Bodie ghost town on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States, about 75 miles (120 km) southeast of Lake Tahoe, at an elevation of 8369 feet (2550 m).

Gold was discovered in 1859 by prospector Wakeman S. Bodey, who the town was named after. Bodey died in November making a supply trip and becoming stranded in a blizzard.

In 1876, the Standard Company discovered a profitable deposit of gold transformed Bodie from an isolated mining camp of few prospectors to a boomtown.

Bodie was famous for its lawlessness. At its peak in 1880, it had 60 saloons. Murders, brawls, and stagecoach holdups were constant occurrences. Legend has it that a little girl, upon finding out that her family was moving there,prayed one night, "Goodbye God, I am going to Bodie."

Gold bullion from the town's nine stamp mills was shipped to Carson City, Nevada accompanied by armed guards. Once the bullion reached Carson City, it was sent by rail to the San Francisco mint.

In 1893 the Standard Company built its own hydroelectric plant, located approximately 13 miles away on Green Creek, above Bridgeport, California. The plant developed a maximum of 130 horsepower and 6,600 volts alternating current to power the company's 20-stamp mill. This pioneering installation was one of the first times an electric motor was operated over long-distance power lines.

Bodie's Chinatown, had several hundred Chinese residents at one point. The Chinese workers earned their incomes mainly from selling vegetables, operating laundries, and cutting, hauling, and selling firewood. Winter temperatures in Bodie would often fall well below zero, and winds reaching nearly 100 miles per hour would sweep across the high open valley. Large amounts of firewood were needed to keep residents warm through the long winters. Many ill-prepared towns folk perished during the extremely harsh winter of 1878-1879.

Today Bodie is an authentic, intact ghost town. Bodie is currently a State Historic Park. Visitors walk the deserted streets of a town that once had a population between 7,000 and 8,000 people. Interiors remain as they were left and in some cases stocked with goods. The remains of Bodie are being preserved in a state of arrested decay...

credited to legendsofamerica.com, ghosttowngallery.com, explorehistoricalif.com, futurballa.com, davestravelcorner.com, jstottphotography.com, photo.net

Read More...

World's Tallest Bridge

When it opened on 17 December 2004, the spectacular Millau Viaduct set new standards in both planning design and construction - without mentioning the record it set as the largest cable-stayed bridge in Europe.

At 2.4km long, and 270m above the river at its highest point, the Millau viaduct spans a 2km valley in the Massif Central mountain range and forms the final link in the A75 highway from Paris to Barcelona. Despite its huge length, journey time over the structure is expected to be just one minute.

The road has two lanes in each direction and cost €400 million. This will be recouped by the builder, Eiffage, under a 75-year concession.

Bridge design

Two major challenges were identified in building the structure: crossing the River Tarn, and spanning the huge gap from one plateau to the other. The solution proposed is unique, using seven pylons instead of the typical two or three. It is several metres taller than that other famous French landmark, the Eiffel Tower.

Famous British architect Norman Foster was in charge of the viaduct's appearance. It has been designed to look as delicate and transparent as possible. Each of its sections spans 342m and its columns range in height from 75m to 235m over the river Tarn. It uses the minimum amount of material, which made it less costly to construct: the deck, the masts rising above the road deck and the multi-span cables are all in steel.

Seven Piers

The seven piers of the Millau Viaduct are sunk in shafts of reinforced concrete in a pyramidal shape, being divided in an overturned V, and the shrouds are anchored and distributed in semi harps. The program utilised hundreds of high-pressure hydraulic cylinders and pumps to push-launch the deck spans in place and a PC-synchronised lifting system to lift the auxiliary piers. Enerpac was awarded the major contract to supply the hydraulic system for lifting and pushing the bridge spans and piers for the bridge.

Intriguingly, the Millau Viaduct is not straight. A straight road could induce a sensation of floating for drivers, which a slight curve remedies. The curve is 20km in range. Moreover, the road has a light incline of 3% to improve the visibility and reassure the driver.

Bridge Construction

Construction began in October 2001, and by November the following year, the highest pier had already reached 100m in height. Launching the deck started in February 2003, and was completed by May 2004.

