Logistics and support for New Zealanders going to Antarctica are provided by Antarctica New Zealand. Although based in Christchurch, Antarctica New Zealand operates NZ's Scott Base, which is located on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound. The US base, McMurdo Station, is also on Ross Island, and members of the NZ and US programmes share flights to Antarctica. Anyone going to Antarctica must first pass a thorough medical and dental checkup.

Getting There

Travel to Antarctica is by either sea or air. Most people fly, and up to 5 flights a week may leave NZ from the International Antarctic Centre terminal in Christchurch each summer. Early in the season large cargo planes (Galaxies and Starlifters from the US) transport cargo and people to Antarctica. Planes land on a sea-ice runway but as the weather warms, the ice weakens and the big planes are replaced by smaller Hercules. When the sea-ice becomes too thin for the Hercules to land safely, a runway is made on the permanent ice of the Ross Ice Shelf. Special US Hercules equiped with skis then carry out all the flights between NZ and McMurdo.

The RNZAF (NZ airforce) flies wheeled Hercules. The journey to Antarctica in these planes is very exciting. They are quite old and noisy but are renowned for their cargo-carrying capacity and ability to take-off and land on short runways. A Hercules has 4 large engines and is able to land safely even if 3 of them fail!

Passengers must wear full survival clothing, so you can get quite hot during the 6 to 7 hr journey! The planes are not built for comfort; there is not much room, and passengers sit side-by-side in rows of webbing seats. It's hard to see out of the few tiny windows and there's only one basic toilet at the back.

Just past ?way is the point of no return; there's enough fuel to get to McMurdo Sound, but not back home! (Planes will quite often turn back before this point if conditions become unsuitable for landing in Antarctica.)

Scott Base

Situated at the southern end of Ross Island, Scott Base is right next door to the United States base, McMurdo Station. Consisting of a number of green-painted buildings linked by all-weather corridors, the building of the base first began in 1957. More buildings have been added over the years and now up to 100 people can be accommodated, along with the kitchen, workshops, laboratories, storerooms and other work spaces that support them. Each building is like a large fridge, except it keeps the cold out not in! It's a comfortable and friendly place with plenty to do, and all the mod cons of home. There is a shop, library, sauna, bar, and a social club that organizes special activities and functions including sporting (e.g. skiing) and cultural events. These facilities are especially important for the dozen or so hardy souls who over-winter through the dark months of June and July.

Each year Scott Base is the centre from which up to 70 different events are organized — not easy when one considers the logistics of coordinating personnel, travel, food, shelter, training, communication and safety in a harsh environment. In the 2001/02 summer, for example, a variety of research events on fish, glaciers, microbes, lichens and mosses, marine invertebrates, penguins, the dry valleys, climate, Antarctic soils, seals, ice, geomagnetism, algae and historic sites took place.

Antarctic Field Training

Before going into the field, all visitors to the ice must participate in a 2-day Antarctic Field Training (AFT) course. Qualified instructors take newcomers through the skills of assembling tents, building snow caves, mountain and ice travel, first aid, cooking, radios, survival bags, keeping warm and safe, etc.

It's a good feeling when the training and preparation are complete, and a research party with all their gear can leave for the study site.

Transport into the field

Depending on the weather, terrain and distance to be covered, several means of transport are possible.

• Walking
• Skiing
• 4WD vehicle
• Skidoo (snowmobile)
• Argo (a smaller 8-wheeled amphibious vehicle)
• Hagglund (a tracked vehicle that can carry up to 13 people)
• Sledges (various sizes and designed to be towed behind another vehicle)
• Twin Otter (a fixed-wing aircraft)
• Helicopter

Life in the field

Scientists working at sites remote from Scott Base need to set up camp. There may be a permanent building (hut) at the site, or Scott Base may organise that a temporary building is towed to the site (wannigan). At sites where there are no buildings, scientists set up a tent camp.

Field Camp

Our reasearch is carried out at Cape Bird. Cape Bird is a narrow strip of stony coastline at the foot of Mt Bird in the NW corner of Ross Island. Here Antarctica NZ have built a comfortable 8-person hut that is in constant use by scientists over the summer months. The hut consists of 2 bunkrooms, a kitchen/dining room, pantry, storeroom and laboratory all kept warm by a diesel heater that never stops. Securely anchored down with wire ropes, the hut is designed to withstand the frequent blizzards and winds that sweep up the coast. The ever-changing view from the living room windows looks westwards across McMurdo Sound to the trans-Antarctic mountains in the distance.

Food

Along with shelter and warmth, having enough to eat and drink is the most important requirement for anyone working in Antarctic.

Special efforts are made to ensure that plentiful supplies of wholesome and, where possible, fresh foods are provided. Diets are not unlike what we'd expect at home and the quantity and variety may even be better; a big difference from the situation in the early days of Antarctic exploration! Today, several base stations even have their own hydroponically grown vegetables.

