony between man and nature is suspended at a height of 700 meters above sea level. This unique curved pedestrian bridge spans 125 meters across a spectacular chasm. It allows visitors to literally 'take a walk in the sky' and the view from the bridge is simply breathtaking. The Sky Bridge is one of the worlds highest single support bridges, and offers visitors 360-degree views of the Langkawi Archipelago, the Andaman Sea and Southern Thailand.

The Langkawi Sky Bridge is endorsed by Travel and Leisure Magazine as one of the world's most spectacular bridge designs, as the structure bridge curves harmoniously with the terrain. Access to the Sky Bridge is through an exhilarating 15 minute, 42 degree gradient cable car journey. The cable car and Sky Bridge do not operate when the weather is unfavorable, especially during turbulent winds. When you arrive at the top, you can experience it.

Langkawi Sky Bridge, Malaysia

2010-08-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

The Langkawi Skybridge is located 700 meters above sea level at the peak of Gunung Mat Chinchang on Pulau Langkawi, an island in the Langkawi archipelago in Kedah, Malaysia. The sky-bridge spanning 125 across the mountain peaks, offers spectacular views of the Andaman Sea and Tarutao Island in Thailand.

Platforms at each end of the sky bridge allow the visitors to take a breather before proceeding further ahead. There are signboards warning visitors to get off the bridge quickly in the event of high-speed winds, thunderstorms and lightning (electrical storms).

The Skybridge seems to be inspired by the Grand Canyon Skywalk, near the Colorado River in USA, which is 4,770 feet (1,450 meters) above sea level, but the height of the exactly vertical drop directly under the skywalk is only between 500 feet (150 meters) and 800 feet (240 meters), as the base of it is substantially at a very high altitude.

The last scene of Bollywood Hindi movie, ‘Don - The Chase Begins Again’, directed by Farhan Akhtar and starring Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, Ishaa Koppikar and Kareena Kapoor was filmed here.

A Dubai scene: Culture clash?

2010-08-16T13:59:00.001-07:00

culture clash?, originally uploaded by Makz.

This is a wonderful piece of photo journalism. There are many types of photos that we like to click as our own work and there are some great photos created by other talented photographers that we admire and we like to view again and again. This is one such photo. Because of the religious/cultural customs in the Middle East, especially Emirates like Dubai, the author of this photo commented below the photo:

“I have been trying to capture this image for many years. It's not exactly proper to take photos of conservative female strangers. So it's a little blurred but you get the idea. It's hard to get my head around this seeming dichotomy even though I've been here awhile.”

Now see how the reactions of viewers vary on the same subject:

“This is a great photo; she looks uncomfortable as she is passing by.”

“It’s not a culture clash. As an Emirati woman, I would like to say on behalf of us that, we are still women. We still crave wearing beautiful clothing and lingerie. Just because we do not show it in public, it doesn't mean we are less open to our sexuality as others.”

“A woman should dress in modesty publicly. What is underneath your clothing is the business of your GOD, yourself and your husband.”

“I am a Muslim woman: what we wear underneath our abayas can be anything we want. Those clothes (down to the under-pinning) make us feel special. We CHOOSE our clothes and are not forced to fit into a stereo-type of ultra-skinny, or busty, like most North American girls I go to school with. As a Muslim woman, you are LIBERATED from those stereo-types... You just have to deal with the other stereo-type: people thinking we have no mind or power of our own. LOL”

“Well written… to quote…, "a woman should dress modestly in public". While not strictly enforced, the culture here definitely supports this view. I guess the contradiction for me is the public display of clothes that should be worn (displayed) in private only. Lingerie can even be displayed in a shop window on a busy public street. In this photo, the flaunting display of the product does seem in direct contradiction with the conservative dress of the women on the other side of the display. Personally, this seeming contradiction is one of the many things that help to make this emirate so interesting to live in.”

“There are without a doubt some human rights issues in Dubai, I find it funny how we can liberate Iraq so quickly, but these women are not even allowed to answer their own phones because a male might hear their voice! What does our POTUS do? Nothing! Even though congress under George Bush gave the president rights to activate the military without prior approval from Congress, which strangely enough, the Constitution was suppose to prevent this from happening! Now Obama is in office, he should use these additional rights to free these people as well. It will never happen, we consider Dubai a sovereign nation! They have something we need, and the British would have a ---- fit if we attacked Dubai. Guess what, Iraq was also a sovereign nation.”

“What? Woman in Emirates is not allowed to answer her own phone? Do you KNOW any woman in Emirates? No, because why would we WANT to talk to you? That is a stupid comment. I have a phone. I don't need you to liberate me. We all have phones. We don't talk to men on them because we don't want to talk to good for nothing losers, not because we can't, LOL. Go free somebody else. The women in Emirates run businesses, run in government, own nicer cars and cell phones than YOU DO. LOL. Liberate us. WHAT A JOKE!”

“You Americans still don't have a woman president. You didn't give women the right to vote until these last hundred years. Muslim women have had the right to own property, participate in government, etc. for thousands. Go liberate your own women before you try colonizing people. What you call "freeing someone" I call Imperialism. We cover because we want to. We don't talk to men we don't want to talk to. Get over it.”

These comments are extracted from below the photo. Click on the photo to go to the original photo and comments.

I reproduced the comments here just because some of the views do disturb the minds of the right-thinking people. We have our likes, dislikes, customs, faiths, and many other things that we want to safeguard at any cost. Similarly, others too have their own customs and other things that they want to safeguard as we do. Even in our own neighborhoods, we see mini versions of the larger scenario here. Sometimes we are disturbed too. Still we do not react as openly as we see above. Why? You know the answer. In a society, we have to co-exist, respect others’ customs, if we want respect for ourselves!

Sunset - Salvador Bahia Brasil

2010-08-15T12:55:00.001-07:00

As the day says "bye bye", originally uploaded by Marcela P..

Parrots show LOVE visually

2010-08-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

Wedding dresses of American indigenous tribes

2010-08-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

Photo: North American Bride (A Wishram Bride), 1911, from ‘The North American Indian’ by American photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952).

The Wishram tribe and Wasco tribe are two closely related Chinook Indian Plateau tribes from the Columbia River in Oregon. Today the tribes are part of the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon and Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation in Washington. They share many cultural and historical aspects of the Northwest Coast tribes.

Photo: An Apache Indian bride in wedding dress

The word Apache refers to many culturally and ethnically related groups of Native Americans in the United States, originally from the American Southwest. Apachean peoples earlier inhabited in eastern Arizona, northwestern Mexico, New Mexico, Texas and the southern Great Plains.

The indigenous peoples of the Americas have their own varying traditions related to weddings and their wedding dresses. For instance, the tribes of Northern California, including the Klamath, the Modoc and the Yurok, used to wear traditional bridal dresses in symbolic colors: white for the east, blue for the south, yellow or orange for the west, and black for the north. Turquoise and silver jewelry were worn by both the bride and the bridegroom in addition to a silver Concho belt. For some tribes, wearing jewelry was considered a shield against evils including hunger, poverty and bad luck.

Old Man of Hoy: first BASE jump off the top by Roger Holmes

2010-08-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

This YouTube video shows the climb to the top and jump off the top of the Old Man of Hoy by Roger Holmes, Gus Hutchinson-Brown and Tim Emmett.

BBC Radio Orkney announced on 16 May 2008 that the first BASE jump from the top of The Old Man of Hoy was performed by Roger Holmes, Gus Hutchinson-Brown and Tim Emmett. It took over three years of planning and training to perform the jump.

The Old Man of Hoy is a 449 feet (137 meters) high sea stack of red sandstone, a typical rock formation, perched on a plinth of Igneous Basalt rock. It is situated near Rackwick Bay on the west coast of the island of Hoy, in the Orkney Islands, Scotland.

