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Stretching his hand out to catch the stars, he forgets the flowers at his feet

26/11/2024

"We were surprised – we had to double check it was real," says Anna Wåhlin, professor of physical oceanography at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. "But we realised, it really does look like this – there are these shapes. There is a landscape of ice down there we had no idea about before," she says.
In 2022, an international team of scientists led by Wåhlin lowered an unmanned submersible underneath 350m (1,150ft) thick Antarctic ice. For 27 days, it travelled over 1,000km (621miles) back and forth under the Dotson Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, scanning the ice above it with an advanced sonar. The result was the very first map of the underside of an ice shelf – and the discovery of an otherworldly ice-scape – which Wåhlin likens to seeing the dark side of the moon for the first time.
The never before seen "swirls and scoops" map the meltwater's journey as it flows beneath the ice, giving us a new understanding of how the ocean melts Antarctica's ice – and how its fate could affect us all.

05/11/2024

Five years ago, Haldre Rogers attended a get-together on the island of Guam – an emerald-green smudge in the western Pacific Ocean, around 2,492km (1,548 miles) from the Philippines. But soon the party was interrupted by an uninvited guest.
It was late evening, and outside there was a hog roasting – the remains of dinner. The fire was going down, though still warm. Everyone briefly walked off to chat. When they came back, there was a brown form curled around the pig – something shiny and scaly, with vertical slit-eyes and a wide, smiling mouth. The creature was ripping off chunks of the pig's flesh and swallowing them whole – slowly gulping them into its pale, distended body.
"It wasn't [exactly] a 400-pound (181kg) pig, but it was a pig for a big party," says Rogers, an associate professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech in the US, who has been studying Guam's ecology for the last 22 years.

31/10/2024

The Azores Islands created the largest MPA in the North Atlantic in October 2024, spanning 287,000 sq km (110, 811 sq miles) and protecting 30% of the sea surrounding the Portuguese archipelago. Portugal's first MPA was designed by local fishers who were eager to protect octopus and sardine populations in the Algarve. Spanning 156 sq km (60.2 sq miles) of sea, with a 20 sq km (12.4 sq miles) no-fishing zone, the area has given nature a chance to replenish and ensure vital food sources are available long into the future.
"For centuries, Azoreans have been tied to the sea, and we want to ensure that this connection remains strong by supporting communities that depend on a healthy ocean," says Luis Bernardo Brito e Abreu, a government advisor in the Azores. "Our hope is that our action will not only benefit our people and wildlife in the Azores, but inspire the rest of the world to reach their global commitments to protect 30% of the ocean."

25/10/2024

Based on that experience, and a leisurely 32km pedal near my Vermont home recently, I decided to hop on a Greyhound bus to Montréal with my sister, a more experienced biker, and spend five days tackling the Véloroute Gourmande: a 235km paved and gravel cycling trail connecting Montréal and the city of Sherbrooke in southern Québec.
That's how I found myself sopping wet from unrelenting rain, wearing padded bike shorts beneath running tights, multiple shirts under a rain jacket and dripping onto the wooden floorboards of one of the most charming coffee shops I've ever entered, Yamaska Café in Farnham, Québec. I'm not yet an intermediate rider, but I'm certainly a stubborn beginner. And a hungry one.
Luckily, I was – quite literally – on the right track. Launched in April 2022, the Véloroute Gourmande passes more than 100 culinary stops, from farmers' markets and vineyards to casual pubs and elegant farm-to-table restaurants, as it threads through the region's bucolic villages and lake-laced landscape. As a food writer, goose farmer, cooking teacher and restaurant chef, I was keen to turn my attention from the woods where I forage for wild mushrooms and my garden, which abounds with heirloom tomatoes, uncommon herbs and edible flowers, north to explore the culinary heritage of the Québecois countryside.

21/10/2024

Every day since, Martin's team has been working to clear the water, clean up, inventory and repair everything that's been broken and lost, she says. "There's a significant amount of work to be done over the next few weeks to months," says Martin.
She doesn't yet know when they'll be able to recover fully, but says she considers the response to Hurricane Helene a success: her team deployed the aquarium's storm preparation plan without a blip. The plan is thoroughly reviewed and updated by the organisation every year, says Martin, and consists of moving equipment and animal exhibits to higher grounds if necessary. Through Helene, they kept their animals as safe as they could.
Now the aquarium is bracing for the impacts of Hurricane Milton, less than two weeks after the destruction from Helene. It's just one of many zoos and aquariums making urgent preparations. The Florida Aquarium has moved nine penguins, a smack of moon jellies, six snakes, three lizards, three turtles, two alligators, two toads and a hermit crab from their enclosures on the first floor to higher, safer ground.

