Vasyugan Swamp is located in western Siberia in Russia and it is considered as world’s largest swamp. It is bigger than the Switzerland, it covers the surface of 53,000 square kilometers.

This swamp is a source of water for a large number of small rivers and it is also used as a water-source for local settlements and towns. This area contains about 800 smaller lakes. But this swamp is not only the biggest. The whole area is a true resource of amazing landscapes. It also contains a large number of endemic species of animals and plants.

There are a few of places in this world which tickle the imagination of every visitor who sees them and which could be described as a border between the real and unreal world. One of such places is this small and for us still unknown village in Estonia which has a true spirit of fairy tale like environment.

Cold winters aren’t so unusual for Estonia and here you can see how winter can create wonderful scenes which could be perfect for filming some movie based on a fairy tale. This place is true oasis of astonishing icicles. Even the vegetation has been surrounded by ice and snow. The most unusual thing is that those icicles are not so white as expected, they are colored in some kind of yellow which gives this place some special flare.

The colossal mammal is being ruthlessly slaughtered to extinction by ivory poachers with the population – currently 600,000 – diminishing by 38,000 a year.

These figures, calculated using the annual number of illegal tusk seizures, significantly exceed elephant birth rates meaning the species could face extinction entirely within 15 years, says Samuel Wasser of the Scientific American Journal.

The worldwide illegal trade in wildlife is valued at 10s of billions of American dollars (£12.5billion) and is believed to have the same significance now as the blood-diamond trade during the peak of the African civil wars.

In 2006, 11 metric tonnes of illegal ivory were seized from ships bound for Taiwan and Japan.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says immediate action needs to be taken. The group calls for EU and CITES members (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to stop supporting legal ivory sales. Instead, they urge members to back Kenya’s proposal to extend the current “resting period” on elephant and ivory sales from nine to 20 years at the next CITES meeting in March 2010.

“This alarming level of illegal hunting could drive the African elephant to extinction across much of Africa in just 15 years,” said Robbie Marsland, director of IFAW UK.

He added: “Most people will be shocked to hear that, 20 years on from a ban on international ivory trade, elephants in Africa are still threatened by commercial poaching. The ivory trade must be banned once again, and comprehensively, if we want to prevent the extinction of elephants.

“Sadly, the truth is that ivory trade anywhere is a threat to elephants everywhere.”

Chad’s Zakouma National Park had 3,885 elephants in 2005 but by 2009 the figure had plummeted to just 617. At least 11 rangers were killed by poachers there over the same period.

Elephants are not alone in the illegal trafficking of wildlife parts. In the last few years, 55,000 reptile skins from India, 19,000 big-eye thresher shark fins in Ecuador and 23 metric tonnes of pangolin in Asia have all been seized.

It is used by South American Indians to poison their hunting spears, arrows and fishing hooks and in sacred ceremonies by Hindu monks for its hallucinogenic qualities.

Its poison causes dry mouth, blurred vision, heart irregularities, hallucinations, and eventually coma and death in severe cases.

She and husband George, 84, only made the discovery after contacting the Royal Horticultural Society who identified the plant as highly venomous.

While its arrival is a mystery, the couple have been told the seed may have arrived via bird droppings and random sightings normally only occur in mainland Europe.

Mrs Abbott, of Newmarket, Suffolk, said: “I first saw it when I was gardening in the springtime, it was just growing in the border of my garden.

“I have no idea how it got there, I’m completely puzzled.

“It was just a tiny little thing when I found it but it has been growing and growing every since and now it is as high as my chest.

“The Royal Horticultural Society said these things can grow to be 12 feet high.”

Datura Stramonium has large, pale, trumpet shaped flowers and spiny pods.

The Royal Horticultural Society told the Abbotts that the plant’s poison could be dangerous to humans and pets and advised them to dig it up.

Mrs Abbott, who have nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, said: “I have never ever seen anything like it before in my life.

“The Royal Horticultural Society said it could be dangerous, but only if we don’t handle it properly.

“We are not worried because we know about it now and can keep away from it.

“It will stay in my garden until the weekend in case anyone wants to come and see it, but then I am going to cut it down.”

James Armitage of the Royal Horticultural Society, said: “These plants are not native to Britain and we think their seeds are spread by birds.

“They belong to the same family as Deadly Nightshade and are highly poisonous if eaten.

“If you find one in your garden and have young children or are worried you can dig them up, but you can grow them as ornamental plants.

“It is worth remembering that there are lots of other poisonous plants which are much more common in British gardens, like aconite and yew.”

Datura Stramonium, also known as Devil’s Apple or Trumpet, is native to central and south America, is a bushy plant that can grow to 12 feet tall.

It has long angular leaves, spiny seed pods and pale, trumpet-shaped flowers.

