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Evzones, Greek Presidential guards, walk across Temple of Hera during lighting ceremony of Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games 2018
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Greek Presidential guards, or Evzones, walk across the ancient archeological site at the Temple of Hera in Olympia on October 24, 2017 during the lighting ceremony of the Olympic flame ahead of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. The flame will tour Greece before being flown to the South Korean city of Incheon on Oct 31st for a torch relay that will culminate in the opening ceremony on Feb 9, 2018.
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Photo courtesy Getty Images and AFP
"The wind once blew itself untaught...Man came to tell it what was wrong: It hadn't found the place to blow..." - Robert Frost
Before man to blow to right
The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
In any rough place where it caught.
Man came to tell it what was wrong:
It hadn't found the place to blow;
It blew too hard - the aim was song.
And listen - how it ought to go!
He took a little in his mouth,
And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
And then by measure blew it forth.
By measure. It was word and note,
The wind the wind had meant to be -
A little through the lips and throat.
The aim was song - the wind could see.
Panda is panda! By nature enjoys climbing even sleeping on trees. Panda couple gets ELECTRIC SHOCK from wire fence. Not harmed?
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Panda couple Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan get ELECTRIC SHOCK after zoo in Taiwan put up a wire fence inside their enclosure
Two giant pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, received electric shock from a wire fence in their enclosure in Taiwan earlier this week.
PANDA stuck up a tree! Bao Bao the cub made for higher ground after getting a shock on electric fence
It's usually cats being coaxed down from trees.
But famed panda cub Bao Bao is currently sky-high in the branches at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. after being spooked by an electric safety fence in her enclosure.
Apparently the one-year-old touched the charged barrier on Tuesday afternoon and the shock caused her to shoot above ground to safety.
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Photo courtesy chinatourmap.com and Washington Post
"Old Ironsides" sails again: world's oldest commissioned warship USS Constitution marks 220 years and US Navy's 242nd birthday
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The world’s oldest commissioned warship afloat got underway for the first time in three years as the USS Constitution got underway from the ship’s berth in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on Oct. 20, in commemoration of the ship’s launching 220 years ago and the U.S. Navy’s 242nd birthday.
At 11:40 a.m., Constitution performed a 21-gun salute which was returned by the Concord Battery and 101st Field Artillery near Fort Independence on Castle Island. Fort Independence is a state park that served as a defensive position for Boston Harbor from 1634 to 1962.
The ship also fired an additional 17 shots at 12:15 p.m. as she passed the U.S. Coast Guard Station, the former site of the Edmund Hartt shipyard where Constitution was built. Each round of this salute honored the 16 states that comprised America when Constitution launched in 1797 and one in honor of the ship.
“Getting Constitution back on the water has been my mission ever since I took command in 2015,” said Cmdr. Robert S. Gerosa, Jr., Constitution’s 74th commanding officer.
USS Constitution is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America. read more »
Scotland: world 1st floating wind farm, built by offshore oil company, begun in 2016 now delivers electricity powering 20k homes
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18 Oct 2017 - First floating wind farm, built by offshore oil company, delivers electricity - Anchored, floating turbines allow offshore wind installations in deep waters.
The world’s first floating offshore wind farm began delivering electricity to the Scottish grid today.
The 30MW installation, situated 25km (15.5mi) from Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, will demonstrate that offshore wind energy can be harvested in deep waters, miles away from land, where installing giant turbines was once impractical or impossible. At peak capacity, the wind farm will produce enough electricity to power 20,000 Scottish homes.
The installation, called Hywind Scotland, is also interesting because it was built by Statoil, a Norwegian mega-corporation known for offshore oil drilling. Statoil has pursued offshore wind projects in recent years, using the company's experience building and managing infrastructure in difficult open sea conditions to its advantage.
Hywind Scotland began producing power in September, and today it starts delivering electricity to the Scottish grid.
The five 6MW turbines are the first commercial turbines to lack a firm attachment to the seafloor. The towers extend 176m (577ft) above the water and 78m (256ft) below it. Each tower is capable of pitching its blades to reduce unwanted motion and optimize power output depending on the wind direction and strength. read more »
France: streets of Lyon, Sheep bleating, bells tinkling, farmers protesting and demanding protection from wolves attacking
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On Monday, farmers flooded the streets of the city of Lyon with hundreds of sheep, demanding more government action after what authorities say were more than 10,000 animal deaths blamed on wolves last year.
Some farmers wore t-shirts emblazoned with photos of their bloodied livestock as they marched alongside their flocks, who filled the city air with the sound of bleating and tinkling bells.
"When you discover the body of one of your sheep with its throat ripped out by a wolf, it is horrible. It's traumatic," said Nicolas Fabre, a 38-year-old farmer from Cornus in the southern Aveyron region.
Wolves have targeted his flock twice in recent months, killing three sheep.
Wolves used to be common in France before dying out in the early 1930s. They reappeared naturally at the beginning of the 1990s and are now believed to number around 360.
Farmers across Aveyron, a sunny agricultural region famed for its pungent Roquefort blue cheese, say they have tried protecting their flocks with dogs, fences and netting, but to no avail.
And they say it is impossible to watch permanently over their animals, which are often spread over hilly, wooded land stretching dozens of hectares.
"There are 800,000 sheep in Aveyron," says Francois Giacobbi, a breeder in charge of the issue for the local farmers' association. "It's basically a pantry for the wolves." read more »
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