The Old Man of Hoy is not so old, as it is believed to be less than 400 years old. It is also felt that the rock structure resembling a standing man may not last much older, as there are indications that it may soon collapse, as in the case of another rock formation, The Old Man of the Mountain on Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA, collapsed on May 3, 2003.

The Old Man of the Mountain (USA), also known as the Great Stone Face, was a series of five granite cliff ledges and the rock formation was 1,200 feet (370 meters) above Profile Lake, located in the town of Franconia. Unlike The Old Man of Hoy, its timeline is pegged from 17th millennium BC to 6th millennium BC.

The Old Man of Hoy of Scotland was first climbed in 1966 by Chris Bonington, Rusty Baillie and Tom Patey in three days. On 8-9 July 1967 an ascent was featured in a live BBC broadcast, featuring three pairs of climbers - Bonington and Patey repeated their original route, while two new lines were climbed by Joe Brown and Ian McNaught-Davis, and by Pete Crew and Dougal Haston.

On 8 September 2006, 62-year-old Sir Ranulph Fiennes, accompanied by Sandy Ogilvie and Stephen Venables, climbed the stack in preparation for his proposed climb of the Eiger in the following year.

Unfortunately and sadly, Gus Hutchinson-Brown, one of the climbers seen in the video above, who performed the BASE jump from the top of The Old Man of Hoy, died a month later during another jump in Switzerland.

The cock and the dawn

2010-08-08T07:52:00.000-07:00

The rooster or cock is a polygamous bird. It is said to guard the eggs or nests of its hen, though it cannot guard several nests of eggs at the same time. But it guards the area where its hens are nesting and attacks other cocks that trespass into its territory. It will make distinctive alarm calls if predators are nearby to prey on eggs or young chicks. The cock is said to crow at the break of dawn to announce daybreak from 4 months of age. But there is no scientific evidence for this claim because a cock can and crow at any time of the day.

It may be noted that in areas abundant in birds many species of birds chirp and crow at the break of dawn. It is possibly a natural instinct and it is to alert other birds about the time of the night and to tell them it is time to wake up and to go out in search of food. The same behaviour can be found in many domestic and wild animals, with the possible exclusion of nocturnal animals and birds. Most of them hunt for food mostly in the early hours and when the sun gets hotter they get back to their dens, nests, or shadowy cooler places and rest or sleep.

Ivorian woman, from Abidjan, Ivory Coast

2010-08-05T17:42:00.001-07:00

West Africa, originally uploaded by babasteve.

A large percentage of the adult population of Côte d’Ivoire, in particular women, is illiterate. Many children between 6 and 10 years are not enrolled in school. The majority of students in secondary education are male. At the end of secondary education, students can sit the Baccalaureate examination. The country has many universities, including the University of Côte d'Ivoire.

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, known as Ivory Coast to the English speaking world, has an area of 322,462 km2, and has borders with Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana. Its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population, which was about 15 million in 1998, was estimated to be 20 million in 2009.

Pohutukawa trees at Cornwallis Beach, West Auckland

2010-07-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

Photo of Pohutukawa trees at Cornwallis Beach, West Auckland, New Zealand

Pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa), one of twelve Metrosideros species endemic to New Zealand, is a coastal evergreen tree that produces a brilliant display of red flowers. Renowned for its vibrant colour and its ability to survive in toughest terrains like rocky cliffs, it is associated with spirituality and known for its strength and beauty.

The tree grows up to 20 meters (66 feet) with a dome-like spreading canopy. The Pohutukawa flowers from November to January, with brilliant crimson flowers covering the tree, hence it has got the nickname New Zealand Christmas Tree.

Photo of Pohutukawa tree with genetically drifted yellow flowers

For trees growing in isolation, a genetic drift has resulted in local variations, as the trees around the Rotorua lakes that produce pink-shaded flowers, and the yellow-flowered cultivar ‘Aurea’ that descends from a pair of trees discovered in 1940 on Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty.

The Pohutukawa has been introduced to other countries with mild-to-warm climates, including south-eastern Australia and getting naturalized on coastal cliffs in the Sydney Region. In coastal California it is a popular lawn tree, while in South Africa Pohutukawa grows vigorously like an invasive species and specimens of the tree occur in Spain as north as La Coruña.

Hot Water Beach, Coromandel, New Zealand

2010-07-25T13:34:00.001-07:00

Hot Water Beach, Coromandel, originally uploaded by Feijaple.

Corpse Flower blooms in Tokyo

2010-07-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

Photo: The aging inflorescence of Amorphophallus titanum in the United States Botanic Garden, Washington DC. The staff decided to donate the inflorescence to the National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Museum’s National Museum of Natural History for continued public display it as a scientific specimen – photo taken on July 25, 2003.

Now it is the turn of the visitors in Tokyo to queue up for a view of the Corpse Flower that emanates the stench of the rotten corpses, after the rare flower made news of its blooming in Berkley and Houston. The rare flower standing at more than 5 feet (1.52 m) tall has bloomed after a gap of about 20 years, attracting thousands of visitors to a botanical garden in Tokyo, Japan.

The plant, Amorphophallus titanum, is known by various names such as Titan arum, Carrion Flower, Corpse Flower, bunga bangkai, etc. (in Indonesian, bunga means flower, bangkai means corpse or cadaver). The name Titan arum was first used by the broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough, who thought it inappropriate to repeatedly call the plant as Amorphophallus (shapeless or shape-changing phallus) on a popular TV documentary (on BBC). The plant is a native of Sumatra Island of the Indonesian archipelago, though it is now cultivated in botanic gardens in many countries.

In the first week of this month, a blooming Corpse Flower was drawing visitors to a botanical garden, as the 15-year-old Amorphophallus titanum bloomed for the first time in Berkeley Botanical Garden, Northern California. The petals spread 34 inches wide, and the thick central stamen stood nearly four feet tall.

Just around the time Amorphophallus titanum bloomed in Tokyo, the residents of Houston were flocking in the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see the blooming of Corpse Flower, which was supposed to bloom two weeks back, as it is quite rare in USA as only 28 such flowerings have been reported so far. Despite the smell of rotten dead bodies, the flower looks quite gorgeous. On Wednesday only about one-thirtieth of the flower had bloomed. The Houston Museum of Natural Science acquired the Amorphophallus titanum from Western Sumatra six years ago.

Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) blooms out the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, though the largest single flower is borne by Rafflesia arnoldii and the largest branched inflorescence belongs to the Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera). Titan arum is a native of the rainforests near open grasslands of Sumatra. For the stench of decomposing flesh, the same title Corpse Flower is also attributed to Rafflesia which also grows in the rainforests of Sumatra.

Photo: Amorphophallus titanum on 8 June 2005, ten days before it opened, at Royal Botanic Gardens, London, England. The plant is at the stage where the grooved spathe is being revealed, with just peeping above it the darker green spadix. The spathe will fold open to produce a red bell-shaped structure at the base of the spadix. The plant is about 3 feet (1 meter) high in this picture taken by Adrian Pingstone.

Photo: Amorphophallus titanum 4 days after flowering with the spathe half collapsed at United States Botanic Garden, Washington DC, on 23 November 2005.

Photo: Amorphophallus titanum (aka Corpse Flower or Titan Arum) finishing blooming, showing the male and female flowers at the base of the spadix.

Titan Arum's inflorescence can reach over 3 meters (10 ft) in circumference. It consists of a spadix of flowers wrapped by a spathe, which looks like the flower's single petal. The spathe is generally green on the outside and dark burgundy red on the inside. The upper portion of the spadix is covered in pollen. The smell of the inflorescence resembles rotting meat attracting carrion-eating beetles and Flesh Flies for pollination. The flower's deep red color and texture give the illusion that the spathe is a piece of meat.

