Photo: catalano82
When ocean, air, and temperature conditions are just right, ocean phytoplankton reproduce like bunnies, creating a thick, visible layer near the surface. These algae blooms — a.k.a “red tides” — might look disgusting during the day, but in parts of California and other places where the bioluminescent variety of Noctiluca scintillans bloom, red tide nights look out of this world.
This particular variety of phytoplankton glows blue when agitated, transforming the dark ocean into a giant lava lamp. Watch as the waves light up as they crash, run across the sand to see the ground glow under your feet, or dive in to be surrounded by the bizarre Timex-y glow.
The N. scintillans is also the culprit behind the Bioluminescent Bays in Puerto Rico.
Photo: Ylem
Bioluminescence doesn’t just occur in the water. During the late summer months, a faint and eerie glow can also be seen from forests around the world, where bioluminescent mushrooms grow on moist, rotting bark.
Foxfire has been witnessed worldwide, but the greatest diversity occurs in the tropics, where moist forests encourage fungi growth. The newest varieties of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms were introduced to the world just last year, after being collected from Ribeira Valley Tourist State Park near Sao Paulo, Brazil.
To up your chances of seeing this one, hunt in the forest during its wettest season and move as far as possible away from any light sources that may outshine the faint glow. And if you do happen to come across a patch of glowing shrooms, don’t even think about it — they’re not that kind of mushroom.
Photo: Jeff Kubina
Another summertime occurrence, fire rainbows occur when sunlight hits frozen ice crystals in high-altitude cirrus clouds. Because the fire rainbow actually involves no rain at all, scientists would rather we refer to this occurrence by its much less fun, but much more accurate title: the circumhorizonal arc.
Since the arc requires both the presence of cirrus clouds and for the sun to be extremely high in the sky, it’s much more likely to be seen at latitudes closer to the equator. Conditions might be right for a fire rainbow in Los Angeles six months out of the year, but in a more northern city like London, that window drops to a mere two months. The photo above was taken in West Virginia.
Photo: Thomas Larsen Røed
For those of you a bit farther away from the equator, there’s still plenty to see in the sky. Nacreous clouds (also called mother-of-pearl clouds) are extremely rare, but unmistakeable in the dark hours before dawn or after sunset. Because of their extremely high altitudes, they reflect sunlight from below the horizon, shining it brightly down onto viewers below, in stark comparison to the regular ol’ dark clouds in the troposphere.
The lower stratosphere, where nacreous clouds live, is so dry that it often prevents cloud formation, but the extreme cold of polar winters make this beautiful phenomenon possible. Captured best during winter at high latitudes, nacreous clouds have been spotted in Iceland, Alaska, Northern Canada, and very rarely, farther south in England.
Photo: jah~
Snow rollers are formed when a thick layer of snow falls on top of a layer of ice. If the temperature and wind speed are right, chunks of snow can break loose and start rolling. As they’re blown along the ground like wintry tumbleweeds, they pick up additional snow along the way. The inner layers are often weaker and less compact, allowing them to be blown easily away by the wind, leaving a large, naturally formed snow donut.
Because of the precise temperature and wind speeds required to create this effect, snow rollers are a rare sight, but have made headlines with their appearances in parts of North American and the UK.
When we said that prayer was bringing “the mind down to the heart” maybe we thought that was mere sentiment. Now we know what is really happening in true contemplation or non-dual thinking. Non-dualistic thinking is foundational to any notion of emerging Christianity. If this foundation is not firmly laid, any new “Emerging Christianity” will end up again dividing between conservative, liberal, feminist, gay, straight, rich, poor, and will largely continue to mirror the secular culture. We just don’t have time for this anymore.
Feature photo by derekGavey. Photo above by The Wolf.
This may surprise some, but the instrument itself may actually be superfluous depending on what you play. For those who sing, your voice is rather more transportable as an instrument than, say, an organ.
If you play something like the guitar, you’ll find that many people you encounter while traveling will have some old, beaten-up nylon string hidden away in a closet.