It is a member of the Nightshade family, though its poison acts more strongly on the brain than its more famous cousin, Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade).

The leaves give off a pungent nauseating odour and the flowers smell sweet, but both are narcotic and can induce hallucinations or stupor if breathed in for too long.

Its seeds are particularly poisonous if eaten.

Wudnt mind walking along those roads any given day …

Which of these beautiful roads would you like to walk?

Dutch style aquascapes

The Dutch aquarium follows an orderly, often symmetrical arrangement, in which multiple types of plants having diverse leaf colors, sizes and textures are displayed much as terrestrial plants are shown in a flower garden. This style was developed in the Netherlands starting in the 1930’s, as freshwater aquarium equipment became commercially available. It emphasizes plants located on terraces of different heights, and frequently omits rocks and driftwood. Linear rows of plants running left-to-right are referred to as “Dutch streets.” Tall growing plants that cover the back glass originally served the purpose of hiding bulky equipment in the tank.

Nature style aquascapes

Biotopes

Paludariums

In a paludarium, part of the aquarium is underwater, and part is above water. This allows plants to grow emersed, with their roots underwater but their tops in the air, as well as completely submersed.

]]> http://www.crystalkiss.com/fall-into-the-autumn-journey-with-mother-nature-with-these-beautiful-photography/feed/ 5 http://www.crystalkiss.com/the-worlds-most-amazing-secluded-houses/ http://www.crystalkiss.com/the-worlds-most-amazing-secluded-houses/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:53:08 +0000 admin http://www.crystalkiss.com/?p=699 Great photos of incredibly secluded houses which sets deep remotely into places where there doesn’t seem to have any ease of communications and transport. Unsure whether anyone dwells in these houses but they do seem great to live where we could get away from the pollution of city life.

Some people can’t imagine to have houses in crowded big cities, because they strive to loneliness and tranquility. May be they build walls instead of bridges but it is up for them to decide what and how to do. Homes are not 5 star holidays, but they look really beautiful!

The following collection is amazing and it shows great photos of secluded houses, some of them are situated too far to be true and the places they are located are that remote I can barely understand how they get there. Do you have any ideas?

He’s never been so busy, this former political editor of the BBC. There is his new series on the making of modern Britain, near to completion, with the obligatory book-of-the-series. Soon, he will take to the skies again, spewing CO2 into the atmosphere in pursuit of the “mega city”, the subject of his next documentary series. And on top of that are his Sunday morning chat show on BBC1, and Start the Week on Radio 4. “It’s project after project,” he says, “but I prefer it to being bored.”

It is hard to imagine Marr, 50, succumbing to ennui. There is a whippet-like energy to him, which finds expression in hard work and long runs; his conversation is similarly animated.

We have met to talk about Galapagos Day, which falls tomorrow. Marr is chairman of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, a British charity that works to preserve species unique to the islands, many of which are close to extinction. His fascination with the archipelago was born of a single visit in 2002, when he was filming a documentary on the life of Charles Darwin for the Great Britons series. As every schoolboy knows, Darwin, whose birth 200 years ago was celebrated this year, developed his theory of natural selection following his visit to the islands in 1835 on board HMS Beagle.

“I fell in love with the place. There is nowhere more interesting or extraordinary,” says Marr. “The islands look different, smell different and the light is different. And, of course, there are these extraordinary species.”

Marr, a confirmed atheist since the age of 15, had read Darwin before being asked by the BBC to select a Great Briton to champion. The naturalist was a natural choice. “Of all the big ideas that appeared in the 19th century, his is the only one left standing. The more you look at it, the more right you realise he was. The other theories from that time, Marxism and Freudianism and the rest, have all crashed, but not his.

“There is also something very likeable about Darwin. A lot of great writers and thinkers have turned out to be absolute sh–s, in one way or another. Darwin was a fantastically decent man: kind, self-deprecating and humorous.”

Marr is a master of self-deprecation, describing himself as a “bumbling hack for most of my life”. Critics detect a certain smugness in his delivery, but he is anxious to dispel any impression of self-importance. Being good on television is harder than learning to ride a bike, he says, but easier than playing the piano, even playing it badly.

“The biggest danger is getting what my grandmother called a ’swollen head’, and thinking you are a more interesting person because you are on the telly. It can be head-turning, and yet people on the television are by and large not extraordinary, talented or deep-thinking.”

Marr is equally protective of another endangered species, the one that pays his salary. Last month, the BBC was savaged by James Murdoch, son of Rupert and chairman of News Corporation’s European and Asian divisions, for abusing its dominant position as a news provider. At the Edinburgh television festival, Murdoch Jr described the scale of Auntie’s ambitions as “chilling”, accusing the corporation of “dumping free, state-sponsored news” on the internet, to the detriment of commercial providers. To Marr, it is no more than hyperbole.

