SeaWayBLOG

Costa Concordia shipwreck according to Carlo Borlenghi

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:11:00 +0000

©Carlo Borlenghi

Carlo Borlenghi had visited Giglio Island in order to give us his own view of the recent dramatic shipwreck that led the huge Costa Concordia cruise ship to crash against the rocks of the little island in front of Tuscany coast.

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

©Carlo Borlenghi

Braunlage Nude Sledging World Championship 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 06:01:00 +0000

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

Here we are again! Like in 2009 and in 2010, thousands of people (more than 17000 this year!) have gathered in the little german town of Braunlage for the third edition of the world championship of the craziest winter sport ever: Nude Sledging!

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

(Matthias Bein/DPA/Lapresse)

A truly exceptional dishwasher

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:17:00 +0000

It was just a week ago that I wrote a post about a nice advertising campaign, consisting in a wonderfully rendered computer graphics octopus in a kitchen, and today I've stumbled in a pretty similar one.
This time the ad is not playing with the fishy smell of the octopus, but rather with its sticky pads, infact the client is Vileda the famous rubber gloves brand.

The creator is Garrigosa Studios, an agency which is responsible for the creative ads behind brands like 7-Up, Honda, Nike and Audi. Based in Barcelona, Spain, the company is a full service photography and retouching studio that brings campaigns to life in unexpected ways. Their work has earned them several prestigious awards including the coveted Cannes Lion in numerous categories, over many years.

Photographer Joan Garrigosa
Post Production Alex Torrens
Agency FP7, Doha
Client Vileda

The marvelous pink hippo!

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:10:00 +0000

©Burrard-Lucas.com

Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas are two brothers from UK and two talented wildlife photographers. A couple of months ago, while they were taking pictures of the wildebeest migration in the Masai Mara region they stumbled across a very unusual guy: a pink hippo!

Here how they described this amazing experience with their own worda in their wonderful blog:

We have just returned from a trip to the Masai Mara in Kenya where we were photographing the annual wildebeest migration. After a rather uneventful morning, we stopped on the banks of the Mara River for a picnic breakfast. It was then that we came across a truly exceptional individual… just as we started to tuck into our breakfast, we looked up and gawked, open-mouthed, as a pink hippopotamus emerged from the river! Hippos are usually dark brown in colour, so this individual was very conspicuous! We dropped our breakfast and reached for our cameras.

The hippo was clearly a young one since it was much smaller than the others in the group. It was also very shy and tended to stick close to its mother. To avoid frightening it off, we used a long 600mm lens to photograph it from a distance. Nevertheless, it only stayed ashore for few minutes before returning to the safety of the river. Thereafter we caught fleeting glimpses of it as it came up to breathe.

©Burrard-Lucas.com

On the contrary of what many might think, this pink hippo is not an albino individual. Its condition is called Leucism. The main difeerence between an individual affected by albinism and a leucistic one is that caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin. Therefore in species that have other pigment cell-types, for example xanthophores, albinos are not entirely white, but instead display a pale yellow colour.
Leucism instead is a general term for the phenotype resulting from defects in pigment cell differentiation and/or migration from the neural crest to skin, hair or feathers during development. This results in either the entire surface (if all pigment cells fail to develop) or patches of body surface (if only a subset are defective) having a lack of cells capable of making pigment. The last difference (and it's very clear in this pink hippo) is in eye colour. Due to the lack of melanin production in both the retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) and iris, albinos typically have red eyes due to the underlying blood vessels showing through. In contrast, leucistic animals have normally coloured eyes. This is because the melanocytes of the RPE are not derived from the neural crest, instead an outpouching of the neural tube generates the optic cup which, in turn, forms the retina. As these cells are from an independent developmental origin, they are typically unaffected by the genetic cause of leucism. This means great luck for pink hippo because an albino individual would have probably suffered vision problems, instead, as Burrard-Lucas brothers tell us, pink hippo seems to be able to live a normal life:

