September, 2012 Archives

Animals Loving Autumn [40 PICS]

September 29th, 2012 Permalink

Fall and its brightly colored foliage has arrived. So here is a mixture of animals, autumn and quotes about this season.

Red fox caught mouse in bright foliage of fall forest

“Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile,” ~ quote by William Cullen Bryant. Like some people, some animals love autumn. Red fox with a mouse in the beautiful and bright foliage of the forest during the fall season. Photo #1 by KP

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48 Eerily Intriguing Shipwrecks

September 27th, 2012 Permalink

We expect to see ships from land as they sail away, but there is something eerily intriguing about ships that you see from land because they are above-water wrecks. Some are rusty and crusty shipwrecks that didn’t sink completely underwater, while others crashed, collided, or ran aground on the sandy beach or rocky reef. Yet other wrecks were perfectly fine ships that nature picked up and tossed on land via a hurricane, typhoon or tsunami. Even though these abandoned boats litter nature, the shores or shallow waters, there is still a haunting beauty to wrecks and to seascapes with relic ribs where ghostly wreckage remains. It makes us ponder what the story is behind these shipwrecks visible from land and what the sailors endured. The United Nations estimates more than 3 million shipwrecks litter the ocean floor, but we could find no estimate to the number of boats that are abandoned, derelict or beached worldwide. Here are 48 fabulous photos showing eerily intriguing shipwrecks in varying states of destruction and decay. [48 Photos]

Rusted shipwreck resting on a reef in Hawaii - All that remains above water of an unnamed vessel wrecked on the reef long ago

Rusted shipwreck resting on a reef in Hawaii. The photographer noted, “All that remains above water of an unnamed vessel wrecked on the reef long ago.” NOAA Photo #1 by Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA / NMFS / OPR; NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program

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Before Magnificent Mount Fuji Volcano Erupts…[46 PICS]

September 15th, 2012 Permalink

We haven’t done much looking around at Japan, other than Nara Dreamland, the abandoned Disney knock-off amusement park, but now the experts are red-alert claiming that Mount Fuji volcano is about to erupt. Mathematical models created in September 2012 by the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention suggested that the pressure in Mount Fuji’s magma chamber could be at 1.6 megapascals higher than it was in 1707. The media jumped on this to claim as meaning an eruption of Mt. Fuji was imminent. We’ll leave that for the scientists to decide because nothing can be done to stop a natural disaster. Meanwhile, Mount Fuji has applied to be a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. It’s been around in Japanese art since ancient times when samurai warriors trained at the base and women were forbidden from climbing to the sacred summit. Nowadays people travel from all over the world specifically to see this view; about 300,000 adventuresome souls climb to the summit annually. It’s thought Mount Fuji means “everlasting life.” Ironically at the northwest base of Fuji there are 14 sq miles (35-sq-km) that represent the opposite of life — the taking of life. Aokigahara Forest, also called the Sea of Trees, is infamous as a dense forest where troubled souls go to commit suicide. So we interrupt the scheduled panic and doomsday disaster news, to take in the beauty before it is allegedly destroyed in an eruption. Here’s the magnificent 12,389 ft (3,776.24 m ) Mount Fuji, one of Japan’s ‘Three Holy Mountains’ and the Suicide Forest. [46 Photos, 1 Video]

Tea fields and Mount Fuji

It’s all over the news; volcano researchers’ reports warning that an eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan is ‘looming’ and ‘imminent.’ While we certainly hope that such doom and gloom reports of Mount Fuji being a ‘ticking time bomb’ are wrong, we wanted to take a look at the magnificent beauty of the highest mountain in Japan. It’s located on Honshu Island, but towering in at 12,389 feet (3,776.24 meters), the active stratovolcano can be seen from so very many beautiful places in Japan. Here is Mount Fuji and seen from gorgeous green tea fields. Photo #1 by Fujisan

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35 Wildly Wonderful Wheelchair Design Concepts

September 7th, 2012 Permalink

With the Paralympic Games showcasing what people with disabilities can do, we wanted to look at design concepts and prototypes that may be a future reality for individuals with limited mobility. Industrial designers come up with all kinds of wheelchair design concepts — some seem spectacular, while others seem . . . spectacularly bizarre and impractical even if they are aesthetically pleasing. Most concept wheelchairs never make it to market, even if they do manage to receive some sort of funding. We wanted to showcase all kinds of wheelchairs, even if we disagreed with them and wondered if the designers bothered to consult people who use wheelchairs every day, all day. Others wheelchairs seem so wonderful that we want to see them become a reality . . . more than that, an affordable reality since wheelchairs can cost more than some people’s cars. AngelBear, whose website this is, happens to have Spina Bifida, so we have a lot of experience dealing with wheelchairs and the dreaded insurance to have them, or repairs to them, approved. Please don’t take offense at any of the designers’ descriptions or word choices. We do not want to stifle creative innovation, because you never know what some designer may come up with in the future. [35 Photo (or montages) and 1 video]

Artist Sue Austin flies through the water in a self-propelled underwater wheelchair - wheelchair prototype

Artist Sue Austin flies through the water in a self-propelled underwater wheelchair. The prototype wheelchair enables Sue to go on a gentle, dreamlike exploration of an exotic underwater world. This impressed us so much, we wanted to do a post on wheelchair prototypes and design concepts. Photo #1 by © 2012 Susan Austin

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