Unusually, the deck is constructed from a new high-grade steel as opposed to concrete. This helped the deck to be pre-constructed in 2,000 pieces at Eiffage's Alsace factory and GPS-aligned, 60cm at a time.

The Millau Viaduct is supported by multi-span cables placed in the middle. To accommodate the expansion and contraction of the concrete deck, there is 1m of empty space at its extremities and each column is split into two thinner, more flexible columns below the roadway, forming an A-frame above the deck level.

Construction work used approx. 127,000m³ of concrete, 19,000t of steel-reinforced concrete and 5,000t of pre-constraint steel (cables and shrouds). The project needed 205,000t of concrete, of which 50,000m³ will be reinforced concrete. In total, the viaduct weighs 290,000t.

A 3m-wide emergency lane provides increased security. It will, in particular, prevent drivers from seeing the valley from the viaduct.

As the bridge will be exposed to winds of up to 151km/hr, side screens are used to reduce the effects of the wind by 50%. The speed of the wind at the level of the road therefore reflects the speed of the wind found at ground level around Larzac and Sauveterre.

Toll Station

An 18-lane toll station 6km north of the Millau Viaduct is housed under a structure made of a special concrete patented by the group Eiffage. The toll plaza includes a CCTV connection to the viaduct and the highway. It also accommodates technical and administrative services.

credited to roadtraffic-technology.com

Read More...

Logistics and support for New Zealanders going to Antarctica are provided by Antarctica New Zealand. Although based in Christchurch, Antarctica New Zealand operates NZ's Scott Base, which is located on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound. The US base, McMurdo Station, is also on Ross Island, and members of the NZ and US programmes share flights to Antarctica. Anyone going to Antarctica must first pass a thorough medical and dental checkup.

Getting There

Travel to Antarctica is by either sea or air. Most people fly, and up to 5 flights a week may leave NZ from the International Antarctic Centre terminal in Christchurch each summer. Early in the season large cargo planes (Galaxies and Starlifters from the US) transport cargo and people to Antarctica. Planes land on a sea-ice runway but as the weather warms, the ice weakens and the big planes are replaced by smaller Hercules. When the sea-ice becomes too thin for the Hercules to land safely, a runway is made on the permanent ice of the Ross Ice Shelf. Special US Hercules equiped with skis then carry out all the flights between NZ and McMurdo.

The RNZAF (NZ airforce) flies wheeled Hercules. The journey to Antarctica in these planes is very exciting. They are quite old and noisy but are renowned for their cargo-carrying capacity and ability to take-off and land on short runways. A Hercules has 4 large engines and is able to land safely even if 3 of them fail!

Passengers must wear full survival clothing, so you can get quite hot during the 6 to 7 hr journey! The planes are not built for comfort; there is not much room, and passengers sit side-by-side in rows of webbing seats. It's hard to see out of the few tiny windows and there's only one basic toilet at the back.

Just past ?way is the point of no return; there's enough fuel to get to McMurdo Sound, but not back home! (Planes will quite often turn back before this point if conditions become unsuitable for landing in Antarctica.)

Scott Base

Situated at the southern end of Ross Island, Scott Base is right next door to the United States base, McMurdo Station. Consisting of a number of green-painted buildings linked by all-weather corridors, the building of the base first began in 1957. More buildings have been added over the years and now up to 100 people can be accommodated, along with the kitchen, workshops, laboratories, storerooms and other work spaces that support them. Each building is like a large fridge, except it keeps the cold out not in! It's a comfortable and friendly place with plenty to do, and all the mod cons of home. There is a shop, library, sauna, bar, and a social club that organizes special activities and functions including sporting (e.g. skiing) and cultural events. These facilities are especially important for the dozen or so hardy souls who over-winter through the dark months of June and July.

Each year Scott Base is the centre from which up to 70 different events are organized — not easy when one considers the logistics of coordinating personnel, travel, food, shelter, training, communication and safety in a harsh environment. In the 2001/02 summer, for example, a variety of research events on fish, glaciers, microbes, lichens and mosses, marine invertebrates, penguins, the dry valleys, climate, Antarctic soils, seals, ice, geomagnetism, algae and historic sites took place.

