Bare your Soul to Christ!

Churchgoers at the White Tail Chapel in South Hampton, Virginia regularly take off their clothing during worship to get 'closer' to God :).  Some attendees prefer being fully clothed while others take it off to bare their souls to Christ! The non-traditional church is part of the White Tail Resort which happens to be a family nudist community.  It opened in 1984 and is the only year round nudist resort in Virginia.  It has over 10,000 visitors each year.  Allen Parker, the church pastor, argues that some of Jesus's greatest moment occurred while he was nude including his birth and his death.  He was naked when he arose as he left his clothing in the tomb, according to Parker.  He states, "If  God make us this way,  how can we be wrong?".

 

Right or wrong, it's a STRANGE spot... no?

One Man, One Country, One Tree at a Time!!!

Let's starat with the one country...  that would be Burkina Faso.  A landlocked country located in northwestern Africa with a population of 15.3 million citizens.   Life isn't necessarily easy for the people as this country.  Burkina Faso has the lowest GDP per capita in the world at $1,400, a life expectancy of 52 for females and only 50 for males, and less than 10 physicians per 100,000. About 60.5% of women have suffered female genital mulitation.  The people survive off of working in agriculture and through international assistance.  Statistics on religion are difficult as Christianity and Islam are often practiced in tandem with indigenous beliefs. 
The northern portions of Burkina Faso falls in the Sahel Belt, a semi-arid region between the Sahara Desert to the north and the tropical savannahs further south.  The Sahel Belt suffers from drought at times.  In the 1970s, a drought occurred resulting in famine killing large amounts of people.  Droughts in the area have caused widespread 'desertification'.   Combined with other factors such as overgrazing, poor land management, and overpopulations, the drought led to substantial increase in barren land, particularly on slopes, due to the difficulty cultivating  sloped land.   The soil on uncultivated land experiences erosion and compaction.  Now the man!  That would be YACOUBA SAWADOGO!!!!!  I don't know his age, but he has appears to out lived the national average of most males.  He is wise, committed and has a strong will.   Desertification continued with little intervention, so this wonderful man decided he would do it himself, eventually starting a movement.

In the 1980s, Yacouba and another local farm innovator, Mathieu began experiments with techniques for rehabilitating damaged soil. Relying on simple time tested 'traditional' approaches, they planted successfully in the desert and on the slopes.   The created a forested area of over 50 acres!  Yacouba is known as "the man who stopped the desert!"  They have now started outreach effort to spread their technique throughout the region. 

Unfortunately the land he cultivated was annexed by the nearby city of Ouahigouya,  under the auspices of government program to increase city revenues.  Yacouba Sawadogo and his immediate family members have been offered each 1/10 of an acre and no other compensation.  He was raising money to purchase the land for himself.  I was unable to determine if he was successful,  but I can't imagine this man being unsuccessful.  We can only hopes that he continues to educate and his techniques continue to spread.  

 

Swan Lake Encore!

Sveltoe Lake (meaning Clear Lake) located near the village of Urozhaineo village in Serbia is also known as 'Swan Lake' to locals. Swan typically fly south to warmer climates in the winter as lakes freeze over. Here, the swans arrive for the winter making place a strange spot. Although the air is well below freezing, the lake never typically hovers around 45 degrees, not exactly warm but certainly not freezing. The lake is fed by many warm springs keeping it comfortable for the birds.
The swans have been frequenting the lake in the winter since 1967.  The population has been gradually increasing every years to now a healthy population of about 350 and rising. The swans leave after winter to the northern polar areas of Siberia in Marh and come back with their young nine months later. As the Whooper Swans are known to be cautious, the locals have created a special viewing area and floats for feeding the swans  to get a close up view. The swans aren't the only critters to enjoy this winter wonderland. They share the lake with various ducks, Teals and Pintails.

 

 

Gaint Bird Toaster :(

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a solar thermal power project in California's Mojave Desert. It's 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas.   The site deploys 173,500 heliostats, each with two mirrors, focusing solar energy on boilers located on centralized solar power towers.   The facility opened on Feb 13, 2014 and it should be fully operation by the end of the year. The project cost about 2.2 billion. The site is visible from Mojave National Preserve, Mesquite Wilderness and Stateline Wilderness. The project however has generated controversy because of the decision to build it on a ecologically intact desert habitat. The project disturbed 5.5 square miles of public land. On the bright side, the project will reduce carbon dioxide emission by more than 400,000 tons annually.
In 2012 the project was postponed to do desert tortoises found on the site. Since then, a fence as been constructed around the property to potentially keep all wildlife off of the property. Sadly the fence can't keep out wild birds who have entered the plant and have been burned. They feathers were burned and charred during flight by intense radiation from the heliostat mirrors. Currently, regulators are attempting to determine how many bird deaths are considered excessive enough to shut down the plant, at least temporarily.

All and All it's Just Another Brick on The Wall.