Being an animal that is so strikingly different often results in a hard life; these creatures frequently become outcasts, rejected by their conventionally colored peers. In this case however, we were relieved to note that the other hippos seemed to be treating the pink hippo just like any other. Leucistic and albino animals are also easily spotted by predators which greatly reduces their chances of survival. Fortunately, hippos are too big for most predators, and this young hippo’s mother would fiercely protect it if they were ever attacked. Finally, animals without skin pigmentation often suffer from severe sunburn. However, a hippos’ sweat is unique in that it acts as a very effective sunscreen, protecting them from harmful UV radiation… therefore it seems that this pink hippo should be able to survive perfectly well in the wild!

©Burrard-Lucas.com

If you've enjoyed the pictures of the "Pinkopotamus" take a look to the Burrard-Lucas brothers blog, a comprehensive showcase of our wildlife and travel photographs from around the world.

©Burrard-Lucas.com

©Burrard-Lucas.com

Take 5 minutes of relax in the Kuroshio Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 01:21:00 +0000

In Japan there's a huge aquarium, actually the world's second largest behind the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, called Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. The flagship of this aquarium is the main tank, called the Kuroshio Sea, that holds 7,500 cubic metres (1,981,000 USgal) of water and features an acrylic glass panel measuring 8.2 by 22.5 metres (27 by 74 ft) with a thickness of 60 centimetres (24 in), the largest such panel in the world when the aquarium was opened. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept alongside more than 60 other fish species.

In the video above you can see "The Kuroshio Sea" tank fimeld by Jon Rawlinson, a filmmaker based in Vancouver, Canada, specialized in documentary and commercial production.
My advice is to open the video full screen, with HD enabled and music on: you'll enjoy 5 minutes of pure relax in the middle of the ocean...

You can also download the following picture as a wallpaper clicking here

©Jon Rawlinson

©Jon Rawlinson

The wonderful world of artist Jacek Yerka

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:22:00 +0000

©Jacek Yerka

Jacek Yerka is a Polish surrealist painter from Toruń. He mixes his memories from his amazing childhood and creates some beautiful, inspiring paintings, which are exhibited in Poland, Germany, Monaco, France, and the United States, and may be found in the museums of Poland.

Yerka cites Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel, Cagliostro, Jan van Eyck, and Hugo van der Goes as formative influencers of his work. His subject matter ranges from odd beasts to whimsical landscapes incorporating extraordinary architecture, and include imagery gleamed from his childhood.
His works resemble to me the ones from Vladimir Kush another surrealistic painter I've already talked about on this blog, but I also find that the particular magic evoked by his paintings share something in common with the imaginary of Hayao Miyazaki, the famous manga artist and anime director.
Take a magic journey in this gallery which is a brief selection of some water-related paintings and do not forget to visit Yerka’s website here.

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

©Jacek Yerka

National Geographic PhotoContest 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:06:00 +0000

©Linh Dinh
All pictures via National Geographic PhotoContest 2010

National Geographic is currently holding the 2010 edition of their famous Photo Contest.
The deadline for submissions is set on November 30th so harry up if you want your chance to get the 10.000$ 1st prize (the winners wil also be published in the NatGeo magazine). Otherwise you can just rate the submitted pictures. In the meanwhile I've prepared a brief selection of water-related picture for you as an appetizer...