In summer, workers in the field can look forward to occasional helicopter deliveries of fresh vegetables, fruit and frozen meat. When tenting, food is cooked using small fuel burners; larger gas cookers are used in huts.

Water

Because it never rains in Antarctica, drinking water must be obtained either from the sea, (in which case the salt must be removed in an energy-consuming reverse-osmosis process), or by melting snow or ice. One of the chores in the field is the need to collect and melt snow for drinking, cooking and washing.

Grey water (so called because of the colour of the water after it has been used for washing and cleaning), is collected and retrograded (returned) to Scott Base for disposal.

Surprisingly, the dry conditions in Antarctica mean that fire is a real risk, and a reserve supply of water must also be kept for fire-fighting purposes.

Toilets

In larger, coastal, base stations, sewage is usually mascerated, filtered and then piped into the sea where it disperses and decomposes. In the field, body waste is collected and retrograded to Scott Base for disposal.

Communication

Living in an Antarctic field camp for any length of time can make scientists feel very isolated from the outside world. Radio links with other camps, base stations or home are a vital means of communication on the ice.

Both VHF (very high frequency) and HF (high frequency) battery-powered radios are used. Solar panels keep the batteries charged. VHF radios are used for line-of-sight communication over shorter distances. Repeater stations may be used when there is a physical obstruction like a mountain in the way! HF radios can be used to communicate with anyone else in the world. Signals are bounced off the ionosphere 50 to 100 km above the earth. Reception can be severely disrupted in times of sunspot activity however!

landcareresearch.co.nz

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While freezing rain is not an uncommon Canadian experience, the ice storm that hit eastern Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick was exceptional. Environment Canada senior climatologist and resident climate expert, David Phillips, provides us with his analysis of how Ice Storm'98 stacks up in the record books.

Ice storms are often winter's worst hazard. More slippery than snow, freezing rain or glaze is tough and tenacious, clinging to every object it touches. A little can be dangerous, a lot can be catastrophic.

Ice storms are a major hazard in all parts of Canada except the North, but are especially common from Ontario to Newfoundland. The severity of ice storms depends largely on the accumulation of ice, the duration of the event, and the location and extent of the area affected. Based on these criteria, Ice Storm'98 was the worst ever to hit Canada in recent memory. From January 5-10, 1998 the total water equivalent of precipitation, comprising mostly freezing rain and ice pellets and a bit of snow, exceeded 85 mm in Ottawa, 73 mm in Kingston, 108 in Cornwall and 100 mm in Montreal. Previous major ice storms in the region, notably December 1986 in Ottawa and February 1961 in Montreal, deposited between 30 and 40 mm of ice - about half the thickness from the 1998 storm event!

The extent of the area affected by the ice was enormous. Freezing precipitation is often described as "a line of" or "spotty occurrences of". At the peak of the storm, the area of freezing precipitation extended from Muskoka and Kitchener in Ontario through eastern Ontario, western Quebec and the Eastern Townships to the Fundy coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In the United States, icing coated Northern New York and parts of New England.

What made the ice storm so unusual, though, was that it went on for so long. On average, Ottawa and Montreal receive freezing precipitation on 12 to 17 days a year. Each episode generally lasts for only a few hours at a time, for an annual average total between 45 to 65 hours. During Ice Storm'98, it did not rain continuously, however, the number of hours of freezing rain and drizzle was in excess of 80 - again nearly double the normal annual total.

Unlucky too! The storm brutalized one of the largest populated and urbanized areas of North America leaving more than four million people freezing in the dark for hours, if not, days. Without question, the storm directly affected more people than any previous weather event in Canadian history. Into the third week following the onset of the storm, more than 700,000 were still without electricity. Had the storm tracked 100 km farther east or west of its main target, the disruptive effect would have been far less crippling.

How did the storm affect Canada:

• at least 25 deaths, many from hypothermia.


• about 900,000 households without power in Quebec; 100,000 in Ontario.


• about 100,000 people took refuge in shelters


• residents were urged to boil water for 24 to 48 hours.


• airlines and railway discouraged travel into the area


• 14,000 troops (including 2,300 reservists) deployed to help with clean up, evacuation and security.


• millions of residents forced into mobile living, visiting family to shower and share a meal or moving in temporarily with a friend or into a shelter.


• prolonged freezing rain brought down millions of trees, 120,000 km of power lines and telephone cables, 130 major transmission towers each worth $100,000 and about 30,000 wooden utility poles costing $3000 each.

The damage in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec was so severe that major rebuilding, not repairing, of the electrical grid had to be undertaken. What it took human beings a half century to construct took nature a matter of hours to knock down.