If you’re space-poor luggage-wise, why not roll the dice and assume that someone else has taken the trouble to being their acoustic, and hijack it when they start slurring the third verse of “Livin’ On a Prayer”?
Be smart; if you’re planning on couchsurfing in Ireland, you’re bound to come across a fiddle at numerous points. If you’re backpacking through the Laos highlands, however, you may want to consider bringing your own. Especially if you’re a little in love with the tone/design/sound of your instrument.
If you do decide you can’t leave your “other baby” at home to gather dust, consider any alternatives to the full-size, heavy-as double bass you’ve got (see “awkwardly large instruments”, below).
Banish the thought of buying a soft case to save some dough. Even if your instrument is small enough to carry on to the plane, a couple of centimeters of foam ain’t gonna protect your 18th century Stradivarius against the New York subway crowds.
Hard cases may be heavier, but the protection they provide compensate for the biceps they tone.
Photo by join the dots.
Essential. Simple as that. Except if you play the drums; and even then it may come in handy.
Chromatic tuners are best because they can tune to any note, rather than specifically the ones on your instrument (assuming you know your instrument well enough to identify what notes you need to tune to).
Sure, online “tuners” are easy enough to find if you happen to have a connected computer on hand, but having a quick, easy-to-use portable tuner to pull out of your case when the campfire’s roaring is indispensable.
And there’s nothing worse than everyone getting fired up for a tune, only to delay the fun by spending 20 minutes tuning up without one. Don’t spend too much on this – I usually lose mine going from house-to-car, never mind continent-to-continent.
The Korg CA-30 Chromatic Tuner is a solid, reliable and cheap model that will serve most musicians.
Capos, bows, slides, reeds, peg tuners, strings, sticks all fall under this category. The little things that are often essential when it comes to playing your specific instrument.
Even if you know the songs off-by-heart, lyrics with some chords scrawled on top are enough for others to join in if they want to/can. At least know the key of each song, in case someone’s lurking nearby with sweet harmonica skills.
Photo by Horia Varlan.
Essential for scribbling down any lyrical or musical inspiration that may hit during your wanders.
Get one with a stave or tab lines if they apply to your instrument (if those two terms mean nothing to you, ignore that suggestion).
Keep an open ear out for local melodies and see if they don’t infiltrate your own musical sensibility.
Travel is such a rich experience that it’s bound to have an immediate impact on any creative pursuit.
Unless you’re a retro-electro-punk outfit from Australia trying to break the US market, it’s just not worth bringing any other noisemaking equipment.
What possible use does a backpacker have for a keytar anyway?
Photo by Will Scullin.
Forget it. If you can’t make the songs sound good using a run-down scratched-up acoustic round a campfire, no amount of reverb and echo is going to fix it.
Even if your overbearing parents got you a Steinway & Sons piano when you were four, it stays.
Find an alternative, like a “portable piano” (thus breaking the “no electronic instruments” recommendation), or a melodica which garners bonus individuality points.
If you play bass sax, take an alto instead. If you play the drums, just bring one. If you play guitar, how about a half-size? Or a ukulele? Just know you’ll never be able to replicate your home playing experience while on the road; and, heck! – that’s kind of the point.
Looking for more packing lists? Check out Matador’s Packing Tips focus page on packing for various travel scenarios.
Women come in all shapes and sizes. Just ask Oprah. Nowhere is this more true than a college campus. With that in mind, here is TTP’s breakdown of 12 of the girls you’ll meet in college. Gentlemen, choose wisely and choose often.
1. The Cheerleader – A hot blonde chick that only wants to score scholarship athletes. After coming up short with the big boys of basketball and football, she’ll eventually settle in as “equipment manager” for a niche sports team, like rugby.
2. The Phantom Boyfriend – A fun, good looking, easy-going gal who’s everything you’re looking for in a mate. Unfortunately, before things ever get cookin’ she sneaks in a comment about her boyfriend who’s at home, at another college, or in the military.
3. The Courtney Love – This mess of a broad is a stinky drunk not afraid to do anyone or anything. If you listen close you can almost hear her herpes beckoning you to her loins like the sirens from Greek mythology. Stick with the BJ.