Antarctic Field Training

Before going into the field, all visitors to the ice must participate in a 2-day Antarctic Field Training (AFT) course. Qualified instructors take newcomers through the skills of assembling tents, building snow caves, mountain and ice travel, first aid, cooking, radios, survival bags, keeping warm and safe, etc.

It's a good feeling when the training and preparation are complete, and a research party with all their gear can leave for the study site.

Transport into the field

Depending on the weather, terrain and distance to be covered, several means of transport are possible.

• Walking
• Skiing
• 4WD vehicle
• Skidoo (snowmobile)
• Argo (a smaller 8-wheeled amphibious vehicle)
• Hagglund (a tracked vehicle that can carry up to 13 people)
• Sledges (various sizes and designed to be towed behind another vehicle)
• Twin Otter (a fixed-wing aircraft)
• Helicopter

Life in the field

Scientists working at sites remote from Scott Base need to set up camp. There may be a permanent building (hut) at the site, or Scott Base may organise that a temporary building is towed to the site (wannigan). At sites where there are no buildings, scientists set up a tent camp.

Field Camp

Our reasearch is carried out at Cape Bird. Cape Bird is a narrow strip of stony coastline at the foot of Mt Bird in the NW corner of Ross Island. Here Antarctica NZ have built a comfortable 8-person hut that is in constant use by scientists over the summer months. The hut consists of 2 bunkrooms, a kitchen/dining room, pantry, storeroom and laboratory all kept warm by a diesel heater that never stops. Securely anchored down with wire ropes, the hut is designed to withstand the frequent blizzards and winds that sweep up the coast. The ever-changing view from the living room windows looks westwards across McMurdo Sound to the trans-Antarctic mountains in the distance.

Food

Along with shelter and warmth, having enough to eat and drink is the most important requirement for anyone working in Antarctic.

Special efforts are made to ensure that plentiful supplies of wholesome and, where possible, fresh foods are provided. Diets are not unlike what we'd expect at home and the quantity and variety may even be better; a big difference from the situation in the early days of Antarctic exploration! Today, several base stations even have their own hydroponically grown vegetables.

In summer, workers in the field can look forward to occasional helicopter deliveries of fresh vegetables, fruit and frozen meat. When tenting, food is cooked using small fuel burners; larger gas cookers are used in huts.

Water

Because it never rains in Antarctica, drinking water must be obtained either from the sea, (in which case the salt must be removed in an energy-consuming reverse-osmosis process), or by melting snow or ice. One of the chores in the field is the need to collect and melt snow for drinking, cooking and washing.

Grey water (so called because of the colour of the water after it has been used for washing and cleaning), is collected and retrograded (returned) to Scott Base for disposal.

Surprisingly, the dry conditions in Antarctica mean that fire is a real risk, and a reserve supply of water must also be kept for fire-fighting purposes.

Toilets

In larger, coastal, base stations, sewage is usually mascerated, filtered and then piped into the sea where it disperses and decomposes. In the field, body waste is collected and retrograded to Scott Base for disposal.

Communication

Living in an Antarctic field camp for any length of time can make scientists feel very isolated from the outside world. Radio links with other camps, base stations or home are a vital means of communication on the ice.

Both VHF (very high frequency) and HF (high frequency) battery-powered radios are used. Solar panels keep the batteries charged. VHF radios are used for line-of-sight communication over shorter distances. Repeater stations may be used when there is a physical obstruction like a mountain in the way! HF radios can be used to communicate with anyone else in the world. Signals are bounced off the ionosphere 50 to 100 km above the earth. Reception can be severely disrupted in times of sunspot activity however!

credited to landcareresearch.co.nz

Read More...

While freezing rain is not an uncommon Canadian experience, the ice storm that hit eastern Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick was exceptional. Environment Canada senior climatologist and resident climate expert, David Phillips, provides us with his analysis of how Ice Storm'98 stacks up in the record books.