Farmers were especially hard hit. Dairy and hog farmers were left without power, frantically sharing generators to run milking machines and to care for new-born piglets. Many Quebec maple syrup producers, who account for 70% of the world supply, were ruined with much of their sugar bush permanently destroyed.

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They may now lie in ruins of crumbling stone but, to the people who lived during their glory days, these cities were the centers of the universe. Find out what made them legendary.

10. Cahokia

With upwards of 30,000 inhabitants at its peak in about 1100 AD, Cahokia, Illinois remained the United States' first and biggest real city until the Northeast's population exploded in the late 18th century. This urban center of the Mississippi culture had organized leadership, commerce and a penchant for mound-building. Monk's Mound, the largest at 100 feet tall, dominates the site and was probably a mighty foundation for the home of the resident spiritual leader.

9. Xi'an

The Chinese city of Xi'an was the central stronghold for all of the country's most important ancient dynasties going back 3,000 years. Tourists flocking to see the city's Terra Cotta Army, 6,000 unique and life-size statues buried to protect the tomb of the great Zhou emperor Qin Shi Huang, has made Xi'an famous in modern times. That will only multiply when the emperor's sprawling mausoleum, rumored to hold invaluable treasures and rivers of mercury, is finally opened by archaeologists.

8. Great Zimbabwe

At 1,800 acres in breadth and the only one of its kind in Africa, the complex of Great Zimbabwe confounded early European colonialists, who couldn't believe that sub-Saharan peoples were capable of its creation. They were, in fact, and built the complicated structures sometime after 1200 AD, when a wide-reaching empire of about 20,000 Shona cattlemen ruled the area.

7. Thebes

Most people think of Cairo and the Great Pyramids when they think of ancient Egypt, but the heartbeat of the magical pharaonic dynasties actually beat much further up the Nile at Thebes. Thebes was the ruling capital of ancient Egypt during its most dominant eras, beginning with the Old Kingdom 4500 years ago, and is home to two of its most revered temples at Karnak and Luxor. Most of Egypt's holy rulers are also buried nearby in the famous Valley of the Kings.

6. Tenochtitlan

Legendeand bits and pieces of historical facteindicates that Tenochtitlan was once the world's biggest and most beautiful city. The capital of the great Aztec empire, which eventually morphed into today's Mexico City, had about 300,000 inhabitants when Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1521. Despite being built atop a lake according to the wishes of an important Aztec deity, ancient engineers made Tenochtitlan as efficient as any city in Europe with a complex system of causeways and canals.

5. Cuzco

All roads in the Incan empire once lead to Cuzco, bustling capital in the Andes Mountains from the early 1400s until its discovery by European explorers in 1532. To retreat from the big city, Incan kings would head to their summer home of Machu Picchu further up in the mountains.

4. Babylon

Famous for its "wondrous" hanging gardens, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon had as turbulent a history as its location in present-day Iraq suggests. Everyone from the ancient Assyrians to Alexander the Great wanted to get their hands on this strategic location, and it would become the capital for many ruling groups over a period of several thousand years. King Nebuchadnezzar II, creator of the gardens, led the city during its splendid architectural heyday around 600 BC.

3. Constantinople

Today it's shared by two continents as the Turkish city of Istanbul, but ancient Constantinople never once had to share the spotlight after Rome fell from grace in the 4th century AD. From that date through the Middle Ages, Constantinople was the world's largest and richest city, becoming the center of the new Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and finally the Ottoman Empire. Art and learning flourished in its universities and cathedrals, including the spectacular Hagia Sophia.

2. Athens

Democracy, math, philosophy, the Olympicsewhat didn't come out of Athens, the ethereal capital of ancient Greece? Athens fought long and hard, in conflicts on the sea and on land, to become leader of all Aegean city-states by the early 5th century BC. It celebrated its victories by building great temples like the Parthenon, the iconic symbol of art and architecture in ancient Greece. A plagueelikely typhoid feverecontributed to the empire's fall.

1. Rome

It's impossible to stroll through modern Rome and not bump into reminders of its ancient past. The Forum, the Colosseum and the Pantheon, just to name a few, are lasting testaments to the capital of an empire once made up of 2.5 million square miles, three continents and about 100 million people. The empire reached its zenith in 117 AD, when the emperor Trajan ruled from Rome and months-long gladiator games were held to celebrate the city's glory.

livescience.com

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An octopus with possible psychic powers, who has correctly picked the winner of Germany's four World Cup matches so far, on Tuesday tipped Germany to beat Argentina in their World Cup quarter-final match on Saturday.

Paul, a two-year-old octopus born in England now living in a German aquarium, has a 100-percent winning streak at the World Cup -- and even accurately predicted Serbia would beat Germany in their Group D match-up earlier in the tournament.