4. The Friedan – You can’t take an English class without running into one of these broads. The Friedan loves Charlotte Bronte, may eschew makeup and form fitting clothes, hates this list, and probably despises The Toilet Paper as a whole.
5. The Chastity Belt – A girl who’s cute as a button, but never lets loose because she’s too busy with Bible Camp and church choir. More than likely a virgin, or at least a born again virgin. She’s worth keeping an eye on for her final semester, “Oh-crap-what-have-I-been-doing-for-three-and-a-half-years breakdown” where she’ll make up for lost time very quickly.
6. The Rhoda – Makes a living upstairs. Kiss her, give her hickeys on her neck, juggle her boobs, all good. Anything below the belt and she either smacks the shit out of you or suggests you “take a break.” Either way run like hell. This broad is either insane or packing a surprise you never want to discover.
7. The Cialis – You haven’t been teased like this since the bus ride home after your classmates caught you eating a booger. Whether she’s inviting herself over for a movie night, or getting Danny Devito drunk and making you walk her home, it always seems like you’re one exit away from pound town. Sorry guys, not happening.
8. The Lesbo Possessive Friend of the Chick You Hook Up With That Hates You – You’ll know this when you see it. May also be a Friedan.
9. The Book Worm – Hobbies include asking questions in class, registering for the GRE, and drinking Diet Cokes at the library. The Book Worm is a close cousin of the Chastity Belt, but for one weekend a semester, right after midterms and before she starts studying for fianls, the Worm leaves the library and lets loose.
10. The Guarantee – Usually good looking enough, but often overloaded with baggage. There’s at least one per dorm, if not one per floor. You try to stay away, but then 2 a.m. rolls around and you got squat. Enjoy, but be sure to wrap your rascal and under no circumstances fall in love with her, get in a fight over her, or let her get in the way of other potential scores.
11. The Non-Conformist – This gal is hip to the nines with a rugged edge. With a wacky hairdo, overstated make-up and tattooed arm sleeves she exudes hip. However, deep down inside she is nothing more than a little girl with a broken heart who was never kissed in high school. Now as she has blossomed she is looking to score and be a hellcat doing it. Don’t date her, but yes by all means take her camping for a weekend.
12. The World Cup – She only comes around once every four years, but one night with her is enough to change your life. There’s no preparing for a W.C., but if you pass her up, she won’t be around again.
Written by Melissa DeMeo & Paul Silverman
You never mean: Could care less
You always mean: Couldn’t care less
Why: You want to say you care so little already that you couldn’t possibly care any less. When the Boston Celtics’ Ray Allen said, “God could care less whether I can shoot a jump shot,” we know he meant exactly the opposite because 1) God has other things on his mind, and 2) God is a Knicks fan.
You might say: Mano a mano
You might mean: Man-to-man
Why: You don’t speak Spanish by adding vowels to the end of English words, as a columnist describing father–teenage son relationships seemed to think when he wrote, “Don’t expect long, mano a mano talks.” Mano a mano (literally, “hand to hand”) originated with bullfighting and usually refers to a knock-down, drag-out direct confrontation.
You might say: Less
You might mean: Fewer
Why: In general, use fewer when you’re specifying a number of countable things (“200 words or fewer”); reserve less for a mass (“less than half”). So when you’re composing a tweet, do it in 140 characters or fewer, not less.
You never mean: Hone in
You always mean: Home in
Why: Like homing pigeons, we can be single-minded about finding our way to a point: “Scientists are homing in on the causes of cancer.” Hone means “to sharpen”: “The rookie spent the last three seasons honing his skills in the minor leagues.” But it’s easy to mishear m’s and n’s, which is probably what happened to the Virginia senator who said, “We’ve got to hone in on cost containment.” If you’re unsure, say “zero in” instead.