Both the male and female flowers of Amorphophallus titanum grow in the same inflorescence. The female flowers open first, and after a day or two the male flowers open, preventing the flower from self-pollinating. After the flower withers, a single leaf, which grows to the size of a small tree, grows from the underground corm. The leaf grows on a stalk that branches into three sections each containing many leaflets. The leaf structure can reach up to 6 meters (20 feet) tall and 5 meters (16 feet) wide. Each year, the old leaf dies and a new one grows in its place. When the corm has stored enough nutrients, it becomes dormant for about four months, before it starts growing again.

The corm of the Amorphophallus titanum is the largest known, weighing around 50 kilograms (110 lb). When a specimen at the Princess of Wales Conservatory, Kew Gardens, was repotted after its dormant period, the weight was recorded as 91 kilograms (200 lb).

The Amorphophallus titanum blooms rarely in the wild and even less rarely when cultivated. It first flowered in cultivation at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London in 1889, with over 100 cultivated blossoms since then. The first documented flowerings in the United States were recorded at New York Botanical Garden in 1937 and 1939.

How to kiss a turtle

2010-07-20T17:18:00.001-07:00

Dai, dammi un bacino..., originally uploaded by phoebe1976.

A turtle on the palm

2010-07-20T17:16:00.001-07:00

My own private dino, originally uploaded by phoebe1976.

Processes to protect the life of molds, tools and dies

2010-07-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Some of the common problems that reduce the service life and usability of most of our precious tools, dies, molds, etc. are oxidation, corrosion, wear and tear (abrasion and wear problems), friction-related problems, etc. Over the years, many protective measures have been developed to overcome these problems, mostly by the use of protective coating, use of abrasion-resistant coating materials, etc.

Here are some basic solutions offered by a pioneer in such technologies that you can find in the site of the company Bales Mold, a company that has been providing cutting-edge electroless nickel plating and hard chrome plating services, and wet blasting services. These are tailor-made to protect the life of your molds, tools and dies.

As hard coating with suitable materials is the protection against the above problems, sulfamate nickel plating is a highly effective process that provides an abrasion and wear resistant surface. It is 99.99 per cent pure plating of sulfamate nickel that is electrolytically deposited. Some of the benefits include high temperature resistance, high corrosion and oxidation resistance, and it has high tensile strength and high ductility.

In environments where corrosion and oxidation can affect the surfaces, stainless steel is used, because generally it is resistant to surface attacks. When corrosion occurs, it appears as small pits and patches. It is because of foreign materials, typically iron or iron compounds getting embedded in stainless steel while machining or processing stainless steel. As this is a common occurrence, passivating stainless steel is found to be a sure solution for the problem. The process involves applying a transparent passive film on stainless steel to protect it from corrosion. Passivation removes the free iron or iron compounds from a stainless steel surfaces on treatment with an acid solution that removes the surface deposits but does not affect stainless steel itself. Passivation will dissolve the foreign particles and deposit a thin transparent film on the surface of stainless steel.

People who are engaged in the work of mold polishing and mold finishing often come across the problem of not finding a proper gauge to check a finish. It often happens because either you do not have a gauge handy or the one already available is worn out. To overcome this problem, Bales Mold has developed a Pocket S.P.I. Mold Finishing Gauge, a new tool for measuring and comparing mold finishes. Its added attraction is that it is pocket-sized and can be carried along in your pocket. It is easy to read and has a 72 RC hard-finished surface that to retain the exact finishes for several years.

Konso village of Busso, Ethiopia

2010-07-18T14:15:00.001-07:00

ETHI-OMO-KONSO-13AA, originally uploaded by Janis Miglavs Pro Photographer.

Sunset light highlights a traditional Konso village of Busso at the edge of the Omo Region of Ethiopia, Africa.

Blue Nile water falls at Tissisat, Ethiopia

2010-07-17T15:36:00.001-07:00

51 - Blue nile falls at Tissisat, originally uploaded by Johan Gerrits.

The Blue Nile Falls (called Tis Issat in Amharic language) is one of the most beautiful waterfalls on the River Blue Nile in Ethiopia. Tis Issat, when translated means ‘smoking water’, and it is situated in the upper course of the Blue Nile, about 30 kilometers downstream from the town of Bahir Dar and Lake Tana. The waterfall is considered one of the best known tourist attractions in Ethiopia, about 30 kilometers downstream from the town of Bahir Dar and Lake Tana.

The falls, estimated to be about 40 meters high, consists of four streams that vary from a trickle in dry season to over 400 meters wide in rainy season. Regulation of Lake Tana makes less variation in flow now. But since 2003 a hydroelectric station has taken much of the flow out of the falls except during the rainy season. Blue Nile Falls makes Lake Tana's ecology much different from the rest of the ecology of downstream Nile, and this isolation has played a role in the evolution of the endemic fauna of Lake Tana.

A short distance downstream from the falls, the first stone bridge built in Ethiopia at the command of Emperor Susenyos in 1626, is located. According to Manoel de Almeida, stone for making lime had been found along the tributary Alata. A craftsman who had come from India with Alfonso Mendez, the Catholic Patriarch of Ethiopia, supervised the construction of the stone bridge

Steins Pillar in Ochoco National Forest, USA

2010-07-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Photo: Steins Pillar (volcanic plug) as viewed from the north along Road 33, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon, USA (June 1971), photo by R.A. Jensen.

A volcanic plug, also known as volcanic neck or lava neck, is created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. While forming, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of pressure if volatile charged magma is trapped beneath it, leading to an explosive eruption. If a plug is preserved, erosion may remove the surrounding rock while the erosion-resistant plug remains, producing a distinctive upstanding landform, like the Steins Pillar above.

The Ochoco National Forest located in Central Oregon in the United States, north and east of the City of Prineville, encompasses 850,000 acres (3,440 squire km) of rim rock, geologic oddities, canyons, dense pine forests and high desert terrain, as well as the headwaters of the North Fork of the Crooked River. The Ochoco National Forest is popular for recreational activities such as hunting, horseback riding, stargazing, hiking, fishing, camping, birding and rock hounding.

Myth of Pandora, the first woman on earth

2010-07-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

Image: Pandora (1896), oil on canvas painting by English Pre-Raphaelite painter John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), dimensions 91 cm x 152 cm, showing Pandora with a box.

According to Greek mythology, Pandora (sometimes also referred to as Anesidora) was the first woman on earth. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mould Pandora out of Earth as part of punishments for humankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, and all the Gods joined in offering her ‘seductive gifts’. So, whenever Pandora opened her jar (Pandora's Box), she released all the evils, leaving only ‘Hope’ in the box.

The legend of Pandora appears in several Greek literary and traditional versions. In all versions, the myth addresses the question of why there is evil in the world. The Greek poet Hesiod gives the earliest literary version of the Pandora story in his two works, ‘Theogony’ and ‘Works and Days’. However, there is another mention of jars or urns containing blessings and evils bestowed upon humankind in Homer's ‘Iliad’.

Hesiod was a Greek oral poet and often recognized as the first economist. The year in which he lived is uncertain, but many scholars claim that Hesiod lived in the eighth century BC. Hesiod, along with Homer, is considered the earliest Greek poets whose works have survived, though scholars disagree about who lived first. Hesiod's writings serve as a major source of Greek mythology, ancient farming techniques, early economic thought, Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping methods.

Image: ‘Allegory of Vanity - Pandora’ (1626), oil on canvas painting of dimensions 173 cm x 140 cm by Nicolas Regnier, currently on display in The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany. Instead of Pandora’s Box generally shown in artistic depictions of Pandora, the painting shows a jar, not a box.

Interestingly, Pandora’s Box is NOT a box but a jar, as seen in the painting ‘Allegory of Vanity - Pandora’ above. The jar became a victim of mistranslation and became a box, when the Greek word ‘pithos’, meaning a large storage jar, was translated into Latin by the sixteenth century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, when he translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora. The pithos, often half-buried in the ground, was used for storing wine, oil or grains. But Erasmus translated pithos into the Latin word pyxis, meaning ‘box’, and the phrase Pandora's Box became popular ever since.