The eight-legged octopus, a denizen of Sea Life in the western town of Oberhausen, has turned into a celebrity oracle for getting all four picks right so far -- including last Sunday's elimination round match when Germany beat England.

On Tuesday, Paul once again was given the choice of picking food from two different plastic containers lowered into his tank -- one with an Argentine flag on it and one with a German flag.

The container Paul opens first is seen as his pick. Paul moved cautiously and spent about 45 minutes mulling his decision before eating the food in the box with the German flag -- suggesting a hard-fought win in extra time or even penalties.

Last week Paul ignored the England container and quickly went for the container with the Germany flag -- which was taken as a hint that Germany would win a decisive victory .

"It took Paul a really long time to make up his mind today for the Argentina-Germany match," said Sea Life spokeswoman Tanja Munzig. "Even after he opened the Germany container it took him a while to go in and eat the clam."

Munzig said, by contrast, it took Paul only seconds to decide before the England match to go for the Germany container.

"That it took him so long to make up his mind suggests it'll be a very tense match against Argentina that won't be decided until the very end -- maybe not even until penalties," she said.

Munzig also denied any suggestion the containers were rigged. The morsel of food is identical and the containers are lined up in the same order as FIFA. Argentina was on the left side on Tuesday (because the match is Argentina-Germany) whereas England was on the right last week (Germany-England).

"There are no tricks, the food is the same and everything in the two containers is the same except for the flags," she said.

So how does Paul do it?

"That's his secret," she said.

yahoo.com

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A flying car is to go into commercial production after manufacturers were given a special exemption by US aviation officials.

The Terrafugia Transition is designed as a 'light sport' aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification.

But manufacturers found it impossible to keep under the 1,320lb weight limit, once they had added safety features - such as airbags, crumple zones and roll cage - required for road vehicles.

Uniquely, however, the FAA has granted the Transition an exemption - allowing it to be classified as a light sport aircraft despite being 120lb over limit, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Light sport aircraft licences require just 20 hours' flying time, making them much easier to obtain than full private licences.

The two-seater Transition can use its front-wheel drive on roads at ordinary highway speeds, with wings folded, at a respectable 30mpg.

Once it has arrived at a suitable take-off spot - an airport, or adequately sized piece of flat private land - it can fold down the wings, engage its rear-facing propellor, and take off.

Its cruising speed in the air is 115mph, it has a range of 460 miles, and it can carry 450lb. It requires a 1,700-foot runway to take off and can fit in a standard garage.

Terrafugia says that one of the major advantages of the Transition over ordinary light aircraft is safety - in the event of bad weather, it can simply drive home instead of being grounded or flying in unsafe conditions.

The car is expected to retail at about £130,000. The company says that 70 people have already ordered the car, leaving a £6,650 deposit each.

orange.co.uk

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Nearly 200 crop circles have appeared in just one formation not far from Warminster, Wiltshire, known as the UFO capital of Britain.

The circular 90m (300ft) design, believed to represent the passage of the Moon and Sun, contains 193 rings, including six key circles and a seventh in the centre.

Crop circle expert Karen Alexander said: ‘This is the most complex circle so far this year.’ The formation, near the village of Mere, is the first in the area since 1997.

metro.co.uk

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Football fan Thulani Ngcobo has set a new world record - by attending more World Cup matches than anyone else.

Today he was celebrated by Guinness World Records as he notched up his 18th game by watching Chile v Spain at Pretoria, beating the previous record of 17 matches.

The 29-year-old from South Africa now intends to carry on and has plans to have watched a total of 38 live games by the time of the final.

Since the opening ceremony and the match between South Africa and Mexico, Ngcobo will have travelled 17,000 kilometres to nine host cities and watched 3420 minutes of football.

Check out what Ngcobo had to say of his attempt, and the Top 10 World Cup Records after the link… and hope England don't set a record as the team which has been most knocked out the tournament on penalties. Speaking of his amazing feat Ngcobo said “I feel like I’m still dreaming this is not something I would have been able to afford without winning the competition.

"I think could just be the luckiest football fan in the world and if I get a Guinness World Record all my dreams will be written in history too."

Top 10 FIFA World Cup Guinness World Records

Largest attendance at a football FIFA World Cup finals

The largest attendance at a FIFA World Cup finals tournament was at the 1994 World Cup in the USA. A total of 3,587,538 spectators viewed 52 matches, with a record high average of 68,991 spectators per game.

Fastest expulsion from a football FIFA World Cup match

The fastest time to be sent off in a World Cup finals match is 3 minutes by Ion Vladoiu, playing for Romania against Switzerland on 22 June 1994 at the Pontiac Silverdome, Detroit, Michigan, USA.

Fastest goal in a football FIFA World Cup match

The fastest goal in a World Cup finals match, as recognised by FIFA, is 11 seconds, scored by Hakan Sukur of Turkey against Korea Republic at Daegu, Korea on 29 June 2002.

