Earth Hour - Late

I am so late with some of my posts, Earth Hour was on Saturday last weekend and I thought about posting at the time but didn't get around to it until today! So Earth Hour is on the last Saturday of March each year when houses and businesses are asked to turn off their lights for one hour to highlight the importance of climate change. What generally happens is prominent landmarks that are lighted get their lights turned off for the hour making for some dark pictures of some of the most iconic locations in the world. Here are a few of the photos.

Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia

Las Vegas Strip
Colosseum in RomeGiza Pyramids
Hong Kong

Beer Festivals in Seattle

I was inspired on Friday when a friend was letting me know about a beer event coming up in May. They were letting me know about Seattle Beer Week. Seattle Beer Week is May 13-23 so it is really Seattle Beer Week-and-a-half! I was unable to attend any of the events last year during that week and probably won't be able to this week but it is worth posting about a few of these evnets in case others are interested.

An upcoming event that I was able to attend last year and was very fun is Hop-Scotch which takes place at the Fremont Studios in Fremont. This event is a fundraiser for the Seattle International Film Festival. It is named for the beer and scotch tasting but there is also tequila and wine tasting also. This is coming up in less than a month on April 23-24.

Another one that is this summer is the Seattle International Beerfest, which is July 2-4 at the Seattle Center.

Fremont Oktoberfest is another event in Fremont and this takes place September 24-26 as the non-intuitively named Oktoberfest actually takes place in September. At this event they have a "Miss Buxom" contest and the "Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving" as well.

In October the Great Pumpkin Beer Festival takes place at the Elysian Brewery in Capitol Hill.
This is not an exhaustive list of events and festivals in Seattle as the Washington Cask Beer Festival was this weekend and a number of bars, breweries and retailers have special events throughout the year also. Feel free to add to this with any other beer events you know about, I would be interested in trying to attend some of them.

Edinburgh Castle

Today I have decided to share a few photos of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. First, these pictures today are all ones I took when I visited in August of 2007. The castle sits atop Castle Rock in the center of Edinburgh as can be seen above. The castle is the second most visited tourist site in Scotland.
This picture above is prior to the beginning of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which takes place in August in the esplanade in front of the castle.

This third picture is looking up at the castle from the Prince's Street Gardens below the castle. The castle was a Scottish royal residence from the 1100s until the Union of the Crowns in 1603. The Scottish crown jewels are housed in the appropriately named Crown Room at the castle as well. Finally, one thing I find very interesting about the castle that can be seen in the photos here is that it looks so very different from various vantage points.

Welwitschia

OK, as promised only a few minutes ago, here is the second post today for No-Profundity. This post is obviously quite different from the earlier one today but this post is related to the Awesome Plant theme that Mad North Northwest is heading up at the Mullet of Blogs this week.

This is about the Welwitschia Mirabilis which is my favorite plant in the world. I think they are really intriguing in a number of ways including that they are sometimes called fossil plants as they are from the Jurassic period.

The pictures above are ones I took of them as I ventured out into the Namib Desert across the Welwitschia plain which has the largest concentration of them. That means that there may be a handful of them per acre. They only grow in the Namib Desert in Namibia and Angola. There are separate Male and Female plants. The Welwitschia can grow to be over 1500 years old. Both of the ones I have pictured above are probably 800-1200 years old.

The Welwitschia have only 2 leaves, even though it looks like they have many because the wind shreds the two large leaves into tassles. Living in the desert these plants also get the water they need to grow from absorbing the little moisture that forms as dew on their leaves. It is actually absorbed into the leaves not through the root of the plant. The one in the third picture above is the largest known one and it is 4 feet tall and over 12 feet around. If that isn't an AWESOME Plant that is deserving of being related to Awesome Plant week at the Mullet, I don't know what is.

Penguins

Since there was no post yesterday I think there will be two today. First I will start with penguins. I have visited penguin colonies on 2 of the 4 continents that penguins live in the wild. I visited the penguins at Boulders Beach just south of Cape Town, South Africa twice in 2007. Here is a picture of the Boulders Beach with the penguins in their area.

These are the African Penguins, which used to be called Jackass Penguins and are also called Black-footed penguins. Here is a closer picture of them with chicks.