“The BBC is standing in the way of Murdoch’s personal corporate aggrandisement. Get rid of the BBC and the Murdoch empire rips ahead in all directions. It would be the biggest single commercial coup of his entire life.”

The destruction of the corporation, which is under pressure to share the licence fee with other broadcasters, would mark the end of a distinct strand in the cultural life of the nation. “The BBC provides a neutral and calm place to talk about politics and public affairs. It represents a distinct tradition that exists nowhere else. Without it, we would be utterly submerged in American broadcasting, as other European countries are.

“One of the big canards James Murdoch and others have been pushing is that the problem is the BBC. If it wasn’t for the BBC website, newspapers could charge on-line subscriptions and that would be fine, they say. If that was true, American newspapers would be doing jolly well, whereas they are, in fact, in even worse condition than British newspapers.”

Born into a middle-class, Tory-voting Scots family, and educated privately in Scotland before taking a first in English at Cambridge, Marr was a committed Left-winger in his youth. Given that he is married to Jackie Ashley, political commentator for The Guardian (with whom he has three children), that must make him a bourgeois BBC pinko. Right?

“I would completely contest the view, which I know is all over the blogosphere, that I’m a paid-up Leftie. If you look at what I have said in books and columns, you could not pin me down. My politics are reasonably strong, but all over the place in terms of the party political spectrum. But I can’t talk about them. When you sign up to the BBC you get great things, but you also give up quite a lot. You have to take your opinions and put them on the shelf.”

An aura of neutrality is, he says, essential when interviewing politicians.

“Nick Clegg or David Cameron or Gordon Brown have a right to know, when coming to be interviewed by me, that I’m not someone who has put my views out there first.”

But he must be able to say something about his beliefs? “I’m certainly not a statist. But there is no party I could stand for – I have eclectic views.”

There are more drawbacks to fame than having to observe a form of political omerta. Last year, Marr was the subject of unwelcome internet speculation about his private life.

“I don’t talk about that,” he says, before adding: “There is no point in being poncey – you have to accept you are looked at more. But I think everyone is entitled to a private life – unless they are a wildly hypocritical mass-murderer or something. Hacks are looking for the story, of course. But there are always limits to the story.”

He bemoans the media obsession with celebrity, describing it as “sugar-rush journalism”, but believes there will always be an appetite for serious, original journalism. His decision to leave the political job followed the realisation that he did not want one role to define his life. But he cannot quite let go of politics.

“There are fascinating questions ahead. If the Tories come to power, what will be the size of their majority; how will they handle public spending? You can see the horrendous dilemmas in front of them.”

Those who chide journalists for concentrating on personalities are, he contends, mistaken.

“You need the theatre, you need the Spitting Image characters, you need Mandelson to be a great figure. We are not bloodless, we are not policy wonks, we need flesh and blood to represent the clash of ideas. Politics is theatre. You learn about life watching politics – it is not distant from life. The people who speak wonderfully but never deliver; the people who trudge on and are a bit dreary, and do deliver, but never make it because they are a bit dreary.”

Cameron, he says, has so far evolved successfully to meet the requirements of political natural selection.

“He is very formidable. Nobody knows what he’s going to be like. He wasn’t expected by a lot of people to emerge as leader, and he did. He was much laughed at for his early phase and got through that perfectly well. The world around him has changed radically and he has been able to make that change. But what he’s going to be like – I don’t think he knows. It’s going to be a hard road.”

And Brown? “He is a very clever man, and remains a clever man. But leadership is a horrendously, devastating, testing thing.”

To mark Galapagos Day, Marr will be joining Sir David Attenborough at the Royal Geographical Society in London to talk about the islands. He believes people should visit them but, given the pressure placed on its delicate ecology, it should be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

“I’m never going back,” he says. “It’s great to go once, but go responsibly.”

In MS, the immune system attacks the central nervous system. The new treatment, called GIFT15, is composed of two proteins, GSM-CSF and interleukin-15, that are fused in the lab. Normally, the individual proteins act to stimulate the immune system, but when they’re stuck together, the proteins suppress immune response, the researchers explained.

They do this by converting B-cells — a type of white blood cell normally involved in immune response — into immune suppressive cells.

“GIFT15 can take your normal, run-of-the-mill B-cells and convert them … into these super-powerful B-regulatory cells,” study team leader Dr. Jacques Galipeau, of the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal, said in a university news release.

He and his colleagues took normal B-cells from mice and sprinkled GIFT15 on the B-cells. “And when we gave them back intravenously to mice ill with multiple sclerosis, the disease went away,” Galipeau said.

The treatment was fully effective with a single dose, and no significant side effects were seen in the mice, the researchers reported.