 

Here's a challenge and a very strange spot.  Diga di Luzzone Dam has more than one purpose.  It's located in Blenio, Switzerland and is considered the Everest of wall climbing. A German manufacturer of climbing holds installed 650 artificial holds and bolts. It's 540 feet to the top and hosts five unique pitches.  Climbers must use a ladder for the first 20 feet of the wall.  The manufacturer did this intentionally  to prevent children and casual climbers from ascending the wall.  It has five amazing pitches and a million dollar view of the Apls!  If you decide to climb this wall,  you will definitely have an audience cheering you along the way.

Macaw's Hole :)!

Buraco Das Araras (Macaw's Hole)  is located in the state of Mato Grosso de Sul, Brazil (South America) near Bonito.  It's an amazing sandstone crater created from the collapse of boulders.  The crater is about 1640 feet in diameter and up to 415 feet deep (about that of a 41 story building).  At the bottom of the crater a green water pond can be found surrounded by a lush forest.  The cater is a geological formation known as a doline.  It is characterized by the corrosion of limestone below the surface.  There of only 5 dolines of this type in the world.  Many creatures have made this crater there home including macaws, toucans, armadillos, anteaters, coatis, over 120 other bird species and the broad snouted caimans (alligator like).  The walls of the crater have tunnels, terraces and caves.

Local legends report that the abyss leads to a extraterrestrial shelter or is an entrance to an underground world inhabited by a race of intelligent beings virtually unknown to mankind.  Whatever the case,  if your in the area, you can hike a short trail to an observation deck to enjoy the wildlife and view :). Macaws are LOUD.. I'm wondering if there is an echo :).

 

 

 

 

Interracial Rivers!

I've discovered online more than a few rivers of different shades that have found themselves joining together :).

The marriage of the Green River and the Colorado River (Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA) 

Marriage of the Alaknanda Ruver and the Bhagirathi River (Devprayag, India).

Marriage of the Ohio River and the Mississippi Rivers (Cairo, IL USA)

Marriage of the Mosel River and the Rhine River (Koblenz,Germany)

Marriage of the Thompson River and the Fraser River (Lytton, BC Canada).

 Marriage of the Rhone and the Arve River (Geneva, Switzerland).

Marriage of the Ilz the Danube and the  Inn Rivers (Passau, Germany)

Marriage of the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes (Manaus, Brazil).

A river baby made of love!

Shipwreck Heaven

This is the one and only.... Navagio Beach (Greek: Ναυάγιο),  or Shipwreck Beach or even Smuggler's Cove. Whatever you want to call it.. I call it HEAVEN!    It's located on the northwest shore (near Anafortiria Village) of Zakynthos, in the Ionian Islands of Greece. 

The island was previously known as Agios Georgios, until the early 1980s when a freightliner named Panagiotis, smuggling cigarettes, wine, woman and other contraband crashed into it's shores.  Apparently, the ship was being pursued by authorities in stormy weather which contributed to it's demise.  As the ship was abandoned, it remains snuggled in the cove's white sand, just waiting to pose for another photograph.  The small cove is surrounded by limestone cliffs, crystal clear blue waters and a white sand beach.  It is a major tourist attraction.  Thousands of tourist board tiny ships (even glass bottom boats) to visit this cove as it's only accessible by boat.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Life on Jupiter's Moon?

Not much to see or do at Lake Vostok, Antarctica, unless are Russian research scientist. However, there is a lot to learn about Lake Vostok, and it is most definitely a strange spot on this Earth.   It's only one of Antarctica's 400 known lakes under the surface of it's ice sheet.  The ice sheet is a whooping  11,400 above mean sea level. Lake Vostok is a fresh water lake approximately 13,100 feet under the ice!!!  It's rather large at  160 long and 30 miles wide.  The liquid water depth is as deep as 2,600 feet.  The lake is under complete darkness and oddly enough, is subject to tides.   The lake was discovered long ago when flying over Antarctica, a scientist noticed it's smooth ice surface.  It wasn't until 2012 that Russian Scientists drilled into the ice.  Ice that hasn't been disturbed for possibly 15 to 25 million years (it was only 66 million years ago that Antarctica was a tropical environment with plenty of life).  On Feb 5, 2012, the Russians drilled to the depth of 12,400 ft (a record) and entered the surface of the lake.  Water then rushed into the bore hole.  The first deep ice was collected for research on Jan 10, 2013.  Water samples are waiting to be collected and analyzed.
One theory is that Vostok could resemble conditions on ice covered oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa.  Could there be life up there???  Maybe :).  What keep the lake water is do to the high pressure from the weight of the ice above it and most likely geothermal heat from the Earth's interior.  The ice sheet also acts as an insulator. Today, Vostok Station is located on the lake for research.  It is here that the coldest temperature in the world were recorded at -128 degrees (the average temperature is 27 degrees).   Initial samples of the ice's deep core did show living micro-organ, however it is unclear if the drill contaminated the ice.  More samples are being collected with cleaner drills.  Time will tell.  The Russians aren't the only ones trying to research Antarctica's lakes. The British have been working to penetrate anther sub-glacial lake, Lake Ellsworth, in West Antarctica, using  a hot water drill,  which is much cleaner and less likely to contaminate.