Most football FIFA World Cup finals goals by a team

The most goals scored by a team in all FIFA World Cup finals tournaments is 191 by Brazil between 1930 and 2002.

Most minutes played in the World Cup finals

The most minutes played in World Cup finals is 2,217 minutes, by Paolo Maldini playing for Italy from 1990 to 2002

Oldest player in a football FIFA World Cup

The oldest is Albert Roger Milla (b. 20 May 1952) for Cameroon v. Russia on 28 June 1994, aged 42yr 39days. During this match he also scored making him the oldest scorer in the finals.

Most goals scored by a team in a football FIFA World Cup

The most goals scored by a team in a single football World Cup finals tournament is 27 by Hungary in 1954 in Switzerland.

Youngest player in a football FIFA World Cup

The youngest ever to play in a finals match is Norman Whiteside, who played for Northern Ireland v. Yugoslavia aged 17yr 41days in Zaragoza, Spain, on 17 Jun 1982.

Most cards issued in a football (soccer) FIFA World Cup finals match

The most cards issued during one World Cup finals game is 20, that is 16 yellow and four red, during Portugal v Netherlands in Nuremburg, Germany on 25 June 2006.

Earliest (First) football FIFA World Cup goal

The first ever FIFA World Cup goal was scored by Lucien Laurent (France), playing for France against Mexico at the 1930 World Cup, in Estadio Pocitos, Montevideo, Uruguay, on 13 July 1930.

newslite.tv

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A mother is being investigated after she posted a photo on the internet of her 11-month-old son apparently smoking a cannabis bong pipe.

The image has been widely circulated on the web and came to light after a shocked viewer sent it to a Florida-based news channel.

It shows a baby in a nappy putting the green glass smoking instrument to his mouth as if he were inhaling it.

His 19-year-old mother, from Keystone Heights, Florida, defended her actions, claiming there were no drugs or tobacco in the bowl and her child was not breathing in smoke.

But child protection officers from the Florida Department of Children and Families have launched an inquiry into her actions.

"We are alarmed that any parent would take pictures of their child next to what is obviously drug paraphernalia," said spokesman John Harrell.

He said the unnamed woman could face serious charges if drugs were used by or found near the baby.

The mother talked to Channel 4 via the social networking site Facebook, and insisted the pictures were a joke.

She said: "If u look at the picture u can see that there is no bowl in the TABACCO (sic) pipe.

"And i took a pic to show one (expletive) person and it was a mistake. I would never ever ever let him get high."

She said that as part of the investigation, she was being ordered to have a drugs test and her son was being checked by doctors.

She added: "Do you realize how serious this is? i can go to jail and he can be taken away from me. WHY would you do something so (expletive) stupid?

"i know what i did was stupid but i would NEVER put by baby in harm. im (sic) so nice to everyone idk (I don't know) why you would do this to me."

news.sky.com

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An image of a man with the head of a horse has become the latest odd sighting on Google Street View to go viral.

The man - dubbed Horse Boy by online fans - was snapped in the Hardgate area of Aberdeen, wearing dark trousers, a purple shirt… and a plastic horse's head.

After being highlighted on the BBC News website, Horse Boy has now been viewed more than a million times on the mapping site and many people are trying to work out who it is.

So can you help, there must be someone out there who can recognise him, let us know in the comments… but please restrain yourself from making any obvious Sarah Jessica Parker jokes.

newslite.tv

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Why settle for a $1 million house in Sydney when you can have a whole village in New Zealand for less?

The tiny town of Otira, in the Southern Alps of New Zealand, is on the market for $NZ1 million ($817,060).

The village's current owners, Bill and Christine Hennah, made the purchase in 1998 after passing through the town and "feeling sorry for it".

They paid $NZ80,000 ($65,290) for the hotel, school, railway station, town hall and 18 houses.

The Kiwi couple, now in their 60s, are asking for $NZ350,000 ($285,520) for the hotel, or $NZ1 million for the whole lot.

Otira has a population of 40 and is in the middle of a national park on the west coast of the South Island.

abc.net.au

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10. Shark 30 -100 deaths per year.

Sharks are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a streamlined body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits. Sharks have a covering of dermal denticles to protect their skin from damage, parasites and to improve fluid dynamics.

9. Jellyfish over 100 deaths per year.

Jellyfish are marine invertebrates belonging to the Scyphozoan class, and in turn the phylum Cnidaria. The body of an adult jellyfish is composed of a bell-shaped, jellylike substance enclosing its internal structure, from which the creature's tentacles suspend.

8. Hippopotamus over 200 deaths per year.

The Hippopotamus , from the Greek ?pp?p?ta?? , is a large, plant-eating African mammal, one of only two extant, and three or four recently extinct, species in the family Hippopotamidae.