You might say: Bring
You might mean: Take
Why: The choice depends on your point of view. Use bring when you want to show motion toward you (“Bring the dog treats over here, please”). Use take to show motion in the opposite direction (“I have to take Rufus to the vet”). The rule gets confusing when the movement has nothing to do with you. In those cases, you can use either verb, depending on the context: “The assistant brought the shot to the vet” (the vet’s point of view); “the assistant took the shot to the doctor” (the assistant’s).
You might say: Who
You might mean: Whom
Why: It all depends. Do you need a subject or an object? A subject (who) is the actor of the sentence: “Who left the roller skates on the sidewalk?” An object (whom) is the acted-upon: “Whom are you calling?” Parents, hit the Mute button when Dora the Explorer shouts, “Who do we ask for help when we don’t know which way to go?”
You almost never mean: Brother-in-laws, runner-ups, hole in ones, etc.
You almost always mean: Brothers-in-law, runners-up, holes in one, etc.
Why: Plurals of these compound nouns are formed by adding an s to the thing there’s more than one of (brothers, not laws). Some exceptions: words ending in ful (mouthfuls) and phrases like cul-de-sacs.
You almost never mean: Try and
You almost always mean: Try to
Why: Try and try again, yes, but if you’re planning to do something, use the infinitive form: “I’m going to try to run a marathon.” Commenting on an online story about breakups, one woman wrote, “A guy I dated used to try and impress me with the choice of books he was reading.” It’s no surprise that the relationship didn’t last.
You almost never mean: Different than
You almost always mean: Different from
Why: This isn’t the biggest offense, but if you can easily substitute from for than (My mother’s tomato sauce is different from my mother-in-law’s), do it. Use than for comparisons: My mother’s tomato sauce is better than my mother-in-law’s.
You almost never mean: Beg the question
You almost always mean: Raise the question
Why: Correctly used, “begging the question” is like making a circular argument (I don’t like you because you’re so unlikable). But unless you’re a philosophy professor, you shouldn’t ever need this phrase. Stick to “raise the question.”
You might say: More than
You can also say: Over
Why: The two are interchangeable when the sense is “Over 6,000 hats were sold.” We like grammarian Bryan Garner’s take on it: “The charge that over is inferior to more than is a baseless crotchet.”
You almost never mean: Supposably
You almost always mean: Supposedly
Why: Supposably is, in fact, a word—it means “conceivably”—but not the one you want if you’re trying to say “it’s assumed,” and certainly not the one you want if you’re on a first date with an English major or a job interview with an English speaker.
You might say: All of
You probably mean: All
Why: Drop the of whenever you can, as Julia Roberts recently did, correctly: “Every little moment is amazing if you let yourself access it. I learn that all the time from my kids.” But you need all of before a pronoun (“all of them”) and before a possessive noun (“all of Julia’s kids”).
You might say: That
You might mean: Which
Why: “The money that is on the table is for you” is different from “the money, which is on the table, is for you.” That pinpoints the subject: The money that is on the table is yours; the money in my pocket is mine. Which introduces an aside, a bit of extra information. If you remove “which is on the table,” you won’t change the meaning: The money is for you (oh, and unless you don’t want it, it’s on the table). If the clause is necessary to your meaning, use that; if it could safely be omitted, say which.
You never mean: Outside of
You always mean: Outside
Why: These two prepositions weren’t meant for each other. Perfectly acceptable: “Wearing a cheese-head hat outside Wisconsin will likely earn you some stares and glares (unless you’re surrounded by Green Bay Packers fans, that is).”
You might say: Each other
You might mean: One another
Why: Tradition says that each other should be used with two people or things, and one another with more than two, and careful speakers should follow suit: “The three presenters argued with one another over who should announce the award, but Ann and Barbara gave each other flowers after the ceremony.” (By the way, if you need the possessive form of either one when writing that business letter, it’s always each other’s and one another’s; never end with s’.)
