CHINA MICRO-BLOGGING SITES CENSOR 'EGYPT'

 The word "Egypt" was censored Saturday by several micro-blogging sites in China, where the ruling Communist Party is wary of issues of political reform, demands for democracy and disturbances to public order, including overseas.

On the sina.com and sohu.com sites, the Chinese equivalents of Twitter, which is censored in China, a query with the word "Egypt" returned the response: "According to the laws in force, the results of your search cannot be given."

read on

Largest Solar-powered boat in world

The Swiss-owned boat set sail from Monaco four months ago and has now reached the archipelago.

The boat is 31 metres long and equipped with 530 square metres of solar panels.

read here

Penske delivers first electric Smart ForTwo

To kick off the latest phase in their electric car program, Smart USA President Jill Lajdzia and Roger Penske, chairman of Smart USA parent company Penske Automotive Group, personally delivered the first Smart ForTwo Electric Drive to a customer in Maryland.

 

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/greentech/#ixzz1CUy1gjve

We will be skiing in Yorkshire rather than sunbathing under palm tree

We are more likely to be skiing in Yorkshire than basking under palm trees, a leading climate change expert has warned as global warming will actually lead to Britain getting colder.....

read more

Extra U.N. climate talks set for April in Bangkok

 Climate negotiators from almost 200 nations will hold an extra session in Bangkok in April to try to unblock work on a successor to the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for slowing global warming...
read here

Obama sets 2035 clean electricity target

U.S. President Barack Obama set a target for power plants to produce mostly clean electricity by 2035 -- including power from sources like clean coal and natural gas -- in his State of the Union address.

read here

Geospatial Park in Gujarat, India

India's first geospatial technology park will be set up in Gujarat. This was announced by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during Geospatial World Forum 2011 in Hyderabad. "Gujarat is ready to host India's first geospatial tech park. We will provide all the facilities that the industry needs," he said. He also invited GIS Development to host the next Geospatial World Forum in Gujarat.

read here

Physicists Spot Interstellar Shock Wave Using Spitzer Telescope

The spirals of a "space tornado" may be the first step in the formation of a new star. The structure, observed with NASA's Spitzer infrared telescope, is a shock wave created by a jet of material slamming on a cloud of interstellar gas and dust at more than 100 miles per second, heating the cloud and causing it to glow. Physicists say the jet may have been generated by magnetic fields.

read here

Are Sharks Color Blind?

Sharks are unable to distinguish colors, even though their close relatives rays and chimaeras have some color vision, according to new research by Dr. Nathan Scott Hart and colleagues from the University of Western Australia and the University of Queensland in Australia.Their study shows that although the eyes of sharks function over a wide range of light levels, they only have a single long-wavelength-sensitive cone* type in the retina and therefore are potentially totally color blind. Hart and team's findings are published online in Springer's journalNaturwissenschaften.

read here

South Sudan seeks millions for war-hit wildlife

click here

Peaks,Passes and Bugyals of Uttarakhand,India

Peaks 

 

Nanda Devi - 7819 m

Mt Kamet -  7756 m 

Abi Gamin - 7355 m

Mana -   7272 m      situated at divide of Bank Kund and Purvi Kamet glaciers

Mukut Parvat -  7242 m

Chaukhamba -    7140 m

Trishul -   7122 m

Dunagiri -  7068 m

 Kedarnath -  6942 m

Gangotri -    6674 m

Neelkanth -   6597m    a peak near Badrinath temple. Named after Lord Shiva

Shivling -  6501 m

Nilgiri -  6474m

Bandarpunch -   6320 m

 

Passes 

A Pass is a way between two mountains.

Bali Pass

A pass between the Tons valley and the Yamunotri valleys. The route descends through open meadows and later through forests to lead near Yamunotri shrine

Borasu Pass

It can be approached through Har-ki-Doon valley It descends in the north to the Baspa valley and reaches Chhitkul

Dharashi Pass

The first pass enroute to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary

Mana Pass

The pass leads from Badrinath temple to Guge district in Tibet passing through Deotal lake from where Saraswati originates. This pass was crossed by Adi Shankaracharya

Niti Pass

A pass leading from Niti village (near Kamet) to Tibet

Gupt Khal

A pass at head of the Bankund glacier (Amrit Ganga valley), southwest of Mana peak.

 Bugyals(Grasslands)

 

Bugyals are high altitude grass lands. They are flat and slopy carpeted with green grass and seasonal flowers

Auli and Gorson

This bugyals are near Joshimath. It is at an altitude of 3049m.

Bedni

This bugyal is near Mundoli, approachable from Karnaprayag. It is at height of 3354m

Panwali & Kush-Kalyani

This bugyal is on the way from Gangotri to Kedarnath. It is an altitude ranging from 2745-3970m

Dayara

This bugyal is in Uttarkashi district and can be approached from Bhatwari

 Source

New Predator 'Dawn Runner' Discovered in Early Dinosaur Graveyard

A team of paleontologists and geologists from Argentina and the United States on Jan. 13 announced the discovery of a lanky dinosaur that roamed South America in search of prey as the age of dinosaurs began, approximately 230 million years ago.

read here 

Ice Core Shows Arctic Pollution From Coal Highest 100 Years Ago

New research, reported  in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that coal burning, primarily in North America and Europe, contaminated the Arctic and potentially affected human health and ecosystems in and around Earth's polar regions.

read here

China to control rare earth extraction

China will step up its controls over the mining of rare earths and release new industry standards to cut pollution, a minister and media said on Friday, after the world's biggest supplier cut export quotas for the minerals.

read here 

community management is KEY to save world's fisheries

A study by marine scientists has given powerful backing to campaigners who say the future of many of the world's fisheries lies in co-management by government, local people and fishermen.

read here

Oxygen's Challenge to Early Life

read here

Floods "of biblical proportions" hit Australia's northeast

 Large parts of Australia's coastal northeast were flooded on Sunday in a spreading environmental disaster as thousands of residents fled their homes to avoid the runoff from a Christmas deluge.

read here