7. Lion over 250 deaths per year.

The lion is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. The lion is the second largest cat, after the tiger. The male lion, easily recognized by his mane, weighs between 150-225 kg and females range 120-150 kg . In the wild, lions live for around 10–14 years, while in captivity they can live over 20 years.

6. Bee over 400 deaths per year.

Bees are flying insects, closely related to wasps and ants. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees, and they may be found on every continent except Antarctica. Bees are adapted for feeding on nectar and pollen, the former primarily as an energy source, and the latter primarily for protein and other nutrients.

5. Elephant over 600 deaths per year.

Elephantidae is a family of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea in the class Mammalia. Elephantidae has three living species: the African Bush Elephant and the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant .

4. Crocodile up to 2,000 deaths per year.

A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e. the true crocodiles, the alligators and caimans and the gharials . The crocodiles, colloquially called crocs, are large aquatic reptiles that live throughout the Tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.

3. Scorpion up to 5,000 deaths per year.

A scorpion is an invertebrate animal with eight legs, belonging to the order Scorpiones in the class Arachnida.

2. Snake over 100,000 deaths per year.

Snakes , also known as ophidians, are cold-blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. There are also several species of legless lizard which superficially resemble snakes, but are not otherwise related to them.

1. Mosquito over 2 million deaths per year resulting from malaria infection caused by mosquito bites.

The mosquito is a member of the family Culicidae; these insects have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. The females of most mosquito species suck blood from other animals.

credited to wikipedia and flickr users: booshank, hand_of_sands, devriese, watzway, princessbalavera, schlechterwolf, charlesbj, 5monthsoff, gdauphin, fdbgraphics

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A cat reportedly trekked 2,000 miles to find his owners after they moved house without him.

Ravila Hairova, 52, thought her grey cat Karim would find the change too upsetting so she asked neighbours to take him in.

She even left his favourite chair, cushion and food bowls behind in Gulistan, Uzbekistan, so he would feel at home.

But two years later she found her bedraggled, starving pet waiting on her doorstep at her new home in Liska, Russia.

"I knew he had disappeared from my neighbours' home a few days after we left which was very sad but we never heard another word about him," she said.

"Then I was walking along the road and I saw this cat which seemed to be waiting for me. When I go closer I saw it was Karim - thin, and in very poor condition but it was him.

"He is very happy now and so are we. I've no idea how he found us but I'm very glad he did."

Ravila's husband Lev Kondratyev, 46, said: "He looks like he used up all of his nine lives to get to us - but it's definitely him.

"There are certain marks on his body including a scar on his tail when it was caught in the door that show us he is 100 per cent our Karim - and he obviously recognised us as well."

orange.co.uk

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The longest match tennis has ever seen finally came to an end on Thursday when American John Isner beat France's Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set of their titanic battle at Wimbledon.

Isner triumphed 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68 on Wimbledon's Court 18 in a match which lasted 11 hours and five minutes. The final set alone lasted eight hours and 11 minutes.

Isner and Mahut split the first four sets Tuesday, before it became too dark to play. They began the fifth set Wednesday at 2:04 p.m., and play was halted at 9:10 p.m., because of darkness.

The 118 games already in the fifth set is longer than the previous record for most games in a full match, 112.

“Feel like a million bucks” Isner Tweeted on Thursday hours before he was due back on Wimbledon’s Court 18.

Just how Isner could feel anything but sore, tired, ragged or delirious is anyone’s guess.

The world waited to see Chapter III of this most compelling of matches on a day Queen Elizabeth was visiting the championships for the first time in 33 years.

But with their battle taking place away from the main Centre Court, where the Queen was in attendance, former champion John McEnroe quipped: “It’s a good thing Isner and Mahut don’t have to bow because if they did, they wouldn’t be able to get up again.” It was so long and gruelling, and with no end in sight, McEnroe also suggested doctors should have been on standby to run to the players’ aid.

“I thought Isner was getting delirious and was worried for his health,” McEnroe said after watching his fellow American barely being able to put one foot in front of the other between points.

The match reached such epic proportions, that the battling gladiators were breaking records with almost every shot they made during the course of the fifth set—which has already lasted a surreal seven hours and six minutes.

With records for the longest match, longest set, most games in a set at 118, most games in a match at 163 and most aces at 193 already set by the end of play on Wednesday—it was little wonder that the courtside scoreboard could not keep up with the antics and broke down at 47-all.

Technology might have given up the ghost but there was no stopping the human spirit that kept Mahut and Isner going on and on and on.

When Mahut lay sprawled face down on the ground after diving after a Isner volley at 58-all, for a few seconds it seemed as if the Frenchman simply wanted to fall asleep.

In fact had Mahut’s coach run over to tuck a pillow under his head, few would have blamed him.