Ice storms are often winter's worst hazard. More slippery than snow, freezing rain or glaze is tough and tenacious, clinging to every object it touches. A little can be dangerous, a lot can be catastrophic.

Ice storms are a major hazard in all parts of Canada except the North, but are especially common from Ontario to Newfoundland. The severity of ice storms depends largely on the accumulation of ice, the duration of the event, and the location and extent of the area affected. Based on these criteria, Ice Storm'98 was the worst ever to hit Canada in recent memory. From January 5-10, 1998 the total water equivalent of precipitation, comprising mostly freezing rain and ice pellets and a bit of snow, exceeded 85 mm in Ottawa, 73 mm in Kingston, 108 in Cornwall and 100 mm in Montreal. Previous major ice storms in the region, notably December 1986 in Ottawa and February 1961 in Montreal, deposited between 30 and 40 mm of ice - about half the thickness from the 1998 storm event!

The extent of the area affected by the ice was enormous. Freezing precipitation is often described as "a line of" or "spotty occurrences of". At the peak of the storm, the area of freezing precipitation extended from Muskoka and Kitchener in Ontario through eastern Ontario, western Quebec and the Eastern Townships to the Fundy coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In the United States, icing coated Northern New York and parts of New England.

What made the ice storm so unusual, though, was that it went on for so long. On average, Ottawa and Montreal receive freezing precipitation on 12 to 17 days a year. Each episode generally lasts for only a few hours at a time, for an annual average total between 45 to 65 hours. During Ice Storm'98, it did not rain continuously, however, the number of hours of freezing rain and drizzle was in excess of 80 - again nearly double the normal annual total.

Unlucky too! The storm brutalized one of the largest populated and urbanized areas of North America leaving more than four million people freezing in the dark for hours, if not, days. Without question, the storm directly affected more people than any previous weather event in Canadian history. Into the third week following the onset of the storm, more than 700,000 were still without electricity. Had the storm tracked 100 km farther east or west of its main target, the disruptive effect would have been far less crippling.

How did the storm affect Canada:

• at least 25 deaths, many from hypothermia.


• about 900,000 households without power in Quebec; 100,000 in Ontario.


• about 100,000 people took refuge in shelters


• residents were urged to boil water for 24 to 48 hours.


• airlines and railway discouraged travel into the area


• 14,000 troops (including 2,300 reservists) deployed to help with clean up, evacuation and security.


• millions of residents forced into mobile living, visiting family to shower and share a meal or moving in temporarily with a friend or into a shelter.


• prolonged freezing rain brought down millions of trees, 120,000 km of power lines and telephone cables, 130 major transmission towers each worth $100,000 and about 30,000 wooden utility poles costing $3000 each.

The damage in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec was so severe that major rebuilding, not repairing, of the electrical grid had to be undertaken. What it took human beings a half century to construct took nature a matter of hours to knock down.

Farmers were especially hard hit. Dairy and hog farmers were left without power, frantically sharing generators to run milking machines and to care for new-born piglets. Many Quebec maple syrup producers, who account for 70% of the world supply, were ruined with much of their sugar bush permanently destroyed.

Read More...

10. Shark 30 -100 deaths per year.

Sharks are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a streamlined body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits. Sharks have a covering of dermal denticles to protect their skin from damage, parasites and to improve fluid dynamics.

9. Jellyfish over 100 deaths per year.

Jellyfish are marine invertebrates belonging to the Scyphozoan class, and in turn the phylum Cnidaria. The body of an adult jellyfish is composed of a bell-shaped, jellylike substance enclosing its internal structure, from which the creature's tentacles suspend.

8. Hippopotamus over 200 deaths per year.

The Hippopotamus , from the Greek ?pp?p?ta?? , is a large, plant-eating African mammal, one of only two extant, and three or four recently extinct, species in the family Hippopotamidae.

7. Lion over 250 deaths per year.

The lion is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. The lion is the second largest cat, after the tiger. The male lion, easily recognized by his mane, weighs between 150-225 kg and females range 120-150 kg . In the wild, lions live for around 10–14 years, while in captivity they can live over 20 years.