©João Vianna

©Hao Lv

©Ron McCombe

©Nam In Geun

©Stephan Kotas

©Glen Hush

©Aniko Molnar

©Yevgen Timash

©Eric Garnett <
©Audun Wigen

©Rodrigo West de Magalhaes

©Michael Siward

©Kevin O'Connell

©Jay Fine

©Fred Wang

©Stan Bouman

©Tom Auguzth

©Freddy Cerdeira

©Sean Heavey

©Janet Chester

©Aurel Rapa

Surfing in Bullet-Time

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:56:00 +0000

Recently, Rip Curl, the famous surf wear maker, realized an advertising campaign called "Mirage" with a video shot in "Bullet-Time". Bulle-Time is the effect that may had first saw in the videogame "Max Payne" and then in the movie "The Matrix", but in reality it's an old (at least as a concept) photographic technique also known as "Time Slice": The bullet time effect was achieved photographically by a set of still cameras
surrounding the subject. These arrays are usually triggered at once or sequentially. Singular frames taken from each of the still cameras are then arranged and displayed consecutively to produce an orbiting viewpoint of an action frozen in time or as hyper-slow-motion. This technique suggests the limitless perspectives and variable frame rates possible with a virtual camera. However, if the still array process is done with real cameras, it is often limited to assigned paths. In this case they used a camera array of 52 Canon Rebel DSLRs in order to capture the same shot from 52 different angles, stringing them together with a software for the final footage.

Here’s the finished video:

and here there's a very intersting behind-the-scenes video where you can apreciate the bullet-time technique:

The good samaritan Hippo

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 13:33:00 +0000

This is one of those amazing story that makes you love the animal world and that so many times I've written about in SeaWayBLOG.
This story is set in the Mara River, a river in Africa, flowing through Kenya and Tanzania, that lies across the migration path of ungulates in the Serengeti/Masai Mara game reserves:

all pictures ©Michael Yule

The protagonist is a Hippo and a very helpful one! so helpful that we might nickname it "The good samaritan hippo"...
Everything starts with some visitors to a safari camp called Lamala Mara witnessing the annual wildebeest migration. As you may know this kind of migrations aren't exactly a constitutional walk... it's a really tough journey full of dangers and when the animals have to cross the rivers these dangers get to the highest level, especially for calves, crocodiles are lurking under the surface trying to get the most from this rare abundance of preys, and the current is stong enough to sweep away the youngest wildebeests.
But here our hero comes into action!
The visitors were astonished to see a hippo come to the rescue of two drowning stragglers.
The strong current separated a wildebeest, or gnu, from her calf and she watched helplessly as it was swept away. To everyone’s amazement the hippo came to the gnu’s rescue and pushed it gently to the river bank:

And this is not enough.
Within ten minutes she spotted a little zebra crossing the same stretch of water and pushed it across, its tiny head struggling to keep above the torrent:

That's it, a hippo, with nothing in return and even to push the calves (being at the same time a wonderful bodyguard against crocodiles aattacks) helping them to reach safely the bank of the river just as they were its own offspring.
Nothing moves me more than when I see "love" being so strong it can even surpass species boundaries, and it's not even the first time I heard a story like this one about hippos, there's another one that I will probably post tomorrow that show how, despite their bad repution (being the world's deadliest animal in terms of men killed, more than crocs and much more than sharks for example) hippos seem to have a sort of feeling of empathy towards other animals' suffering.

Andy Irons Memorial Paddle-Out

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:13:00 +0000

Surfers raise their arms in honor of the late Andy Irons during a paddle out memorial service in Porta Del Sol, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010.

A few hundred surfers from the northern beaches community gathered for a tribute paddle-out to celebrate the life of American surfer Andy Irons.
The three-times world champion died suddenly last week, aged just 32, just a month before he was due to become a first-time father. The three-times world champion was found dead at a hotel in Dallas, Texas on Tuesday, November 2.
Irons had reportedly been suffering from Dengue Fever in the lead-up to his shock death and had pulled out of a surfing event in Puerto Rico late last month to battle the viral infection.

there's a fishy smell in the kitchen...

