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Schneealpe

I posted a new album of photos taken on a winter tour to the “Schneealpe” range in Austria. It is situated at the border between Styria and Lower Austria and forms part of the Northern Limestone Alps.

I’ve often wondered why this great European mountain range was called the “Alps”? After all, the word is plural, but what exactly is an “alp”? Well, it turns out that “alps” really is plural and that a single “alp” really does exist. It’s a Germanic word derived from Latin that describes a mountain pasture. So a chain of mountains with lots of meadows for summertime grazing of cattle is naturally called “the alps”.

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How do you go about sleeping when you’re stuck in the ocean 24 hours a day? How do you get rest and neither sink nor drown, let bump into things?

Well, whales have found ways to deal with that problem, as any cetacean that evolved to live in the sea had to. Scientist have observed patterns in the whales swimming and diving behaviour that leads them to believe that whales sleep with one half of their brain at a time.

Isn’t that cool? The observed sperm whales are always half awake – meaning one half of the brain makes sure they don’t drown and don’t bump into things and the other half gets a good few minutes kip. Then switch over while leisurely drifting along in the current bobbing head-down in the ocean. 

Read the full story: 

Discovery News : Whales Snooze Half a Brain at a Time

Don’t miss the link to a researchers video that shows the sail boat bumping into a whole pod of sleeping sperm whales. Only when the boat hits of them, the whale "wakes" from his slumber and swims off.

Ecuadorean officials are investigating the slaughter of 53 sea lions from the Galapagos Islands nature reserve, which were found with their heads caved in.

read on…

BBC NEWS | Americas | Sea lions massacred in Galapagos

oh my god, who does that???

Most people in the industrialised world have been on a plane before. We fondly remember our first flight and over the years we’ve gotten used to the whole airline spiel.

Useless hours of waiting before take-off, the duty-free shops that sell you stuff you don’t need, getting on the plane and finding out the guy next to you weighs 300 pounds and has bad halitosis, the safety announcements, the drinks tray, a message from the cockpit at 30,000 feet and so on and so forth.

We know the routine and all its pleasantries and annoyances. But for almost all of the people in India, save a privileged few, this will remain the stuff of dreams forever. When you’re struggling to find a rupee for the next meal, you aren’t thinking of airline travel.

That was until an ingenious Indian entrepreneur by the name of Bahadur Chand Gupta came up with an idea. He bought an old plane, parked it on the end of a runway and now he charges only a couple of dollars for the whole experience of a plane ride. And it’s this cheap because you’re never actually off the ground. And, it’s a huge success! His wife, the head stewardess, even uses the”virtual” flights as an opportunity to train junior flight attendants. Brilliant!

Here’s the whole story:
Book now for the flight to nowhere – Times Online

Here’s a photo of the plane linked from a story on gizmodo.com:

» Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo; Plans open architecture spaceship | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Sir Richard Branson, the tycoon and adventurer behind Virgin Galactic and Burt Rutan, the tinkerer with a space dream, have presented a down-scaled model of their space ship. Now we know what the space ship will look like that will take tourists to space.

I should start playing the lottery, because tickets to zero-gravity don’t come cheap at  $200,000 a pop. You get a couple of minutes weightlessness for that, and I reckon that’s is pretty good value.

If you want that on Earth you could to take the lift to the 88th floor of the Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur, then cut the cables and enjoy zero-G in all its 4 seconds glory.

Of course you’ll be dead and not have enjoyed Virgin’s VIP treatment with all the free peanuts money can buy. 

Let’s hope the price drops and or I get rich enough quickly. Or both. I REALLY REALLY want to go. Won’t it be said that there are sooo many rich people on Earth who won’t book one of the hot seats? They’ll miss out on the ultimate Earth-from-above show.

Speaking of "Earth from above" – I wonder if Yann Arthus Bertrand, the author of the eponymous aerial photography books has signed a contract yet. He’s probably applied to be their staff photographer.

Sir Richard , can I at least have a model of the space ship, please? PRETTY PLEASE???