8 Confusing Pairs
leery, wary: suspicious
weary: tired
farther: for physical distance
further: for metaphorical distance or time
principle: rule
principal: of your school
compliment: nice thing to say
complement: match
continual: ongoing but intermittent
continuous: without interruption
stationary: stands still
stationery: paper
imply: to suggest a meaning
infer: to draw meaning from something
It was Dr. Anthony P. Witham who once said “children spell love…T-I-M-E.” He was definitely onto something. Unfortunately, if you are like most parents, time is a precious commodity that often eludes us. Whether we have a new job, a new baby, or we just need to make the coffee or strip the beds, we always seem to be wishing for more time. We need more. We want more. But we feel we just don’t have it. Does that mean we don’t love them? Of course not.
Spending quality time with our children is extremely important for their development and happiness. I have interviewed thousands of children around the world and they told me that time spent with them doesn’t need to be elaborate or long, but it must be “quality”. We must find ways then to slow down and slip in some memorable time that will let our children know that we love and care for them.
Many children will let you know in their own “subtle” ways if they feel that you are not giving them the attention that they need. Some will withdraw while others will “act out.” You might see it when a child gives “lip” to a teacher, fights with another classmate or resorts back to behaviors that once got your attention like increased crying, throwing tantrums or even bed-wetting. This is a way to capture your attention, albeit often negative, so that they can enjoy “focused” time with you. Essentially the thought process is, “if I can’t get her attention by doing something good, I’ll get her attention by doing something bad.” Nobody wants that!
So how can you find time when you feel you don’t have any to spend?
1. One-on-one time: Alone time with your child is best when you are doing something you both enjoy. With one family it may be the time when Dad takes the baby so Mom can spend time with the older child. This could mean going to a movie, going to the local theater to see Cinderella, or just sitting at the park on a bench and talking. The frequency of one-on-one time is up to you, but the children I interviewed said at least once a month is the minimum. If you are a single mother with more than one child you could arrange it so that each Saturday you spend quality time with one of your children and the last Saturday of the month you spend quality time as a family.
Marking your dates down on a calendar is a great idea and shows your children you make this time a priority.
2. Integrate Together Time into Your Daily Schedule: Children love to help. Do you have a mailing to do? Have them put the stamps on the envelopes. Need to go shopping? Make grocery shopping “fun time” with you. Need to make dinner? Let them help you by contributing to the preparation process. While it might be messier and it may time more time in the beginning, you will see that the children will become your greatest helpers and they will look back and remember that “before dinner” was always special time with you.
3. Phantom Time: Don’t have a moment to spare until about 3 a.m.? You can still let your children know that you care. Write notes and drop them into their lunch boxes. This was one of the top ten things children told me made them feel loved and cared for by their parent. Other ideas would be to record a short video for them using a camera and leaving it for them at the breakfast table. Be creative here!
4. Break time: Everyone is busy. Some parents are busier than others. Slide in a “break time” so that you and your children can spend 15 minutes or a half hour together. Set a timer if you need to so that everyone knows when “break time” starts and finishes. Give warnings to your children when 2 minutes are left so that it doesn’t come as a surprise. Don’t even have break time available? Wake your child up 15 minutes early so that you can spend a little extra time doing something fun in the morning. You might not think that 15 minutes is any significant time at all, but to a child, it is 15 extra minutes with you.
Spending time with your children provides them with opportunities to learn and to be heard. Most of all, it provides you and your children with time to connect. It’s these connections that make your children feel loved. So leave the beds unstripped for another few minutes and put the coffee on an automatic timer. Take those extra moments to spend with your children. When you look back, you will be thankful for the memories.
Erin Kurt, B.Ed, spent 16 years as a teacher and nanny around the world. Now, she applies her expertise as a parenting expert and author of Juggling Family Life. You can learn more about Erin and her simple, loving parenting method, and subscribe to her weekly parenting tips e-zine at ErinParenting.com.
For better or for worse, your doctor doesn’t always tell you everything, and what you are told isn’t always presented with complete objectivity. In most cases, this is done to prevent you from worrying too much, or to deter harmful activities you might be indulging in. In other cases it’s simply because they’re trying to solve your issue as efficiently as possible, without discussing other potential problem areas or making things overly complicated.
To help you get started with your list of things to discuss with your doctor, our friends at the Term Life Insurance Blog have come up with the following infographic, which hopefully may make the process a little easier, and make things more clear.