The myth of Pandora first appeared Hesiod's poem, the Theogony, though she is not named. According to the story, after humans had received the gift of stolen sacred fire from Prometheus, an angry Zeus (King of the Gods, and the God of the Sky and Thunder – Jupiter in Roman mythology) decided to give human beings a punishing gift to compensate for the boon of stolen fire. Zeus commanded Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a ‘beautiful evil’ whose descendants would torment all races of men. After Hephaestus did so, Athena (who is credited with the founding of Athens) dressed the evil woman in the finest of clothing and accessories, and an ornate crown of gold. This woman is believed to be Pandora, whose myth Hesiod revisited in ‘Works and Days’. When she first appeared before the Gods and mortals, she ‘wonder-seized them’. But she was ‘sheer guile, not to be withstood by men’, as Hesiod elaborates (lines 590-93):

“From her is the race of women and female kind:
Of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who
Live amongst mortal men to their great trouble,
No helpmates in hateful poverty, but only in wealth.”

But Hesiod also laments that men who avoid the evil of women by avoiding marriage will fare no better (lines 604-7):

“He reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years,
And though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives,
Yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them.”

However, Hesiod concedes that occasionally a man finds a good wife, but still ‘evil contends with good’.

Another version of Pandora is in another of Hesiod's poems, ‘Works and Days’. In this version (lines 60-105), Hesiod elaborates upon her origin and widens the scope of the misery she inflicts on humankind. She is created by Hephaestus, but now more Gods contribute to her completion. Athena clothed her and taught her needlework and weaving. Aphrodite made her graceful, but also filled her with cruel longing and cares. Hermes gave her a shameful mind and deceitful nature, and also gave her the power of speech, putting in her ‘lies and crafty words’… Finally, Hermes gives this woman a name: Pandora - ‘All-gifted’- ‘because all the Olympians gave her a gift’ (line 81). In this retelling of her story, Pandora's deceitful nature becomes the least of mankind's worries. For, she brings with her a jar (in later stories a box) containing ‘burdensome toil and sickness that brings death to men’, diseases and ‘a myriad other pains’. Prometheus had warned his brother Epimetheus not to accept any gifts from Zeus. But Epimetheus did not listen and accepted Pandora, who promptly scattered the contents of her jar. As a result, Hesiod says, ‘the earth and sea are full of evils’. One item, however, did not escape the jar (96-9), ‘Hope’:

“Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house,
She remained under the lip of the jar, and did not fly away.
Before (she could), Pandora replaced the lid of the jar.
This was the will of aegis-bearing Zeus the Cloud-gatherer.”

However, Hesiod does not tell the reader why Hope remained in the jar. Hesiod winds up with this moral (105): "Thus it is not possible to escape the mind of Zeus."

Later mythologists filled in more details to Hesiod's account of Pandora. The 15th-century monk Annio da Viterbo credited a manuscript that he had found to the Chaldean historian of the 3rd century BC, Berossus, where Pandora was also named as a daughter-in-law of Noah; a manuscript which is seen as an attempt to conjoin pagan and scriptural narratives and a forgery.

In a major departure from Hesiod, the sixth century BC Greek elegiac poet Theognis of Megara wrote:

“Hope is the only good god remaining among mankind;
The others have left and gone to Olympus.
Trust, a mighty god has gone, Restraint has gone from men,
And the Graces, my friend, have abandoned the earth.
Men’s judicial oaths are no longer to be trusted, nor does anyone
Revere the immortal gods; the race of pious men has perished and
Men no longer recognize the rules of conduct or acts of piety.”

Theognis seems to be hinting at a jar that contained blessings rather than evils. In this, he appears to follow a possibly pre-Hesiodic tradition, preserved by the second-century fabulist Babrius, that the Gods sent a jar containing blessings to humans. A ‘foolish man’ (not Pandora) opened the jar, and most of the blessings were lost forever. Only Hope remained ‘to promise each of us the good things that fled’.

An independent Pandora tradition, independent of any literary sources is the tradition in the visual repertory of Attic red-figure vase-painters, which sometimes supplements and sometimes ignores the written testimony. In these presentations the upper part of Pandora is seen rising from the earth, ‘a chthonic goddess like Gaia herself’. Sometimes, but not always, she is labeled Pandora.

French Queen Marie-Therese, destiny by default

2010-07-01T02:18:00.000-07:00

Photo: Painting depicting marriage of Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain by an unknown artist.

Maria Theresa of Spain (1638-1683), daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, and wife of King Louis XIV of France, is known to have gone through a difficult childhood, a mentally turbulent married life and finally faced a painful death. When heir to the Spanish Throne Baltasar Carlos died, as a birth right, Maria Teresa could have inherited the vast Spanish Empire and all the wealth it had. But her rightful claim to the Spanish throne was traded of in a marriage of opportunism, or diplomacy, to buy peace with France, and she ended up as a rather dull and simple Queen of France trying to find space among numerous concubines and many official and unofficial mistresses of her husband King Louis XIV.

She Born as Infanta María Teresa of Spain to Philip IV, King of Spain and his Queen consort, Elizabeth of France, Maria Teresa, like many other royals of Habsburgs (The House of Habsburg, anglicized as Hapsburg and referred to as the House of Austria, one of the most important royal houses of Europe), was a product of generations of inbreeding resulting from royal intermarriages between cousins. Maria Teresa’s mother died when she was just six years old, after which her father married his niece, Mariana of Austria, whose mother was his sister.

In 1658, as the war between Spain and France began to wind down, a union between the two royal families of Spain and France was proposed as a means to secure peace. As a result, Maria Teresa was offered in marriage to the French King Louis XIV (they were double first-cousins). His father was Louis XIII of France, who was the brother of Teresa’s mother, while her father was brother to Anne of Austria, his mother. Such a marriage was enticing to Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV and aunt of Maria Teresa. Anne strongly advocated an end to hostilities between her native Spain, and her adopted country France. Anne hoped to achieve it by her niece Maria Teresa becoming her daughter-in-law. However, Cardinal Mazarin, the First Minister of France, sought a marriage for Louis XIV with Margaret Yolande of Savoy, the second daughter of Christine Marie of France, who was a sister of Louis XIII. As soon as King Philip IV of Spain heard of it, he rushed a special envoy to the French Court to buy peace through a marriage between Maria Teresa and Louis XIV.

In the negotiations for the marriage, to prevent a unification of the two countries or crowns, especially one in which Spain would have to be subservient to France, the diplomats included a renunciation clause to deprive Maria Teresa and her future children of any rights to the Spanish succession, conditional upon the payment of a large dowry. But Spain, impoverished and bankrupt after decades of war, was unable to pay such a dowry, and France never received the agreed dowry of 500,000 écus.

After a marriage by proxy to the French king Louis XIV, Maria Teresa became known as Marie-Therese. King Philip IV and the entire Spanish court accompanied the bride to the Isle of Pheasants in the Bidassoa, where Louis and his court met her. On 7 June 1660, she departed from her native Spain and two days later the religious marriage took place at the Saint Jean-Baptiste church in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

Louis was faithful to his wife in the first year of their marriage, though the couple later had difficulty in matching their personalities. Marie-Therese withdrew to herself, continued to put on weight due to her delight in hot chocolate, and found solace in her circle of dwarfs. Marie-Therese was the last to know that her husband had found a new mistress Louise de La Vallière, as his first official mistress. It caused the Queen much emotional turmoil and pain.

Marie-Therese started spending much of her time playing cards and gambling, as she had no interest in politics or literature, and she never fully played her part as Queen. She became pregnant in early 1661, and the long-awaited first son Louis, le Grand Dauphin, was born on 1 November 1661. She gave birth to five more children but only Louis, who died in 1711, survived her.