British bookmakers were even offering odds of 100-1 on whether Swedish umpire Mohamed Lahyani would fall asleep during the match.

The unprecedented nature of their plight meant no one could offer them much advise on how they could prepare for Thursday’s challenge. “How in the world can they possibly walk, let alone play?” said McEnroe.

“There is nothing we can fall back on to even begin to think what they should do other than to make sure there are plenty of experienced medical people around. It gets unhealthy.

“I sat next to John’s mum and she was close to having a heart attack. It’s great to see the will of these two guys but should we think about at least maybe a tiebreaker at 30-all.

“These poor guys. This kind of match will set them back weeks and months. This is debilitating... these guys will not be able to walk for a month.”

While the match will no doubt revive the debate about tiebreaks in the fifth set here, as they do at the U.S. Open, perhaps Wimbledon should also break with protocol and rename the 782-seater Court 18 after the two heroic protagonists.

thestar.com

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A giant 100ft tall replica of the doomed Titanic has been built in the US -- as a museum attraction.

The 50 percent scale ship - which cost £16million to build - is the world's largest museum attraction and will teach visitors all about the ill-fated voyage.

Visitors enter the Tennessee attraction via a 30ft iceberg on the starboard bow and are presented with a 'boarding pass' bearing the name of a Titanic passenger.

Once inside the 30,000 square foot museum there are replica rooms and interactive exhibitions -- just try to ignore all he people singing like Celine Dion.

A spokesperson for Titanic Branson said the expect over 1 million visitor this year, each paying £13.

"Guests will relive the last hours of that fateful voyage. Make haunting emotional connections to passengers and crew through their words and stories," they added.

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A drunken German football fan severely beat a police officer with a vuvuzela horn after the national team’s victory over Ghana on Friday night, the authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia said on Friday.

Most of the celebrations in the town of Dinslaken just north of Duisburg were peaceful after the game, which more than 10,000 people turned out to watch, the Wesel county police department reported.

But at 11:10 pm, one intoxicated 20-year-old fan began taunting a police officer who was directing traffic around a gathering of some 1,500 people.

“As he turned to the 20-year-old, the man suddenly began hitting and kicking the officer,” the statement said. “Furthermore he began pounding the officer’s head with a vuvuzela.”

The officer was rendered incapable for duty by “severe injuries” to his head, the statement added.

Meanwhile three “courageous” bystanders jumped in to help subdue the vuvuzela-wielding attacker, who put up so much resistance that police needed assistance to make the arrest.

Vuvuzelas, the South African plastic stadium horns introduced to the world at this year's World Cup tournament, are controversial in Germany due to what many consider their irritating sound. But until now only their deafening din has been considered a 'weapon' used for distracting players on the pitch.

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Motorists who drive black cars are significantly more likely to be involved in an accident, it has been found.

In fact, university researchers claim they are 47 percent more likely to be involved in a crash -- and that's after excluding commercial vehicles.

The team from Monash University in Australia claim it's all because of the visibility of the vehicles (or lack of) against the background of the road.

Other coloured cars which merged with the road and other traffic included grey, silver and blue ones - with these suffering even more accidents when it's dark.

The safest colour cars to drive are orange and white one… which explains people don't crashes into police cars more often. Dr Stuart Newstead, said the Australian study was arguably the most comprehensive to probe the link between vehicle colour and crash risk.

"Previous international studies have examined vehicle visibility and colour but have not fully taken into account other factors that may have an impact on crash risk, such as driver demographics."

"Darker colours and colours with low contrast to the road environment, including silver, grey, green, red, blue and black, tend to be associated with a higher crash risk."

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Spring is in the the air, and blossoms and bulbs are beginning to bloom. Though deceptively attractive, some common flowers and plants can give you headaches, cause convulsions or simply kill you, according to the "Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants" (Springer, 2007). Children under 6 are especially vulnerable; they account for 85 percent of all calls to poison centers, though the most commonly consumed culprits in poison cases are cosmetics, personal care products, cleansers and pills. Most plants are safe, but here are some you need to know about. They might be in your own yard or even in the house.

10. Narcissus

These cheerful yellow and white harbingers of spring, aka daffodils and jonquils, are actually mildly toxic if the bulbs are eaten in large quantities (Narcissus pseudonarcissus is shown). Some people confuse them for onions. Daffodil bulb diners tend to experience nausea, vomiting, cramps and diarrhea. A doctor might recommend intravenous hydration and/or drugs to stave off nausea and vomiting if symptoms are severe or the patient is a child.

