Beautiful Ethereal Tree Landscapes By The Swiss Photographer Pierre Pellegrinni...

Swiss photographer Pierre Pellegrinni uses ultra long exposures to obtain the beautiful, ethereal, foggy atmosphere that is present in his images of tree landscapes. You can see many more of his beautiful photographs here and here...

One Of The Most Amazing Dance Routines You'll Ever See! On Ukraine's Got Talent...

This is one of the most incredibly creative dance routines you'll ever see.
You don't need to understand a word
of the language to know the amazed judges awarded this dance couple called Duo Flame, 10, 10, 10 on Ukraine's Got Talent.
Have a look here, they're brilliant...

Pembrokeshire In Wales Say This Wonderful Sustainable Strawbale Roundhouse Is Harmful To The Rural Character Of The Locality And Must Be Demolished...

Damned bureaucrats.
Charlie, who built this beautiful strawbale roundhouse, is a young man who, with his partner Megan and their baby boy live in this wonderful handmade home next to the Lammas Eco village in Wales' Pembrokeshire.
They have run into major problems as people who think outside the square invariably do.
The planning authority in the area say this beautiful, individualistic, sustainable and creative home must be demolished.
Because the house is harmful to the rural character of the locality.
Charlie, Meg and their baby face a dismal future should these bureaucrats have their way.
You can see the full story here and maybe even help save this wonderful home from being destroyed.
Damned bureaucrats...

Bicycles Are Getting Lighter. Lifting This One Is Child's Play...

There's a cycling race that's more competitive than the Tour de France and that's the one to produce the world's lightest bicycle.
PG Bikes with the expertise of  Munich Composites are among the leaders right now with their carbon fibre bicycle weighing just under eleven pounds, that's only 5kg. Lifting that bicycle is child's play.
But the world's lightest bike is much lighter. Originally created in 2008 by the German visionary Gunter Mai, the bike's been re-made using an especially high-grade carbon fibre and now tips the scales at only 2.7kg or just under 6lbs. That may well be lighter than the laptop you're using right now.
And if you could buy it you'd be paying
more than $45,000.
It's not a child's plaything...  

We All Know Why The Chicken Crossed The Road But Which Came First? The Chicken Or The Egg...

Chickens as a species became Chickens through a long slow process of evolution.
At some point, evidently, a chicken-like bird produced an offspring that, due to some mutation in its DNA, crossed the threshold from mere chicken likeness to chicken actuality.
That in quasi-scientific terms is to say a proto-chicken gave birth to a real-life official chicken. And since the real-life official chicken came out of it's own egg, we can now answer one of the most puzzling questions ever put to mankind.
The egg came first.
And if you got that right then give yourself an Eggsellent...

Knowing This Could Save Your Life. The Flying Tortoise Now Has An Automatic External Defibrillator On Board...

If you're parked up in the vicinity
of The Flying Tortoise, freedom camping in a remote and beautiful part of New Zealand, you might feel more secure knowing that a portable life saving defibrillator unit is close at hand.
Those who suffer a cardiac arrest and can get help within six minutes have a seventy five percent chance of living.
Which is better than the alternative.
You may well be inspired to do a refresher course or if you've never done one,
a course on CPR.
You'll even find a 'How to' video here and here.
That way, if the shit does hit the fan for any one of us close by, you can take an active part in helping save a life. And that I'm told, gives a person a great feeling.
The Flying Tortoise is one of just a very small number of homes on wheels that has an on-board defibrillator.
They're not cheap but at around two thousand dollars, they're not expensive either.
It might be time to consider just how much your life is worth or that of your partner's.
You may very well think that a heart attack won't happen to you.
You might be right. Or wrong.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death not only in New Zealand but globally.
This blog is as you know, an advertising free zone but I'm going to make an exception for this product.
You might like to have a look here. HeartSaver NZ Ltd owners Mike and Helen Mander have been incredibly helpful while I was thinking about this not inconsiderable purchase.
I'm delighted to recommend them to you.
This AED has a five year guarantee and is I can see, very easy to use. The voice prompts will take the stress out of a potentially fraught situation. All the user needs to do is follow the instructions.
An international Good Samaritan protection clause means you will not be held liable if it all goes pear shaped.
I had a triple by-pass twenty six years ago.
It was time to give something back.
Having this AED  might save a life.
It could be a strangers. It may be mine.
It might be yours...

Australia's Particularly Peculiar Pink Lake Hillier...

It's particularly peculiar, this pink Lake Hillier.
The six hundred metre long lake, surrounded by a rim of sand and dense forestation is situated on Middle Island, the largest of the islands that make up the Recherche Archipelago in Western Australia.
British navigator and hydrographer Matthew Flinders found the pretty pink lake way back in 1802 and strangely enough, nobody's come up with the definitive reason why the lake water is pink.
They call Australia The Lucky Country.
Perhaps it's because they have a pink lake...

The Hi-Jinks Giraffes Get Up To...

Animals get up to some amazing antics
but whoever saw Giraffes playing Leap Frog...

Treehugger Founder Graham Hill Talks About Living With Less. A Lot Less...

This man even though he's downsized, might well still have more than many, but what Treehugger's founder Graham Hill has done is put his money where his mouth is.
He's walking the talk.
As he told The New York Times recently.
'I live in a 420sq ft studio apartment.
I sleep in a bed that folds down from the wall.
I don't have a single CD or DVD and I have ten percent of the books I once had.
Our fondness for stuff affects almost every aspect of our lives. The average size of an American house in 1950 was 983sq ft.
By 2011 it was 2480sq ft.
But back in 1950, 3.37 people lived in the smaller house while in 2011, 2.6 people lived in the bigger one.
And apparently the super-size homes of today aren't big enough or provide sufficient space for the occupant's possessions.
They spend $22 billion on personal storage.
My LifeEdited apartment is well built, affordable and functional. I sleep better knowing I'm not using more resources than I need.
I have less and enjoy more.
My space is small and my life big.'
There's more about less here...

Antago. It's A Crazy Fishing Event In Mali...

Among the scattered boulders in the parched Dogon County in Mali, there's a small village by the name of Bamba.
Each year as the dry season reaches its peak, there's just one sacred pond remaining and that's full of Catfish.
Fishing throughout the year is not allowed until the special day when the crazy ritual of Antogo takes place.
On this day many hundreds of men from Bamba will jump into the lake with their cane traps and their bare hands to catch as many as they can. The fishing frenzy will last for about fifteen minutes.
The women of the village meanwhile are making themselves ready for the feasting that will take place that night.
Climate change has happened here and the once lush green landscape has become dry and unusable.
The water of the lake was in past times considered sacred and was populated by good spirits that would keep the villages supplied with tons of fish. Not any more.
Those good days are gone and this small lake remains the last vestige of a once fertile land.
Photos by Matteo Bertolino. There's more to know here...