In Spain, five days after the birth of Dauphin, Marie-Therese’s stepmother Queen Mariana gave birth to the future King Charles II of Spain, who was born practically disabled mentally and physically, due to his family's interbreeding for generations. This set a question mark on the future Spanish succession, and Marie-Therese’s grandson (son of le Grand Dauphin) eventually inherited her rights to the Spanish Throne and became King Philip V of Spain in 1700.

The first time Marie-Therese ever saw the Palace of Versailles was on 25 October 1660, a small residence which had been Louis XIII's hunting lodge not far from Paris. Later, the first building campaign commenced with the Plaisirs de l’Île enchantée of 1664, a fête that was held from 7 to 13 May 1664. The fête was ostensibly to celebrate the two Queens of France -- the Queen Mother Anne, and Louis XIV’s wife Marie-Therese. But in reality it honored Louis's mistress Louise de La Vallière.

Gradually, the King increased his romantic adventures, taking another mistress Madame de Montespan. But Marie-Therese was too pious and too adoring of her husband to openly resent his infidelities. Also, in spite of his blatant unfaithfulness, Louis XIV ensured that she was treated with the utmost respect befitting her position as Queen and his wife. Eventually, the Queen acted with dignity and did not create scenes at Court. In return, the King left her to her own playthings, her favourite chocolate, Spanish maids and a collection of dwarfs.

Madame de Maintenon grew in favor and began to reign over the King's mind and affections. But she encouraged the King to bestow more attention on his long-neglected wife, a gracious act which Marie-Therese repaid by lavishing kindness on Madame de Maintenon, who is believed to have been married by Louis secretly in October 1683 at Versailles, though it was never announced or publicly discussed.

Marie-Therese had to put up with her main rivals Louise de La Vallière, Mme de Montespan, Mme de Maintenon, and Mademoiselle de Fontanges, apart from a series of official and unofficial mistresses. Through these liaisons, he produced numerous illegitimate children, most of whom he married of to members of cadet branches of the royal family.

Marie-Therese played very little part in political affairs except for the years 1667, 1672 and 1678, during which she acted as Regent while her husband was absent, away on war campaigns on the frontier.

During the last week of July 1683, Marie-Therese fell seriously ill and died a painful death on 30 July 1683 at Versailles. Her state funeral was magnificent, and Marie-Therese’s burial site is at the Basilique Saint-Denis, where most of France's monarchs are buried.

Upon her death Louis XIV reportedly said, "This is the only way in which she has displeased me."

Karst topography creates natural wonders

2010-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: The Witch's Finger stalagmite in Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico.

The Witch's Finger seen above is a naturally formed figure as if it is sculptured by human beings. Similar or even much more sculptured natural formations can be found throughout the world, in all continents, with the possible exception of the perennially ice covered Antarctic regions. This type of earth or rock formations are typical of what is known as ‘Karst topography’, a landscape shaped by the dissolution layers of soluble bedrock in acidic water that seep through the land surface that is usually made up of carbonate rocks such as limestone or dolomite.

The land surface in areas having Karst topography is highly porous, with the presence of innumerable invisibly small as well as large holes or pores. So, even though enough rains fall in the area, there will be very less surface water due to subterranean drainage. Most Karst regions have distinctive surface features such as sinkholes, caves, pillars, or even structures reminiscent of artistic sculptures.

Karst topography is formed because of reaction of acidic water, mostly from acid rains, reacting with bedrock such as limestone or dolostone. Water typically may have dilute acids such as carbonic acid (H₂CO₃), sulphuric acid or sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄), nitric acid (HNO₃), and even hydrochloric acid (HCl), which are formed by the reaction of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and chlorine (Cl). The reaction formulae can be shown as:

CO₂ (carbon dioxide) + H₂O (water) ⇌ H₂CO₃ (carbonic acid)

2 SO₂ (sulphur dioxide) + O₂ (oxygen) → 2 SO₃ (sulphur trioxide), which further combines with water, SO₃ + H₂O → H2SO4 (sulphuric acid or sulfuric acid)

3 NO₂ (nitrogen dioxide) + H₂O (water) → NO (Nitric oxide or nitrogen monoxide) + 2 HNO₃ (nitric acid)

Cl₂ (chlorine) + H₂ (Hydrogen) → 2HCl (Hydrogen Chloride)

Mostly, the carbonic acid (H₂CO₃) that causes Karst topography formations, mixed with the rain reaches the ground, and passes through soil and dissolves the surface in the limestone bedrock. Gradually, these fractures enlarge as the bedrock continues to dissolve and an underground drainage system begins to develop, allowing more water to pass through the area, and accelerating the formation of underground karst features such as caves. Rock formations of chemically different compositions that do not easily react with dilute acids may remain over ground as oddly shaped figures or even interesting sculpture like figures.

On exposed surfaces, small karstification features may include flutes, runnels, etc. Medium-sized surface features may include sinkholes, vertical shafts, disappearing streams, and reappearing springs. Large-scale features may include limestone pavements, poljes and blind valleys. Mature karst landscapes, where more bedrock has been removed than remains, may result in karst towers, or haystack/eggbox landscapes. Beneath the surface, complex underground drainage systems (such as karst aquifers) and extensive caves and cavern systems may form.

Erosion along limestone shores produces karst topography that includes features above the normal reach of the sea and undercuts that are mostly the result of biological activity or bio-erosion. Some of the most dramatic of these formations can be seen in Thailand's Phangnga Bay and Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam.

Photo: Inside Tien Son Cave in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Vietnam, one of the world's two largest karst regions with 300 caves and grottoes and also protects the ecosystem of limestone forest of the Annamite Range region in north central coast of Vietnam.

Rivers in Karst areas may disappear underground a number of times and spring up again in different places, usually under a different name (like Ljubljanica, the river of seven names). An example of this is the Popo Agie River in Fremont County, Wyoming. At a site simply named ‘The Sinks’ in Sinks Canyon State Park, the river flows into a cave in a formation known as the Madison Limestone, and then rises again a half-mile down the canyon in a placid pool.

The Karst topography itself also poses dangers for human. Sinkholes can develop gradually as surface openings enlarge, but quite often progressive erosion is unseen and the roof of an underground cavern suddenly collapses. Such events are reported to have swallowed up homes, cattle, cars, and even farm machinery.

Cerne Abbas Giant, the Rude Man

2010-06-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Photo: The Cerne Abbas Giant seen from a distance

The Cerne Abbas Giant, also known as the Rude Man or the Rude Giant, is the earth-figure of a giant naked man found on a hillside near the village of Cerne Abbas, north of Dorchester, Dorset, England. The 180 ft (55 m) tall and 167 ft (51 m) wide figure is formed by a trench 12 inches (30 cm) wide and deep, cut through grass and earth into the underlying chalk. The Cerne Abbas Giant's origin and its age are disputed.

Towards the top right of the giant's head is an earthwork known as the ‘Trendle’ or ‘Frying Pan’. Medieval writers refer to this location as ‘Trendle Hill’, but they make no mention of the giant, indicating that it was probably carved only about 400 years ago. But the Uffington White Horse, another hill figure on the Berkshire Downs, was noticed and recorded by medieval authors.

The earliest written record of the Giant was made in 1694 in a reference for payment in the Cerne Abbas church warden's accounts of three shillings toward the re-cutting of the Giant. The first survey of the Giant was published in Gentleman's Magazine in 1764. In 1774 John Hutchins wrote in his book ‘The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset’ that the carving had only been done in the previous century.

Early antiquarians associated the Giant with a Saxon god, who is described in medieval and early modern texts, and was associated with the Cerne Abbas Giant by an editor of a 1789 edition of William Camden's Britannia, and by William Stukeley, who indicated that local folk referred to the Giant as ‘Helis’. A Saxon origin is unlikely, but Stukeley was the first to hypothesize that the figure was Heracles.