9. Rhododendron

Rhododendrons and azalea bushes (a variety of rhododendron), with their bell-shaped flowers, look great in the yard come springtime, but the leaves are toxic and so is honey made from the flower nectar. Eating either from these evergreen shrubs makes your mouth burn, and then you'll probably experienced increased salivation, vomiting, diarrhea and a tingling sensation in the skin. Headaches, weak muscles and dim vision could follow. Your heart rate could slow down or beat strangely, and you might even drop into a coma and undergo fatal convulsions. Before that, doctors will try to replace your fluids and help you breath more easily and administer drugs to bring back your normal heart rhythm.

8. Ficus

Also known as weeping fig, benjamin tree, or small-leaved rubber plants, all ficus have milky sap in their leaves and stems that is toxic. There are about 800 species of ficus trees, shrubs and vines (Ficus benjamina is shown), many of which are cultivated indoors in pots and tubs and outdoors in warm areas where some varieties can grow to up to 75 feet tall. The worst that will happen is your skin will itch and puff up and your doctor will give you something for the allergy or the inflammation.

7. Oleander

Every bit of the oleander plant is toxic, unlike the case for other plants where just the flower or sap might be poisonous. Even accidental inhalation of the smoke from burning oleander is a problem. Other trouble comes from using the sticks for weenie or marshmallow roasts or drinking water in which the clusters of red, pink or white flowers have been placed. These evergreen shrubs (Nerium oleander is shown) are common as tub plants or in gardens in the Southwest and California, any locale that approaches the plant's native Mediterranean climate. Typically the symptoms involve a change in heart rate, be it a slow down or palpitations or high potassium levels. A doctor might prescribe a drug to bring your heartbeat back under control and try to induce vomiting with ipecac, pump your stomach or absorb the toxin with ingested charcoal.

6. Chrysanthemum

Also known as mums, orange and yellow varieties of these showy flowers often turn up in foil-wrapped pots on people's front steps around Halloween and Thanksgiving. There are 100 to 200 species of Chrysanthemums, and they generally grow low to the ground, but can turn into shrubs. Gardeners plant mums to keep rabbits away. Guess what? The flower heads are somewhat toxic to humans too. But not terribly. Touching them can make you itch and puff up a bit, but probably the doctor will just give you something for the inflammation and allergic reaction.

5. Anthurium

The leaves and stems of these bizarre-looking plants, with dark green, heart-shaped leathery leaves and a scarlet, white or green spike surrounded by a red, pink or white "spathe," are toxic. Also known as flamingo flowers or pigtail plants, eating tropical Anthuriums could give you a painful burning sensation in the mouth that then swells and blisters. Your voice might also become hoarse and strained and you might have difficulty swallowing. Most of this will fade with time, but cool liquids, pain pills and gluey herbs and foods like licorice or flaxseeds may bring relief.

4. Lily-of-the-valley

These darling droopers, also known as mayflowers, are entirely poisonous, from the tips of their tiny bell-shaped white flowers that coyly fall off like parted hair to the very water in which they might be placed. A little bit of Lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis) probably won't hurt much, but if you eat a lot, you'll probably experience nausea, vomiting, pain in the mouth, abdominal pain, diarrhea and cramps. Your heart rate might also become slow or irregular. A doctor might decide to clean out your stomach by pumping it or feeding you absorbing charcoal, and might give you drugs to bring your heart rate back to normal.

3. Hydrangea

These poofy-flowered bushes (Hydrangea macrophylla) are popular yard ornaments that can grow up to 15 feet tall with rose, deep blue or greenish-white flowers that grow in huge clusters and look as edible as cotton candy or a big bun to an imaginative mind. But those blooms will give you a belly ache that sets in sometimes hours after eaten. Typically, patients also experience itchy skin, vomiting, weakness and sweating. Some reports indicate that patients can even experience coma, convulsions and a breakdown in the body's blood circulation. Luckily, there is an antidote for hydrangea poisoning, and doctors might also give you drugs to address to ease your symptoms.

2. Foxglove

Foxglove is a magical looking plant that grows to 3 feet tall with drooping purple, pink or white flowers, sometimes dotted inside, along a central stalk. Its Latin name is Digitalis purpurea, which might sound familiar; leaves from the plant are a commercial source of the heart drug digitalis. If you eat any part of these plants in the wild, you too will likely have heart problems after a spell of nausea, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea and pain in the mouth. A doctor might administer charcoal to absorb the toxin or pump your stomach, and might also administer drugs to bring your heart rate back to normal. Other names for this plant include fairy bells, rabbit flower, throatwort and witches' thimbles.

1. Wisteria

Wisterias form romantic cascades of sweetpea-like flowers that fall in lush blue, pink or white masses from woody vines that grow mainly in the South and Southwest. The entire plant, also known as a kidney bean tree, is toxic, though some say the flowers are not. Better safe than sorry, because most reports are that eating this plant will cause nausea, vomiting, cramps and diarrhea that could require treatments such as intravenous hydration and anti-nausea pills.

livescience.com

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