The other time I visited penguins was when I was in Melbourne, Australia. There the smallest variety of penguin lives, they are appropriately named Little Penguins and they grow to only about 16 inches tall. Here is a blurry picture of my own, I am proud of the picture even though it is blurry. There are less blurry pictures of them here.

A couple of weeks ago I also read an interesting article about an all black penguin. Here is the picture of the mutant "one in a zillion" all-black Emporor Penguin.

Penguins are "cool birds" right?

Big Fish

Random thought for the day - big fish...? Oh well, I will make it into a blog post! The largest current fish species is the whale shark and they can grow to be just over 40 feet long and weigh over 20 tons. The largest prehistoric fish was Leedsichthys which probably grew to over 50 feet long.

Here is a link to some of the largest sea creatures ever caught and they have some pretty cool pictures too. Below is a picture of the largest freshwater fish ever caught, the Giant Mekong Catfish and it was over 9 feet long and weighed 646 pounds. This article has more information about this catch as well as other fish that may rival this giant.

Subway/Metro

Today I was thinking about subway systems around the world. Here is just a little information about them. The term subway or underground generally means a transportation system that is underground but many subways or metro systems have at least a portion of their system above ground or in the case of Chicago a majority of the system is above ground and is actually on elevated tracks which give it the name of the El or L for elevated trains as seen below.

The two longest systems in the world are also two of the oldest, the London Underground and the New York Subway, which opened in 1863 and 1870 respectively. This is a picture of the rounded tunnels that give the London Underground its nickname "The Tube."

The three busiest metro systems in the world are Tokyo, Moscow and Seoul each with more than 2 billion rides per year. The busiest subway systems I have been on are Hong Kong (#8), London (#10) and Cairo (#14). Here is a picture of one of the ornate stations in the Moscow Metro.

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds as you know are small birds that flap their wings very fast and can hover in place. They can move their wings 12 - 90 times per second depending on the species. They do this hovering while feeding on nectar in flowers as well as hummingbird feeders that people set up for them.

The smallest hummingbird is the bee humminbbird and it is only 2 inches long and weighs .06 ounce. Some hummingbirds can live more than 10 years but the more common North American species live about 3-5 years. Most North American hummingbirds nest as far north as southern Alaska but they spend their winter in Central America. Based on their body length they have the longest migration of any bird. Many make an 18-hour flight across the Gulf of Mexico with no place to land or feed.

Washington Ferries

This weekend I will be taking a ferry so I thought I would post about the Washington Ferry system. This is the largest fleet of ferries in the US and the 3rd largest in the world. I rode on one of these when I went to the San Juan Islands in 2008.
I have been on other ferries in other parts of the world but today I was thinking about how this will be fun and feel like a new experience all over again this weekend as I am going somewhere I haven't been to before.

Hong Kong Lights

There is a light show that takes place each night in Hong Kong, it is called the Symphony of Lights. This involves lasers and lights on 44 buildings on both sides of the harbor. I have seen the show from both sides of the harbor. Here are a couple of my pictures of the buildings lit up but not during the show.
Here is a video of the lights during the show.

Apples

Here in the Northwest are very familiar with apples as it is a large crop in Washington state. I was interested today in where else apples are grown.

About 40% of the apples in the world are grown in China. I was pretty surprised by this as I wouldn't have thought there would be so many apples grown there. The second highest producer is the US at about 7.5% followed by Iran, Turkey and Russia.
Within the US about 60% of the apples grown are from Washington.

Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri is an iconic monument. Here are a few pictures from one of the visits I have made there. The arch was designed by Eero Saarinen and was built from 1963-1965.
Here are alternating views with the one above looking straight down from the observation windows at the top and the photo below is looking up at the arch from below one of the terminations of the arch.

The arch is 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide. It doesn't appear to be these dimensions as the bases are much larger and the top is quite narrow so the arch appears to be much taller than it is wide.

Dice

OK, now that waterfall week is over at No-Profundity we will be back to a different topic each day. Don't worry if you didn't get to see your favorite waterfall or didn't get your fill of them in general, I am sure there will be a Waterfall Week Part Deux in the future.