Some experts believe that the Giant was carved during the English Civil War by the servants of Denzil Holles, the Lord of the Manor, as a parody of Oliver Cromwell, who was sometimes mockingly called England's Hercules by his critics. The Heracles connection was strengthened by the discovery of a cloak in 1996, as Heracles was often depicted with a cloak made from the Nemean Lion's skin.

The nineteenth century sources describe the Cerne Abbas Giant as having ‘between his legs, three roughly cut, scarcely legible letters, and over them in modern figures, 748’, the representation of Cenric, the son of Cuthred, King of Wessex.

In 1920 the National Trust acquired the Giant and the 1 acre (4,000 squire meter) land around it and listed it as a Scheduled Monument. During World War II the Giant was disguised to prevent his use as a landmark by enemy aircraft.

According to the National Trust, the grass is kept trimmed at regular intervals and the trench is re-chalked every 25 years. For grass trimming, the National Trust has been relying on sheep from surrounding farms to graze grass at the site. But in 2008, lack of sheep and a wet spring caused vigorous plant growth, forcing trimming and re-chalking of the giant with 17 tonnes of new chalk.

Over the years, the Giant has become a part of the culture and folklore of Dorset. Some folk legends say that the image is an outline of the corpse of a real giant. One story says the giant came from Denmark leading an invasion of the coast and it was beheaded by the people of Cerne Abbas while he slept on the hillside.

Photo: A scan from a 35mm transparency which Simon Garbutt took in the mid 1970s at Cerne Abbas in Dorset, England, showing a detail of the phallus and legs of the Cerne Abbas Giant. If this image is used, a photographer's credit to Simon Garbutt would be much appreciated!

Other folklores recorded in the Victorian era associate Cerne Abbas Giant with fertility. In the past, local people used to erect a maypole on the earthwork, around which childless couples would dance to regain fertility. According to such legends, women who sleep on the figure will be blessed with children, and infertility will be cured through sexual intercourse on top of the figure, especially the phallus of the Giant.

In 2008, a group of archaeologists found that parts of the carving had been allowed to be obliterated. According to them, the free arm should have held a depiction of an animal's skin, supporting the theory that the giant was a depiction of a hunter, or Heracles with the cloak of the Nemean lion skin over his arm. It has also been suggested that his large erection is the result of merging a circle representing his navel with a smaller penis re-cut in the Victorian era.

In recent times the Giant has been used for publicity and as advertisement campaigns for consumer products, angering local neo-pagans who threatened to perform rain magic to wash the figure away.

Parks and green spaces in Madrid

2010-06-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Photo: a beautiful statue in Parque del Capricho (Capricho Park)

Madrid, the capital and largest city of Spain, is full of green spaces and parks, and has many trees, about 500,000 both in parks and on the streets. Beautiful statues and sculptures can be seen in most green areas, providing a healthy natural environment to the city. It is a combination of the beauty of nature and artistic creations.

The largest park is Parque del Retiro, the most popular park, spreading out to the north-east of Atocha Railway station. With a large lake in the middle, once it staged mini naval sham battles to amuse the royalty, and now the pastime of pleasure boating is very popular.

Atocha Railway Station, Madrid’s first and most central station, is home to a distinctive indoor garden with 4,000 square meters of tropical plants, with more than 500 species of plant life, ponds with turtle and goldfish, as well as shops and cafes.

Casa de Campo, a sprawling rural parkland to the west of Madrid and the largest green area, is home to a fairground, the Madrid Zoo and an outdoor pool, and a cable car service above the tree tops to enjoy a bird’s eye view of the park and the city.

The Royal Botanic Garden (Real Jardin Botanico), an 18th century garden by Carlos III, is used as a base for the plant species being collected across the globe.

The ecological theme park Faunia, a natural history museum and zoo, comprises eight ecosystems from tropical rain forests to Polar Regions and contains over 1,500 animals, some of which roam freely.

Swan in a park in Brussels

2010-06-13T13:03:00.001-07:00

Not a Drifter but a Dreamer, originally uploaded by Ben Heine.

Asteroid Impact on Jupiter, video by Anthony Wesley

2010-06-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

Amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley of Australia has observed an impact by an asteroid on Jupiter. This video clip shows what he observed on Jupiter at 20:31 UT on June 3, 2010. The impact produced a bright flash of light in the giant planet's cloud tops. Another amateur astronomer Christopher Go of the Philippines has independently observed the impact event on Jupiter.

Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley first noticed the collision in Jupiter's cloud tops and notified other astronomers. He has recorded the event on video (above) and uploaded it on YouTube. Another amateur astronomer Christopher Go from the Philippines also independently photographed and videoed the impact.

Using an infrared telescope in Hawaii, NASA scientists found evidence that Jupiter was struck near its south pole, crediting Wesley, who is well-respected among astronomers. Wesley said, "When I saw the flash, I couldn't believe it, the fireball lasted about 2 seconds and was very bright."

Anthony Wesley, a resident of Broken Hill in central Australia, is also credited for first spotting the scar of the size of the Pacific Ocean that was left near Jupiter's south pole last year. The follow-up observations made with the Hubble space telescope showed it was made by an asteroid with a force equivalent to a few thousand nuclear bombs.

The latest hit near the equator of Jupiter has not left any visible mark so far, but astronomers are on the lookout of any scars. The absence of such a scar, and the short impact time, has led scientists to believe that Jupiter was struck by a meteor. The Hubble telescope is expected to be set free from other duties to photograph Jupiter and give professional astronomers as much information as possible about the new collision.

In 1686 Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini noted a dark spot on Jupiter that was about the same size as the largest bruise seen after Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit the planet in 1994.

The impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 highlighted Jupiter's role as a kind of ‘cosmic vacuum cleaner’ for the inner solar system. Jupiter's strong gravitational force sucks in many small comets and asteroids. The rate of comet impacts on Jupiter is estimated to be between two 2000 and 8000 times higher than the rate of impact on Earth. If Jupiter was not present, the probability of comets and asteroid impacts with the Solar System's inner planets, including the Earth, would have been greater.

On July 19, 2009, a new black spot as large as the Pacific Ocean appeared in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. Thermal infrared measurements showed that the impact site was warm and spectroscopic analysis detected the production of excess hot ammonia and silica-rich dust in the upper regions of Jupiter's atmosphere. About this, scientists concluded that another impact had occurred, and, probably, a small undiscovered asteroid was the cause.

The extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period is believed to have been caused by an impact event which created the Chicxulub crater, demonstrating that impacts are a serious threat to life on Earth. Astronomers now speculate that without Jupiter to mop up potential impactors, extinction events might have been more frequent on Earth, and complex life forms on Earth might not have been able to develop.

Saturn’s rings during equinox captured by Cassini

2010-06-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Photo: Saturn's rings on August 12, 2009, a day after Saturn equinox captured by Cassini: with the rings pointed at the sun, illumination is from light reflected off Saturn, except on thicker or out-of-plane sections, like the F Ring.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, the largest planet being Jupiter. Saturn is composed of hydrogen, with small proportions of helium and traces of other elements.

Saturn has a spectacular system of rings consisting mostly of ice particles with a smaller quantity of rocky debris and dust particles. There are 61 known moons orbiting Saturn, not counting hundreds of ‘moonlets’ within the rings. Titan, Saturn's largest and the Solar System's second largest moon (after Jupiter's Ganymede), is larger than the planet Mercury and it is the only moon in the Solar System to possess a significant atmosphere.

Seen from the earth, the view of Saturn's rings during the equinox of Saturn is extremely foreshortened and limited. But orbiting around Saturn, Cassini spacecraft - which has been observing Saturn, its moons and rings since it entered the planet's orbit in 2004 - has no such problems.