6. Bee over 400 deaths per year.

Bees are flying insects, closely related to wasps and ants. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees, and they may be found on every continent except Antarctica. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source, and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients.

5. Elephant over 600 deaths per year.

Elephantidae is a family of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea in the class Mammalia. Elephantidae has three living species: the African Bush Elephant and the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant .

4. Crocodile up to 2,000 deaths per year.

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e. the true crocodiles, the alligators and caimans and the gharials . The crocodiles, colloquially called crocs, are large aquatic reptiles that live throughout the Tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.

3. Scorpion up to 5,000 deaths per year.

A scorpion is an invertebrate animal with eight legs, belonging to the order Scorpiones in the class Arachnida.

2. Snake over 100,000 deaths per year.

Snakes , also known as ophidians, are cold-blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. There are also several species of legless lizard which superficially resemble snakes, but are not otherwise related to them.

1. Mosquito over 2 million deaths per year resulting from malaria infection caused by mosquito bites.

The mosquito is a member of the family Culicidae; these insects have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. The females of most mosquito species suck blood from other animals.

credited to wikipedia and flickr users: booshank, hand_of_sands, devriese, watzway, princessbalavera, schlechterwolf, charlesbj, 5monthsoff, gdauphin, fdbgraphics

Read More...

NASA's AIM satellite has provided the first global-scale, full-season view of iridescent polar clouds that form 50 miles above Earth’s surface.

The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission is the first satellite dedicated to the study of these noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds. They are called "night shining" clouds by observers on the ground because their high altitude allows them to continue reflecting sunlight after the sun has set below the horizon. AIM has provided the first global-scale view of the clouds over the entire 2007 Northern Hemisphere season with an unprecedented horizontal resolution of 3 miles by 3 miles.

Very little is known about these 'clouds at the edge of space', also called Polar Mesospheric Clouds. How do they form over the summer poles, why are they being seen at lower latitudes than ever before, and why have they been growing brighter and more frequent? During its mission lifetime, AIM will observe a total of two complete polar mesospheric cloud seasons in each polar region, documenting for the first time the entire complex life cycle of Polar Mesospheric Clouds.

"The AIM mission has changed our view of Polar Mesospheric Clouds and their surroundings after only one season of observations," stated AIM Principal Investigator James Russell III of Hampton University, Hampton, Va. "The measurements show the brightest clouds ever observed with more variability and structure than expected, signifying extreme sensitivity to the environment in which the clouds form. They also show that the clouds exist over a broader range in height than was believed to be the case before AIM was launched. The unprecedented sensitivity has revealed for the first time the presence of very small ice particles believed to be responsible for the mysterious radar phenomenon known as "Polar Mesospheric Summertime Echoes".

The bright "night-shining" clouds were seen by the spacecraft's instruments regularly, first appearing on May 25 and lasting until August 25.

The AIM satellite reported daily observations of the clouds at all longitudes and over a broad latitude range extending from 60 degrees North to 85 degrees North. The AIM satellite is currently making the first global observations of the Southern Hemisphere cloud season. The clouds consist of ice crystals formed when water vapor condenses onto dust particles in these coldest regions of our planet, at temperatures that may dip to minus 210 to minus 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

New results from AIM's first Northern Hemisphere season observations show:

1. The most detailed picture of the clouds ever collected showing that they appear every day, they are widespread, and they are highly variable on hourly to daily time scales.

2. That Polar Mesospheric Cloud brightness varies over horizontal scales of about two miles; and over small regions, clouds measured by AIM are ten-fold brighter than measured by previous space-based instruments.

3. The unexpected result that mesospheric ice occurs in one continuous layer extending from below the main peak at 51 miles up to around 55 miles.

4. Observations of a previously suspected, but never before seen, population of very small ice particles believed to be responsible for strong radar echoes from the summertime mesosphere. This was made possible because of the unprecedented sensitivity of the AIM measurements.