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:15:00 +0000

If we speak about advertising campaigns, in my opinion there's nothing better than PLATINUM FMD, a brazilian studio which has become famous for their visually astounding campaigns realized with a mixture of 3d, Photoshop and studio photography.

take a look to these previous SeaWayBLOG posts:

In this case it's a campaign for a producer of extractor hoods for kitchen, playing with the bad smell you can have in your kitchen after having cooked some fish....
created by PLATINUM FMD

PHOTO: LEONARDO VILELA

3D: BERNARDO BARBI / LUCIANO HONORATO

MANIPULATION: LUCIANO HONORATO / FLAVIO ALBINO

Agency: Mc Cann

Art Director: Paulo Salgueiro

Client: Falmec

Tennis-ball sized hail and a flash flood

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 06:55:00 +0000

Stumbling through the web I've found this video, taken October 25th in Georgia, of an epic hailstorm hammering a backyard with tennis-ball sized hail hitting the pool just like cannonballs. Unbelievable.

If that was not enough in the following video, taken in Woodson, Texas, the hail is probably even bigger, like an angry god trying to lapidate the whole mankind... take a look at the damages in the second part of the video:

Finally, a third video from Melbourne. Here the hail size is less impressive but wait just a minute or so and you'll see how the hailstorm suddenly triggers a flash-flooding transforming a street in a river (and an angry one):

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New underwater sculptures by Jason De Caires Taylor

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:16:00 +0000

All the pictures ©JasonDeCairesTaylor

Jason De Caires Taylor is a sculptor and in my humble opinion a genius. I've already spoken about him and his work a couple of years ago in a previous post. Take a look if you've missed it:

Children in the sea and other underwater sculpture

The idea behind his work is to create life-size cement sculptures of people and submerge them into the ocean. As time passes the sculptures become part of the underwater landscape and slowly become artificial reefs ripe with marine life:
a wonderful mixture of art, environment, creativity and marine biology. Something that fits just perfectly with this blog, therefore when, checking his website, I discovered many new masterpieces I immediately feel the urge to write a new post.
The facet of the seascapes created by De Caires Taylor that amaze me more is that his works are ever-evolving: everytime you dive to see them, they've changed while algae and corals encrust the sculptures painting wonderful textures over them.
The following pictures are from his most recent and most "pharaonic" work to date.
It's called, not accidentally, "Eevolucion Silenciosa" (Silent Evolution) and it required the submersion of 400 life-size figures, 9 meters deep, in the waters off Cancun and Isla Mujeres, Mexico! A big job indeed, that it's described in some interesting "backstage" shots.

And now some other new sculptures:
"Alluvia", his only sculptures placed under inland waters:

"La Jardinera del la Esperanza"(The Gardener of Hope) where a female sculpture seems to wait hopefully the growth of the corals that surround her

"Hombre en Llamas" (Man on Fire):

"The Lost Correspondent":

"El Coleccionista de Sueños" (Dream Collector)

and finally some nocturnal shots of the most encrusted faces. Suggestive and haunting.

Visit Jason De Caires Taylor's website for more infos and galleries

The bubblesmith

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 07:23:00 +0000

Sterling Johnson is a "bubblesmith", better, he is The Bubblesmith!
According to his own website he is the only performer who specializes in blowing bubbles using only his hands.
His bubble blowing to entertain friends over 30 years ago has developed into a full stage show. Sterling is the only person to ever put a bubble inside a bubble inside a bubble on stage without any straws or tubes, and the first person to walk completely through a bubble film. To make it brief, speaking of bubblues he is the True Professional!
In the video above you can see an amazing public preformance at Stinson beach.
Here below there is the reversed and slow-motion version, maybe even more amazing!:

if you can't get enouugh you can see also the the "just reverse" and the "just slow-motion" versions!

Gales batter Scotland

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 00:24:00 +0000

all pictures ©Getty collected via Daylife

Scotland was braced for a battering last night, with 80mph gales and torrential rain set to sweep in.
Flash-flood warnings were issued for many waterways, including rivers in Argyll and Dumfries and Galloway and the River Tay, as well as Loch Lomond.