From 20 degrees above the ring-plane of Saturn, Cassini's wide angle camera shot 75 exposures in succession for this mosaic showing Saturn, its rings and a few of its moons, exactly a day and a half after the Saturn equinox, when the sun's disk was exactly overhead at Saturn’s equator. The novel illumination geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun's angle to the ring-plane, darkens the rings, and causes out-of-plane structures to look anomalously bright, and to cast shadows across the rings.

These scenes can be captured on camera only during the few months before and after Saturn's equinox which occurs only once in about 15 Earth years. Precisely, the spectacle occurs twice during each orbit Saturn makes around the sun, which takes approximately 10,759 Earth days, or about 29.7 Earth years. Also, during equinox, the shadows of Saturn’s expansive rings are compressed into a single, narrow band cast onto Saturn as seen in this mosaic.

All the images that make up the mosaic, taken in over eight hours, were extensively processed before being mixed together. First, each image was re-projected into the same viewing geometry and then digitally processed to make the image ‘joints’ seamless and to remove lens flares, radially extended bright artifacts resulting from light being scattered within the camera optics. At the time so close to Saturn equinox, illumination of the rings by sunlight reflected off the planet vastly dominates the meager sunlight falling on the rings. Hence, half of the rings on the left illuminated by planet-shine are much brighter than the half of the rings on the right.

On the right side, it is only the vertically extended parts of the rings that catch substantial sunlight. With no enhancement, the rings would have been invisible in this mosaic. To improve their visibility, the dark right half of the rings has been brightened relative to the brighter left half by a factor of three, and then the whole ring system has been brightened by a factor of 20 relative to Saturn. So the dark half of the rings is 60 times brighter, and the bright half 20 times brighter, than they would have appeared if the entire picture, including Saturn, was captured in a single image.

Saturn’s moon Janus (179 kilometers in diameter) is on the lower left of this mosaic. Epimetheus (113 kilometers diameter) appears near the middle bottom. Pandora (81 kilometers diameter) is outside the rings on the right of the image. The small moon Atlas (30 kilometers diameter) is inside the thin F ring on the right of the image.

The brightness of all the moons of Saturn, relative to the planet, has been enhanced between 30 and 60 times to make them more easily visible. Other bright specks are star on the background. Spokes - ghostly radial markings on the B ring - are visible on the right of the image. This view looks toward the northern side of the rings from about 20 degrees above the ring-plane of Saturn.

Saturn presents one of the most significant visual images in the universe due to its system of planetary rings, which makes it the most remarkable object in the solar system. The Saturn rings extend from 6,630 km to 120,700 km above Saturn's equator, with an average thickness of 20 meters. They are composed of 93 per cent water ice with a smattering of chemical impurities, and 7 per cent amorphous carbon. The rings are made up of particles of the sizes ranging from specks of dust to the small automobiles.

Saturn is visible to the naked eye in the night sky as a bright, yellowish point of light whose magnitude is usually between +1 and 0. But most people may require large binoculars or a telescope magnifying at least 20x to clearly resolve Saturn's rings. In 1610 Galileo Galilei became the first person to observe Saturn's rings, a year after he first turned a telescope to the sky.

The images the NASA scientists managed to capture reveal the undulations and dust clouds due to unusual lighting effects created during Saturn’s equinox in August 2009, and the breakthrough could allow researchers to understand better the age of Saturn’s distinctive rings and how they are evolving.

Bob Pappalardo, the Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said, "It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time. This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us."

Earlier, scientists knew about vertical clumps sticking out of the rings of Saturn, but they could not measure their height and breadth. Linda Spilker, deputy project scientist at JPL said, "The biggest surprise was to see so many places of vertical relief above and below the otherwise paper-thin rings. To understand what we are seeing will take more time, but the images and data will help develop a more complete understanding of how old the rings might be and how they are evolving."

The heights of some of the newly discovered bumps are comparable to the elevations of the Alps. One ridge of icy ring particles, whipped up by the gravitational pull of Saturn's moon Daphnis as it travels through the plane of the rings, looms almost as tall as Mont Blanc.

Scientists were also intrigued by bright streaks in two different rings that appear to be clouds of dust kicked up in collisions between small space debris and ring particles. Understanding the rate and locations of collisions will help build better models of contamination and erosion in the rings and refine estimates of their age. The collision clouds were easier to see under the low-lighting conditions of equinox than under normal lighting conditions.

Cassini also captured images which showed that during equinox, the rings cooled to the lowest temperature ever recorded. The A ring dropped to 43 Kelvin (382 degrees Fahrenheit below zero). Studying ring temperatures at equinox will help scientists better understand the sizes and other characteristics of the ring particles.

Pebbles cemented with halite on the shore of the Dead Sea

2010-06-03T16:48:00.000-07:00

Pebbles weathered and cemented with halite on the western shore of the Dead Sea near Ein Gedi.

Strange facts about the Dead Sea

2010-06-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

Photo: Satellite photograph showing the location of the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea, or the Salt Sea, is a not a sea but a large lake bordering Israel and the West Bank to the west and Jordan to the east. With its surface and shores 422 meters (1,385 feet) below the sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface on dry land. The Dead Sea is 378 meters (1,240 feet) deep, 67 kilometers (42 miles) long and 18 kilometers (11 miles) wide at its widest point. It lies in the Jordan Rift Valley, and its main tributary is the Jordan River. There is no outflow from the Dead Sea, nor is it connected to any other water bodies or seas.

According to the Bible, it was a place of refuge for King David. Most of the events described in the Old and New Testaments took place in areas near or around the Dead Sea. This area was also the center of clashes of and assimilations of civilizations, cultures, and religions. Militarily also the Dead Sea area was a hotbed of clashes and it continues to be so. As history shows, it will continue to be a hotbed of clashes in the future too.

It is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water with 31.5% salinity. The water has a density of 1.24 kg/L, making it difficult to swim, but one can float easily on the surface. Only Lake Assal (Djibouti), Garabogazköl and some hyper-saline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, such as Don Juan Pond, have higher salinity rates. Dead Sea water is 8.6 times saltier than water in the oceans and seas. This very high salinity develops a very harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish, hence its name, ‘Dead Sea’.

From early 1960s water inflow to the Dead Sea from Jordan River has reduced as a result of large scale irrigation projects and because of declining rainfall. By 1975 the upper water layer of the Dead Sea was saltier than the lower layer. Still, the upper layer floated above the lower layer because its water was warmer and thus less dense. When the upper layer finally so cooled down that its density was greater than the lower layer, the two water layers of the Dead Sea mixed in 1978-79. So, for the first time in centuries, the lake became a homogeneous body of water, or a single layer.

Until the winter of 1978-79 the Dead Sea was composed of two stratified layers of water that differed in temperature, density, and salinity. Approximately the topmost 35 meters (115 feet) of the Dead Sea had salinity rates that ranged between 300 PPM and 400 PPM (parts per thousand) and temperature that varied between 19 °C (66 °F) and 37 °C (99 °F). Below a zone of transition, the lowest level of the Dead Sea had water of a consistent 22 °C (72 °F) temperature and very high saturation of common salt (sodium chloride: NaCl). Because of this high saturation, salt precipitates as crystals out of the solution and settles onto the bottom.

The mineral content of the Dead Sea varies vastly from that of water in the oceans and seas. The composition of the Dead Sea water varies mainly with season, depth and temperature. In the early 1980s the concentration of ionic minerals (minerals in grams/ kg of water) of Dead Sea surface water was Cl⁻ (181.4), Br⁻ (4.2), SO₄²⁻ (0.4), HCO₃⁻ (0.2), Ca₂⁺ (14.1), Na⁺ (32.5), K⁺ (6.2) and Mg₂⁺ (35.2). The total salinity was 276 g/ kg. These results show that w/w% composition of salts, as anhydrous chlorides, was calcium chloride (CaCl₂) 14.4%, potassium chloride (KCl) 4.4%, magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) 50.8% and sodium chloride (common salt; NaCl) 30.4%. In contrast, the salts in the water of most oceans and seas consist of approximately 97% sodium chloride. The concentration of sulfate ions (SO₄²⁻) is very low, and the concentration of bromide ions (Br⁻) is the highest of all waters on Earth. So, Dead Sea water is abundant in minerals believed to have therapeutic properties.