Dice - Today I was inspired by my tie as it has a pair of dice on it so there is the topic... Dice are generally the 6-sided cubes with dots on each side noting a number. These dots are actually called pips, which I think is interesting and a little funny. You can find this type of dice in many board games or in casinos but there are many other types and shapes as well as you will see below. I also found it interesting to learn that the oldest known dice were found in a 5000 year-old backgammon set in Iran. Here are some non-cubical dice that you might find in some more modern games.

Here are some fuzzy dice that are similar to what I am sure you have seen on car mirrors before except these are 20-sided fuzzy dice from thinkgeek. The picture is a link to them.

OK, so that is it for today and all I have about dice!

Kaiteur Falls

Kaiteur Falls are located in Guyana in South America. They are very powerful falls since they have a large volume of water that falls from a great height. The falls are 741 feet high and are located in pristine rainforest. It is about twice the height of Victoria Falls but its volume is a little less than Vic Falls and it is about 5 times as high as Niagara Falls.

Here you can see the height and majesty of the falls in the rainy season. There is a large hollowed out area behind the falls from erosion that can be seen in the dry season.

I would really like to visit these falls as well as Guyana in general.

Lower Yellowstone Falls

Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world and this waterfall is one of the most visited attractions in the park. There are over 40 waterfalls in the park and the Lower Yellowstone Falls are the largest. I have been to Yellowston 5 times but the last time was nearly 20 years ago. There are two large waterfalls on the Yellowstone River inside the park. The upper falls (not pictured) is 109 feet high and the lower falls (pictured below) which are 308 feet high.
This waterfall is in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which is over 1000 feet deep in places. There are a few vantage points to view the falls from and this picture is from lookout point. there is also a trail that leads to an observation point at the brink of the falls where you are only a few feet from the fall.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls are actually a set of two waterfalls on the Niagara river. This waterfall forms the border between the US and Canada between the Great Lakes of Ontario and Erie. As I noted in Monday's post the height of the falls is 167 feet. Niagara Falls is a very large tourist area with most of the facilities located on the Canadian side of the falls as that is how tourists access the Horseshoe falls.

This is a picture of the Horseshoe falls from a viewing tower on the Canadian side. You can see the Maid of the Mist just below the falls.

This is a picture of the American falls from the same tower.

I have been to these falls but I don't have any photos of my own anymore. There are also a series of tunnels under and behind part of the horseshoe falls that you can visit.

The main distinction I have made after visiting both Niagara and Victoria Falls is that Niagara is more picturesque due to it being more open and visible, while Victoria is more immersive because you are so close to the falls and can feel the power of the falls up close.

Angel Falls

Angel Falls are in Venezuela and is the tallest waterfall in the world at over 3200 feet and a main plunge of over 2600 feet. The falls seem to come out of the side of the rock face because they form a small gorge at the top of the plateau and then fall from where they reach the rock face.

The falls are often shrouded in clouds and are difficult to view reliably. They are also difficult to visit as they are in a remote jungle region of Venezuela that requires laborious travel to get to. This is on a list of places I would like to visit but because it is difficult to get there it probably won't happen for many years.

Victoria Falls

As the beginning of Waterfalls Week here at the blog I would like to start with a great waterfall! These falls are formed by the Zambezi river and are on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The falls are also known as Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means "the mist that thunders."

This is one of the largest waterfalls in the world by a number of measures. Here are some statistics and a comparison with a couple of other great falls:

Victoria Falls is over a mile wide (5600 feet) and is 360 feet high.

Iguazu Falls is nearly 9000 feet wide and is 210-270 feet high.

Niagara Falls is 3900 feet wide and 167 feet high.

Here is a little about the pictures. In the top picture, I took this from a small helicoptor flight I took over the falls. This is less than a third of the width of the falls in the picture and is where the river leaves the first gorge. In the center left portion of the picture you can see a precipice and that is called Danger Point. There are no railings or barriers here just a sign that says the rocks are slippery!!!
In the second picture the falls are seen from the Zambian side and on the left of the picture you can see Danger Point, which is on the Zimbabwean side of the falls.

In this third picture, from the Zimbabwean side of the falls you can see the top of the falls as they cascade into the gorge. The rock outcrop in the picture at the end of the path is Danger Point.

This final picture is something I really want to do, it is called Devil's Pool and is a natural safe swimming area only a couple of feet from the 360 foot plunge. There are AWESOME pictures and videos at this site and you can see more about the Devil's Pool here: http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/devilspool.asp