5. Polar Mesospheric Cloud structures resolved for the first time that exhibit complex features present in normal tropospheric clouds. This startling similarity suggests that the mesosphere may share some of the same dynamical processes responsible for weather near the surface. If this similarity holds up in further analysis, this opens up an entirely different view of potential mechanisms that can explain why the clouds form and how they vary.

The new results were produced by David Rusch and the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size experiment team, University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space physics (result 1, 2 and 5); and Larry Gordley and Mark Hervig and the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment team, Gats, Inc., Newport News, Va. (results 3 and 4).

AIM is a NASA-funded Small Explorers mission managed by the Explorers Program Office at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

credited by ScienceDaily LLC

Read More...

Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland, one of the most celebrated holiday destinations in the UK. Wild and beautiful, the surrounding countryside isn’t just scenic, it’s teeming with wildlife and yet a host of visitor attractions and Inverness, Scotland’s fastest growing city, are all within easy reach.

The area boasts a great range of activities and accommodation to suit all tastes. In fact, it’s the perfect base for exploring the Highlands and provides a natural link to Skye and the West Coast. And at the loch itself, of course, there’s always a chance to glimpse ‘Nessie’, the world-famous Loch Ness Monster.

No holiday in Scotland is complete without a visit to Loch Ness. Over 20 miles long, a mile wide and 700 feet at its deepest, Loch Ness is the largest body of water in Scotland by volume. The surrounding area is filled with historic attractions, natural wonders, cosy places to stay, and superb eateries. And the Loch Ness Monster is just one of the many myths and legends to be discovered in this particularly mysterious corner of Scotland.

Loch Ness is a holiday destination full of surprises – whether you want to sit back and take in the landscape, explore the history of the area, visit the charming towns and villages like Fort Augustus, Cannich, Strathglass and Drumnadrochit. Or why not enjoy the fresh highland air on a walk along the South Loch Ness shore or for a bigger challenge take the majestic Great Glen Way through some 70 miles of Scotland’s finest scenery.

This website guide will help you find all the information you need to plan your trip to Loch Ness, with suggestions on how to get there, where to stay and what to do. You’ll also find plenty of background information on Loch Ness: its history, its myths, its wildlife, its attractions and its most famous resident, the Loch Ness Monster.,

So, if you’re planning a break in Scotland, or planning to visit the UK put Loch Ness at the top of your list of UK holiday destinations. And remember – there’s something in the water…

Read More...

Situated in south-east Siberia, the 3.15-million-ha Lake Baikal is the oldest (25 million years) and deepest (1,700 m) lake in the world. It contains 20% of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve. Known as the 'Galapagos of Russia', its age and isolation have produced one of the world's richest and most unusual freshwater faunas, which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science.
The Committee inscribed Lake Baikal as the most outstanding example of a freshwater ecosystem on the basis of natrual criteria (vii), (viii), (ix) and (x). It is the oldest and deepest of the world´s lakes containing nearly 20% of the world´s unfrozen freshwater reserve. The lake contains an outstanding variety of endemic flora and fauna, which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science. It is also surrounded by a system of protected areas that have high scenic and other natural values. The Committee took note of the confirmation of the revised boundaries of the site, which correspond to the core areas defined in the Baikal Law (excluding the five urban developed areas). It also noted that the special Lake Baikal Law is now in its second reading in the Duma. Finally, it noted concern over a number of integrity issues including pollution, which should be brought to the attention of the Russian authorities.

Materials provided: unesco.org

Read More...

Last year, one of the Google Earth Community members ‘Valery35′ found a huge picture (36 miles tall) of Santa on Google Earth.












This giant pink bunny (Google Earth coordinates 44.244273,7.769737) in Prata Nevoso, Italy, was built by a group of artists from Vienna, according to published accounts. It's 200 feet long and answers to the name "Hare."







National Geographic partnered with Google Earth on a project called Africa Megaflyover. The magazine has made more than 500 high-resolution images accessible through Google Earth, including this close-up view (Google Earth coordinates 15.298693,19.429661) of camels and their caretakers taking a water break in Nigeria.



Google's satellites sometimes catch the Earth's inhabitants on the move, like these ten African elephants (Google Earth coordinates 10.903497,19.93229).

Read More...