There were also alerts on the Clyde - with unusually high water levels - as well as the River Earn in Perthshire and the Argyll and Bute coast. The River Leven in Dumbarton burst its banks.
Forecasters say Northern Ireland, Wales and the north of England will also suffer. Ferry sailings, bridges and roads have all been hit.
The west coast, including many parts of Ayrshire, was slammed by strong winds. Residents in Port Ellen on Islay were given sandbags as high tides threatened homes.

How cats and dogs drink

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:58:00 +0000

The act of drinking may seem like no big deal for anyone who can fully close his mouth to create suction, as people can. But the various species that cannot do so — and that includes most adult carnivores and our cats and dogs — must resort to some other mechanism, so if you have wondered how our pets drink this is the post for you:

The news is that using high speed cameras, a group of researchers uncovered the mystery of how cats drink. The answer is: very elegantly, and not at all the way you might suppose. Many people think that the raspy hairs on a cat’s tongue, must be involved in this process, instead they're mainly related to the process of grooming. Cats lap water so fast that the human eye cannot follow what is happening, which is why the trick had apparently escaped attention until now. They discovered that cats touch the surface of liquids with their tongues (up to four times per second) before quickly pulling back up, causing a stream of liquid to rise upward. Before gravity pulls the stream back down, the cat closes its mouth around some of it, capturing the liquid. The process is quite different from dogs, which cup the water using their tongues and haul it back into their mouths... probably more efficient but noisier and absolutely less elegant!

Dog owners are familiar with the unseemly lapping noises that ensue when their thirsty pet meets a bowl of water. The dog is thrusting its tongue into the water, forming a crude cup with it and hauling the liquid back into the muzzle. What it's strange in this case is that the "cup" is made twisting the tongue downward and backward towards the lower jaw, in the opposite way you might suppose:

Kleptosharks!

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 20:38:00 +0000

©Karin Brussaard

These remarkable pictures show the moment a tiger shark snatched an underwater camera system from the hands of dutch photographer Karin Brussaard during an underwater diving expedition in the Bahamas. After he took several photos, the shark decided enough was enough and grabbed the equipment in its jaws before swimming off.

©Karin Brussaard

Brussaard, from the Netherlands, said: "Luckily it did drop it eventually and remarkably the camera only seemed to have a couple of scratches on it".

©Karin Brussaard

She continued: "There were about six or seven tiger sharks down there and we couldn't believe our luck. We
were having a great time photographing them all until one diver swam towards one of them trying to get a better shot. The shark suddenly seemed to get angry and snatched the camera right out of his hands." Tiger sharks are considered to be one of the most dangerous shark species in the world and are responsible for many recorded attacks on humans, second only to the great white shark.
However this story it's not so unusual and sharks stealing cameras and videocameras have been reported several times as you can see in the amazing video here below where another Tiger Shark eats a diver's video camera while it is still rolling allowing us to get a first hand view of what it looks like to be chewed up by a giant shark. Filmed By Stuart Cove and his team from Stuart Cove's Dive Bahamas and documented with still photography by world renowned underwater still photographer Stephen Frink.

Baby Sea Dragons!

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 19:02:00 +0000

ZooBorns is a very very nice blog that I advice you to follow if you are, like me, fond of the animal world. It presents almost daily, cute photos and videos of the newly born animals from zoos and aquariums all over the world. This time it has been the turn of some really unusual pups: Weedy Seadragons babies from the Georgia Aquarium.

Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, the Weedy Seadragon or Common Seadragon, is a marine fish related to the
seahorse. It is the only member of the genus Phyllopteryx. It is found in water 3 to 50 m deep around the southern coastline of Australia, approximately between Port Stephens, New South Wales and Geraldton, Western Australia, as well as around Tasmania. Weedy Seadragons are named for the weed-like projections on their bodies that camouflage them as they move among the seaweed beds where they are usually found. Weedy Seadragons can reach 45 cm in length. They feed on tiny crustaceans and other zooplankton, from places such as crevices in reef, which are sucked into the end of their long tube-like snout. They lack a prehensile tail that enables similar species to clasp and anchor themselves. Phyllopteryx taeniolatus swim in shallow reefs and weed beds, and resemble drifting weed when moving over bare sand.
Seadragons, seahorses and pipefish are the only known species where the male carries the eggs as you can see in the above picture.