25/09/2024

Although Tolkien didn't directly document the influence of places along the trail, there are several sources of likely inspiration. The route passes the stately home Hacking Hall where, during Tolkien's time, there was a wooden ferry barge, the Hacking Ferry, that carried people across the River Ribble. In The Fellowship of the Ring, the Bucklebury Ferry (also outside a stately home, Brandy Hall) carries the hobbits across the Brandywine River in similar fashion while they are fleeing a fearsome spectral horseman.
The local landowning family near Stonyhurst, meanwhile, were called the Shireburns – and the similarly named River Shirebourne appears in Tolkien's geography of Middle-earth. Tolkien's maps, meanwhile, depict the convergence of three rivers – the Shirebourne, Withywindle and Brandywine – in a way that exactly mirrors the meeting of the Hodder, Ribble and Calder rivers here in Lancashire. In addition, St Mary's Church in the nearby village of Newchurch-in-Pendle bears an unusual feature: an eye-shaped carving halfway up the tower, known as the Eye of God, which resembles the all-seeing Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings books and movies.

13/09/2024

Oasis have hit out at Ticketmaster's so-called "dynamic pricing", which saw fans pay significantly more than they were expecting for tickets to their shows.
A row erupted over the weekend after many fans were asked to pay as much as £350 per ticket, around £200 more than had been advertised, due to demand.
In a statement issued to PA Media, the band said: "It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management."
They added they had "at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used" in the sale of tickets for the initial dates.

The band's statement came as they announced two further live shows at Wembley Stadium on 27 and 28 September 2025.
Oasis said tickets for the new dates would be handed out via a "staggered, invitation-only ballot process".

04/09/2024

The Waveney is my local river, too. And as this year marks 25 years since Deakin's ground-breaking book Waterlog: A Swimmer's Journey Through Britain, which arguably launched Britain's wild swimming movement by embracing the outdoors, encouraging the "right to swim" and arguing that "natural water has always held the magical power to cure", I wanted to journey the length of this waterway most Brits haven’t heard of with a dip, kayak and pedal about to unearth its allure.
Deakin lived for 26 years in a 16th-Century farmhouse in the village of Mellis, four miles south of the Waveney, where he would swim in its moat. His regular wild dip sparked the idea of 36 swim adventures in places across Britain. Breaststroke inspired pen stroke and his cult classic emerged. In his three dozen plunges for Waterlog, he took in the Isles of Scilly with a snorkel and submersions in ice-cold tarns in Wales. But the Waveney was his favourite river and he would return to it time and again, devoting much of the chapter Extinctions to the waterway.

20/08/2024

As a smaller country bordered by five other nations, Switzerland has been influenced by various cultures and languages throughout its existence, which has led to positive styles of governance, according to residents. "One big cultural influence is our history as a 'nation by will', with a lot of minorities (cultural, ethnic, language etc), resulting in a high sensitivity and acceptance of compromises," said resident Res Marty, founder of Switzerland Beyond Chocolate.
The country famously practices direct democracy where every citizen gets a vote on laws and referendums, which helps residents feel like they have a real voice when it comes to how they live and how their tax dollars are spent. "In our village, they wanted to extend the school so there was a vote to raise the tax for five years to pay for it," said Rosamund Tagel, founder of Glow Concierge, who lives and works in Zürich. "The vote passed with an overwhelming majority because people understand the importance of education."

We spoke to residents about how these policies shape Switzerland as a premier place to live, and how they contribute to an overall higher quality and enjoyment of life.

02/08/2024

Another experiment recruited US students taking Graduate Record Examinations that are part of university admissions for higher degrees. Before a mock exam, some participants were provided with a short text reminding them that anxiety can sometimes be beneficial to performance. "This means that you shouldn't feel concerned if you do feel anxious while taking today's GRE test. If you find yourself feeling anxious, simply remind yourself that your arousal could be helping you do well."
They subsequently performed better on the mock exam and the real thing, with particular improvements on the maths section – the area most likely to trigger their anxiety. The scientists name this mental shift "reappraisal" – and note that it's a way of "turning the knots into your stomach into bows", a sentiment worthy of the happy-go-lucky Joy.

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