Sumba Island
Legend has it that Sumba's first inhabitants descended a ladder from heaven, but as soon as their feet hit the ground, they started battling. The natives' reputation convinced European traders to avoid the island in southern Indonesia, leaving it relatively undeveloped for centuries. The warrior culture lives on in the annual Pasola ritual war festival held each February and March, in which horsemen from various tribes joust using spears. For more mellow activities, the island's southern coast has great surfing — 12-foot swells are not uncommon.
Source: http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-23518292;_ylc=X3oDMTIwbjhrMmlwBF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEX3MDMjcxOTQ4MQRzZWMDZnAtdG9kYXltb2QEc2xrA2RyZWFtaXNsYW5kcy0yMDA4LTgtMjQ-
America's Most Affordable Places to Retire
Factors like the cost of living, jobs and access to health services make these cities tops for those in their second acts.
A significant number of Americans will soon retire, but many won't be looking so much for a place to settle down as to live it up.
That's what they'll find in Columbus, Ohio. This river city tops our list of most affordable places to retire, thanks to reasonably priced housing relative to income and a 4.5% inflation rate that allows a buck to stretch a little further than other quickly growing areas. With tens of thousands of Ohio State Buckeyes, folks will enjoy the verve and energy that comes with a bustling college town.
Texas also welcomes retirees. Dallas and Houston ranked second and fourth, respectively. A warm climate and growing economies make both of these spots great places to live up their golden years. Each city can brag about latter-year employment possibilities for the enterprising type; that's because 20% of those 65 and over collect a weekly paycheck.
Minneapolis, Minn. ranked third. The South made a strong showing with No. 9 Atlanta and No. 10 Nashville, Tenn.
Source: http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-most-affordable-places-to-retire.html
Our Imperiled Oceans
The world's largest protected area, established this year in the remote Pacific, points the way to restoring marine ecosystems.
At first sight, the people of Kiribati, a nation of tiny islands in the central Pacific, would not appear to be model conservationists. Trash is abundant all along Tarawa, the capital island, a skinny atoll shaped like a backward L and crammed with 40,000 people. (It was the site of one of the costliest landings in World War II, in which 1,000 U.S. marines were killed.) The rustic charm of the traditional thatched houses, which have raised platform floors and no walls, is offset by the smell of human waste wafting from the beaches. The groundwater is contaminated. Infant mortality is high, life expectancy low. And yet this past January impoverished Kiribati established the world's largest protected area, a marine reserve the size of California.
It surrounds the Phoenix Islands, a remote, largely unpopulated archipelago 1,000 miles east of Tarawa. The 158,000-square-mile Phoenix Islands Protected Area, covering about 12 percent of Kiribati's watery domain, holds some of the world's most pristine coral reefs as well as a great abundance and diversity of tropical marine life. And it's the first reserve to place such a large area of open ocean off-limits to commercial fishing. The reserve is one of the planet's ecological bright spots, the boldest, most dramatic effort to save the oceans' coral reefs, the richest habitat in the seas. No wonder the I-Kiribati (pronounced ee-kiri-bahs, which is what the people call themselves; the country is pronounced kiri-bahs) want to showcase the reserve as a uniquely un- spoiled center for marine science, recreational diving and eco-tourism.
Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/26868194.html
Macau Hits the Jackpot
It's Saturday night and jet foils are pulling into Macau's ferry terminal every 15 minutes, bearing crowds from Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen, each about 40 miles distant. A mile to the north, arrivals by land elbow their way toward customs checkpoints in a hall longer than two football fields. By 9 o'clock, visitors will arrive at the rate of some 16,000 an hour. They carry pockets full of cash and very little luggage. Most will stay one day or less. They will spend almost every minute in one of Macau's 29 casinos.
On their way to the hospitality buses that provide round-the-clock transit to the casinos, few of the land travelers will give more than a glance to a modest stone arch built in 1870 by the Portuguese, who administered Macau for almost 450 years.
Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/26869304.html
Odyssey's End?: The Search for Ancient Ithaca
A British researcher believes he has at last pinpointed the island to which Homer's wanderer returned and a new wealth of data supports his thesis.
For more than 2,000 years, scholars have been mystified—and intrigued—by a question central to our understanding of the ancient world: where is the Ithaca described in Homer’s Odyssey? The descriptions in the epic poem do not coincide with the geography of the modern island of Ithaca, one of the Ionian islands off the western coast of Greece.
Since 2003, an interdisciplinary team of geologists, classicists and archaeologists has proposed a paradigm-shifting answer to that longstanding mystery. Their breakthrough thesis—that the peninsula of Paliki on the Ionian island of Cephalonia is the site of ancient Ithaca—was revealed in Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Ancient Ithaca, published to acclaim by Cambridge University Press in 2006.
Today, in the journal Geoscientist, the team of pioneering scholars releases detailed results and photographs from research conducted during the first year of sponsorship by FUGRO, the global geotechnical, survey and geoscientific service company. The wealth of new data provides dramatic support for the thesis that Paliki is indeed the site of ancient Ithaca.
Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/ithaca.html
Brisbane Eye
Brisbane Eye... taken by a friend while walking along South Bank Brisbane river. -- Photo sent by V
Brisbane eye
Brisbane Eye... taken by a friend while walking along South Bank Brisbane river. -- Photo sent by V
Lake near Hengshui City
Photo from Hengshui City. Thanks to Prof Fu Yuhua
Hengshui City
Photo from Hengshui City. Thanks to Prof Fu Yuhua
Cyprus launches historic talks for peace deal
NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus leaders launch talks on September 3 to reunite the divided island in what diplomats say is the best chance in decades to end a conflict threatening Turkey's European Union aspirations.
Mediators are pinning hopes on two moderates -- newly elected Greek Cypriot Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot Mehmet Ali Talat -- for a realistic prospect of ending a feud that has long defied international efforts.
"This is the best chance on Cyprus in at least a generation," said a diplomat close to the talks, speaking on confition of anonymity. "Both leaders are genuinely committed for a deal, and that is what was lacking before."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080901/wl_nm/cyprus_talks_dc