The female lays up to 250 to 300 eggs onto the soft underside of the male's tail. The eggs are embedded into the skin in cup-like structures that harden and form around each egg to hold and protect them during brooding. After about two months, the bright pink eggs hatch into miniature juveniles, which settle into the vegetation.

After the babies were born they were transferred into a special off-exhibit holding system to keep them safe from adult dragons and allow the aquarists to provide them with special food items such as tiny mysid shrimp. They have since grown to approximately ½ adult size but are large enough to safely navigate in the exhibit and forage for food. Although they are smaller and less colorful, and have a much shorter snout, the juvenile Weedy sea dragon closely resembles the adult. The new babies are about 4-4.5 inches long and weighed less than an ounce at birth. They join the ten adult sea dragons within the habitat.

The great migrations

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 07:24:00 +0000

(© National Geographic/Paul Nicklen)

I hope that this Sunday you didn't lose the premiere of "Great Migrations" on National Geographic Channel, probably the best and biggest project that National Geographic has produced in the last two or three years: a new seven-part television series about the spectacular migrations in the animal world, and with it, a big campaign to promote it, a special website full of content, and a book.
To capture the images and video for the series, they spent two and a half years in the field, traveling 420,000 miles across 20 countries and all seven continents (having themselves in such a way their own migration!).

Move as millions, survive as one. That is the subtitle to the new seven-part television series. Animals great and small are on the move around the world, chasing resources in dangerous journeys that might take mere hours or span generations!
This is a small selection of pictures taken from the book:

(© National Geographic/Paul Nicklen)

(© National Geographic/National Geographic Television)

(© National Geographic/Frans Lanting)

(© National Geographic/Paul Nicklen)

(© National Geographic/Randy Olson)

(© National Geographic/Annie Griffiths)

(© National Geographic/Hiroya Minakuchi/Minden Pictures)

(© National Geographic/Jim Brandenburg/Minden Pictures)

(© National Geographic/John Eastcott & Yva Momatiuk)

(© National Geographic/Frans Lanting)

(© National Geographic/Brian Skerry)

(© National Geographic/Paul Nicklen)

(© National Geographic/David Hamlin)

(© National Geographic/Mauricio Handler)

(© National Geographic/Joe Riis)

(© National Geographic/Thomas Kitchin & Victoria Hurst/Getty Images)
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Ten-day-old orphan dolphin rescued

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 07:22:00 +0000

These are a touching series of pictures about a baby dolphin, probably just ten days old, which has been found by tourists on a beach near Montevideo, Uruguay.

It was suffering from injuries believed to have been caused by a fishing net but now is recovering thanks to Richard Tesore, head of the NGO Rescate Fauna Marina, Piriapolis, who is taking care of him.

When it was found there was no sign of the mother, it was tangled in a net and it had bites that suggest the mother and other dolphins might have tried to help him free.

Mr. Tesore, however is not the only one that seems to be interested in the baby Dolphin: a Magellan penguin is also being looked after at the centre and has taken an interest in the new patient!