The salt concentration of the Dead Sea fluctuates around 31.5%. This is unusually high and results in a nominal density of 1.24 kg/L. Hence, anyone can easily float in the Dead Sea without drowning because of naturally high buoyancy. In this regard, the Dead Sea water is similar to the water in Great Salt Lake in Utah in the United States.

A strange phenomenon of the Dead Sea is its discharge of asphalt. From deep seeps, the Dead Sea constantly spits up small pebbles and blocks of this black substance. A number of asphalt coated figurines and bitumen coated Neolithic fossils and skulls from archaeological sites around Dead Sea have been found. It is believed that the Egyptians imported asphalt for mummification of dead bodies from the Dead Sea region.

The Dead Sea has attracted visitors from around the Mediterranean basin and the world for thousands of years for many reasons. It was also one of the world's first health resorts used by Herod the Great, and it has been a supplier of a large variety of products, from balms for Egyptian mummification to potash for fertilizers. People also used salts and other minerals from the Dead Sea to create cosmetics and naturopathy-treatment products.

In modern times, the Dead Sea area has become a major center for health research and treatment for several reasons. The mineral content of the water, very low content of pollens and other allergens in the atmosphere, reduced ultraviolet rays (UV) of solar radiation and higher atmospheric pressure at this great depth each have specific health effects. For example, persons suffering from reduced respiratory function from diseases such as cystic fibrosis seem to benefit from the increased atmospheric pressure in the Dead Sea area.

Persons suffering from the skin disorder psoriasis also benefit from Dead Sea area, because of their ability to sunbathe for longer periods in the area due to its position below sea level and the subsequent result that many of the sun's harmful UV rays are reduced here.

Thus, Dead Sea region's typical climate and low elevation have made it a popular center for several types of therapies. For instance, climatotherapy is a treatment process which exploits local climatic features such as temperature, humidity, sunshine, barometric pressure and special atmospheric constituents, heliotherapy is a treatment that exploits the biological effects of the sun's radiation and thalassotherapy is a treatment process that exploits the benefits of bathing in Dead Sea water.

McNaught Comet over Big Swamp, South Australia

2010-05-18T17:10:00.001-07:00

McNaughts Comet Eyre Peninsula South Australia, originally uploaded by john white photos.

This photo of McNaught Comet was published in Discover Magazine 2007, and used by NASA to promote the SOFIA Program in 2009, says the author of this brilliant photography.

Comet McNaught, also known as the Great Comet of 2007, is given the nomenclature C/2006 P1. It is a non-periodic comet discovered on August 7, 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught. It was the brightest comet for over 40 years, and it was clearly visible to the naked eye for observers in the Southern Hemisphere in January and February 2007.

With an estimated peak magnitude of -5.5 the comet was the second brightest since 1935. Around perihelion on January 12, it was visible worldwide in even in daylight. Its tail measured an estimated 35 degrees in length at its peak. Given its estimated eccentricity over 1.0, suggesting a hyperbolic trajectory, it is believed that Comet McNaught will leave the Solar System and never be seen again.

Iceland volcano spews out more ash and lava

2010-04-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

On April 20, the recently erupted volcano in southern Iceland was still spewing out more smoke, ash and lava, but the ash plume is lower than it previously was, posing less threat to high-flying aircraft, this rare video shows.

Rare Footage of Iceland Volcano Eruption, April 2010

2010-04-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

Video: Iceland volcano erupting with ash and molten lava

2010-04-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

On 21 March 2010, a volcano in the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier near Hvolsvöllur town in the south of Iceland erupted, for the first time since 1821 (when it lasted for two years), followed by further eruptions on 14 April 2010, forcing many hundreds of people to abandon their homes. The resultant cloud of volcanic ash brought major disruptions to air travel across the British Isles and Northern Europe, according to reports.

Hvolsvöllur is a small town in the south of Iceland, about 106 km to the east of Reykjavík. It is situated in the inland swamps of Landeyjar, in the municipality of Rangárþing eystra. The town has an estimated 800 inhabitants, and in the surrounding areas have an additional population of about 600 people. The volcanic eruptions at Eyjafjallajökull caused evacuations of people in the area, with people being relocated to Hvolsvöllur, where Red Cross mass care centers have been set up.

The Eyjafjallajoekull volcano eruption is the second in less than a month. It is one of the largest eruptions that could have the potential to severely affect air travel at high northern latitudes for six months or more.

The erupting volcano threw up very large amounts of plumes consisting of particulate mater, ash, sand, rocks, and even molten glass, and smoke. The ash and clouds drifted very high in the air and moved across the British Islands and Northern Europe, forcing suspension of most of the air traffic across Europe.

Huge flooding was also reported as the glacier melted due to the volcanic eruption. According to eyewitnesses and local officials, there were two flows of flood water coming off the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier, and that a road along the flooded Markarfljot River had been cut in several places. There were large floods on both sides of the volcano, and the roads in the area are blocked and the whole area is isolated due to the floods.

"Volcanic ash represents a significant safety threat to aircraft," said the UK's Air Traffic Control Service (NATS). The tiny particles of rock, glass and sand contained in the drifting ash cloud from the still-erupting volcano could be sufficient to jam aircraft engines.

Volcanic ash is highly abrasive and can scour and damage moving parts in the aircrafts. If ash enters the aircrafts’ jet engines the intense heat of the engine can fuse the ash to the interior of the engine with a caking of hot glass that can cause the engine to stop instantly and completely.

In 1982 a jumbo jet of the British Airways unknowingly flew into an ash cloud and had all four of its engines shut down as it flew through a plume of volcanic ash. Similarly, on 15 December 1989 when KLM Flight 867, a B747-400 aircraft from Amsterdam to Anchorage in Alaska, flew into the plume of the erupting Mount Redoubt, causing all its four engines to fail. Once the flight emerged out of the ash cloud, the flight crew could restart each engine and then make a safe landing at Anchorage, but the aircraft was heavily damaged.

The ash from the Eyjafjallajoekull eruption does not pose any significant risk to public health because of the high altitude at which the volcanic ash is drifting. According to the European air safety body Eurocontrol, the cloud of ash had reached 55,000 feet up in the air and it was expected to move through northern UK, Scotland, and move over northern Europe. The ash can cause particularly red sunsets in some areas.

Iceland lies on the highly volatile boundary between the Eurasian continental plate and the North American continental plate. Geologically a very young region, Iceland is located on both the Iceland hotspot and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs right through it. It makes the island highly geologically active with many volcanoes, notably Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið and Eldfell.

The volcanic eruption of Laki in 1783-1784 caused a famine that killed nearly a quarter of the island's population and it caused dust clouds and haze to appear over most of Europe and parts of Asia and Africa for several months afterwards.

Interestingly, one of the youngest islands in the world Surtsey, a part of Iceland, rose above the ocean in a series of volcanic eruptions between 8 November 1963 and 5 June 1968.

The current volcanic ash from Iceland blowing across northern Europe grounded hundreds of planes, and up to 4,000 flights are being cancelled with airspaces closed in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Denmark among others, affecting an estimated one million passengers across Europe. The closure of one of the world's busiest international airport at Heathrow in London stranded about 300,000 passengers, according to reports. The shutdown is the biggest since World War II, as the Air Traffic Control Service (NATS) of UK described it.