With your iPhone you can help to improve water quality

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:23:00 +0000

What I love more about internet is the ability to mobilize millions of people towards a common target. I'm one of those. who think that web and new technologies will save our world.
In California, every citizen with an iPhone can make his contribution to monitor water quality and alert authorities to problems:
A new iPhone application, called Creek Watch and created by IBM, is now available in Apple’s App Store. The first state to partner with IBM to use this data to monitor the thousands of miles of creeks and streams in their jurisdiction is California’s State Water Control Board.
Developed by IBM Research and available for free at Apple’s App Store, Creek Watch is an easy-to-use application that allows community members to snap a photo of a creek or stream and answer three simple questions about the particular waterway. The data is uploaded in real-time to a central database, accessible by water authorities responsible for monitoring local water supplies.
According to the United Nations, contaminated water kills more people than all wars, crimes and terrorism combined; every 20 seconds, an infant dies from polluted water. While most agree that water is among our most precious resources, what many do not realize is that we walk over and drive past our drinking water everyday, making valuable observations about the water’s condition as we do so. Creek Watch makes it easy to capture these observations, providing water resource managers with additional insight and data to better ensure a sustainable water supply.
Creek Watch uses a combination of the iPhone’s built-in location sensor and user contributed data to provide information that is valuable for water management analysis – e.g., at what times of the year specific creeks begin to run dry or when the water levels are at capacity.
Contributing water data with IBM’s Creek Watch app requires just four easy steps:
· Use the iPhone’s built-in camera to snap a photo of a waterway
· Specify the Water Level: Dry, Some or Full
· Specify the Flow Rate: Still, Slow or Fast
· Specify the Trash Level: None, Some or A lot

some screenshots

“Creek Watch lets the average citizen contribute to the health of their water supply – without PhDs, chemistry kits and a lot of time,” said Christine Robson, IBM Research. “Harnessing the crowdsourced data movement for a cause people care about is a win-win-win for citizens, local water boards and IBM’s desire to solve big data challenges.”
In many cases the organizations charged with monitoring local water conditions are over-extended and unable to physically monitor creeks and streams on their own due to the sheer volume of waterways.
"With about 800 miles of creeks in Santa Clara County alone, we need innovative technologies like this one to empower the community to help us continuously improve our water quality and the environment," said Carol Boland, Watershed Biologist for the City of San Jose. “An amazing characteristic of IBM's Creek Watch app is that it's accessible to anyone that has an iPhone and doesn't require a huge commitment to do something that will really benefit the creeks."
Capitalizing on the phenomenon of crowdsourcing for data collection, IBM researchers hope that this and other applications will launch a new sense of environmental awareness within the community.

What will it take before we respect the planet?

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 06:34:00 +0000

Another WWF advertising campaign entitled "What will it take before we respect the planet?" for Biodiversity And Biosafety Awareness

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Paris, France
Executive Creative Director: Chris Garbutt
Art Director: Emmanuel Bougnères
Copywriter: Edouard Perarnaud
Art Buyer: Laurence Nahmias
Illustrators: Mathieu Javelle, Stephane Balesi
Photographer: Raphael Van Butsele
Typographer: Sid Tomkins
Advertiser's Supervisor: Jacques-Olivier Barthes
Account Supervisors: Benoît De Fleurian, Elie Sicsic, Nathalie Avedissian, Laurent Janneau

This is a list of previous WWf campaigns in SeaWayBLOG archive:

The perpetual sinking boat

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 10:30:00 +0000

This boat may look like it's sinking fast, but don't worry, it's perfectly upright. That's because this boat, called "Love Love," was designed by artist Julien Berthier to look like it's in the process of going under!

The floating sculpture is made from a large sailboat that has been modified to appear as if it is capsizing. Despite its appearance the boat is fully functional and able to move around thanks to a built-in motor. To create it the artist cut in half a 6.5 meter yacht and added a new keel to allow the boat to remain upright in the sinking position. Since its construction Berthier has taken the boat out on numerous trips inside harbours like Canary Wharf in London and in Normandy, France.

When a Great White Shark enter the cage that should protect you

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:22:00 +0000

Every time I saw one of those cages that are used to allow people to see the great white sharks in their own environment I've always felt a mix of adrenaline and fear, it should be absolutely fantastic but also scaring as hell... well, after seeing this footage from a 2007 accident, I've finally decided: Cage Diving is not for me!
Read here what happened in the words of the protagonist, cameraman Patrick Walsh:

"A 2 ton, 15 foot Great White barrels into my cage and brakes through the bars... Patrick Walsh - Filming
Paul Damgaard - Avoiding Sharks Mouth
CC - The Shark
"On November 4th we had an incident that was pretty darned exciting. CC, or Cut Caudal, one of our regular sharks, accidentally ran into one of the main cages on the Searcher. CC came up nearly vertical about 20 feet away from the cage and grabbed one of the hang baits, which he is known to do on a regular basis. However, on this particular day he swam right into the portside cage's viewing window. As CC took the bait he instinctively rolled his eyes back, couldn't see where he was going and accidentally swam directly into the viewing window. CC's entire head went inside the cage and he was stopped just short of his pectoral fins. Well, we all know that white sharks have no reverse and CC was too far in to turn around. He tried to turn, but he could not quite get his snout to clear the corner. He rolled on his side and began to thrash up and down trying to free himself. Being a rather large white shark he just ended up making the opening bigger by simply removing the front of the cage so he could get out of the cage. CC literally removed all the lower front vertical bars and the horizontal bar that connects all of the vertical bars to the main frame of the front cage panel and then swam away. What was amazing is that it took only about 10 seconds to do this. What was even more amazing was that there were 2 divers in the cage at the time and they thought that this was the coolest thing they had ever experienced and walked away completely unscathed. The divers also said that CC was just fine too!
We were all very relieved that no one was injured. We were also pleased that our divers listened to the safety briefing prior to diving and followed the instructions and evacuated the cage when this incident occurred. One diver utilized the emergency escape hatch and somehow managed to film the entire event. We learned something from this and we will take appropriate measures to prevent this from happening again.
When we said, "You can get face-to-face with the ultimate predator" this is not what we had in mind!"

Over 100 km/h with a kite surf. New World Record

noreply@blogger.com (Guido Trombetta) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 22:13:00 +0000

Lüderitz is a harbour town in south-west Namibia, lying on one of the least hospitable coasts in Africa. It is a port developed around Robert Harbour and Shark Island but most of all Lüderitz is home to the Lüderitz Speed Challenge, the only international sporting event held in the town. This is an annual month-long speed sailing event held in the last quarter of the year under the auspices of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC).
Due to the particular wind conditions over there, always strong and regular, almost all the sailing speed record attempts are held in that part of Namibian Coast. The Luderitz Speed Challenge in particular is the benchmark speed event and yields world records every year. This year all the focus was on the kiters because with the improved trench, it was very likely that the outright sailing record held by the Hydroptere would have been reclaimed by one of them. And so it was! In an amazing escalation, record breaking after record breaking, for the first time in history a man propelled by the wind broke the wall of the 100 km/h. At the end of the event the new outright record holder is Rob Douglas who reached 55,65 knots (103km/h or 64mp/h) with 45knots of wind.
And it's not just a matter of speed and technical ability, it's mainly a question of courage because these incredible athletes had to surf in a channel of very shallow waters just one meter, one meter and a half wide!!
Unbelievable. Enjoy the video of the record:

This is instead the video presentation of the event, in the aerial footage you can have a clear idea of how tight was the channel....:

Photo by Adrien Freville - www.byadrienfreville.fr
Rob Douglas breaking the world record with 55.65 knots.

Photo by Adrien Freville - www.byadrienfreville.fr
Sebastien Cattelan is the new record holder of France and Europe with 55.49 (1st to 55 knots).
He held the outright for 1 hour before Rob improved upon it.

Photo by Adrien Freville - www.byadrienfreville.fr
Charlotte Consorti did 48.5 on the display, followed 30 minutes later by Sophie Routboul with 48.64 speed.
Sophie could only do 2 runs as she has a broken hand.
Charlotte went back out later and did 50.43. The first lady over 50 knots !!!

For more info check the event website