Ocean Species found in Archipelago

Madrid — The Oceana Ranger catamaran is equipped with a robot that has dived down to 500 meters depth to film species that are rarely spotted, or have never even been seen, in the Canarian archipelago.

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The goal of the expedition is to identify areas that should be turned into marine protected areas. Only 2.7% of the EU’s marine surface area is protected, but the United Nations calls for 10%.

Oceana has found around a dozen species in the Canary Islands whose existence in the archipelago was unknown until now. Glass and rock sponges, ball, white and black coral, and armored searobin are some of the species that have been found. A wide variety of rare species, or species for which hardly any biological information is known, were also able to be filmed live, including channeled rockfish, anglerfish, silver and pink gallo fish, fan coral, bathyal sea fans, Venus fly-trap anemones, and lollipops sponges.

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Welcome to a sample of our videos designed for public display, customize to each license. Audio designed for paging, voice over, and easy conversations.

Restaurant Video Menus: We invented the vertical plasma display for AquaKnox @ The Venetian. See the AquaKnox and W. Puck’s famous PostRio in-room commercial, both works produced by our boutique division; Las Vegas High Definition or LVHD. Content can be delivered on a standard DVD or for clients with dynamic content needs, changes are delivered remotely through secure network media playback units. HD and NTSC standards are available.

The first application uses graphics to present info for a friendly tavern atmosphere. Wait ’til you see the ‘friendly barracuda’ at about one minute.

Stick around and get hammered… at the Rusty Nail.

This application is designed for a relaxing hospitality in-room channel. Voice messages and graphics would be upgraded to the resort.

FYI: The tune is “TORTURED BEAUTY” from the featured DVD available in our store.

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In the last part (also the first part) In the first and last part I mentioned stopping junk mail. Not only does it save paper, think about the energy savings of the US Postal Service. Processing junk mail takes man hours and fuel, and we all know how fast they move because we named it “snail mail”.

41pounds.org charges $40 to stop junk mail for five years.

greendimes.com sharges $20 and claims to stop about 90%.

Non-profit groups can reuse many items you would be temped to just toss out. SafeNest and Catholic Charities will take furniture and appliances for needy families. Other groups can swap the stuff for cash or more appropriate items they need. And you take the tax credit. Just get a receipt cause I don’t want to hear you crying when the tax man comes for giving up some $200.00 jeans. That’s what you paid new? Too bad, sorry to hear it.

Appliances are a drag when they break down. If you drag it to the street chances are your community will pick it up and it’s out of your hair. Unfortunately for Mother Earth that steal heap is headed for a landfill. Older refrigerators contain freon that will eventually leak. Why not look for company that extracts and resells the steal. You know they will be regulated to handle the freon removal as part of their business.

So that it! That’s my take on recycling. Do what you can feel good about, a lot or a little, everything helps. I don’t know the reality on Global Warming. I do know the cleaner the planet the healthier we are. Clean is good. Right? Like the beautiful waters of the Florida Keys. Want a closer look? Click the image for the full res view. Wanna get even closer? We’ll take you inside! Literally. Buy our DVD today.

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It’s not that hard. There is no excuse.

With the exception of a few, we all want to do our part to help the environmental movement. Not everyone has the same level of commitment or concern, and that’s okay. Participation in any worthy cause will lead to greater involvement. It just takes time to form the good habit. Let’s face facts: It’s no day at the park to cull out salvageable materials, but recycling shouldn’t be a big deal considering the result - it will leave a better place for future generations. No where is the impact of recycling (good and bad) felt MORE directly than our Oceans and coral reefs.

1. To emulate Shakespeare’s words about the rose; Junk is junk, is junk. But it doesn’t start as junk. Your JUNK MAIL begins its long, nasty, dirty journey to the landfill along with 100-Million trees, sacrificed for promotional materials. STOP JUNK MAIL altogether! Several web sites act as “anti-clearinghouses”. They contact solicitors on your behalf and ask to cease and desist. Put the post office out of business. I will post a few web links in part 2 for one click service to stop your junk mail.

2. What is/ isn’t recyclable? This is the big question for most of us. Styrofoam coffee cups: some styrofoam types are while the twizzler sticks are not. Plastic milk containers are while the plastic cap is not. Wax-paper juice containers are not recyclable, but so many people put them in that the cost of reprocessing goes up. HELP! This is getting silly and confusing so let’s recycle the basics first. If you want to do more contact your local community’s program.

Start with the big three. PLASTICS are petrolium based products and with crude oil reaching $90. per barrel… do the math. PAPER is energy-intensive to produce from trees. Basically reducing the tree to sawdust to begin. How sad a fate when each ton of recycled paper saves enough energy to power a three bedroom home for three months. ALUMINUM from recycled material takes 95% less energy. Again, 95% less. If that isn’t reason enough to recycle your can off, the mining of new bauxite is expensive, dangerous to rivers, and degrades the land. The very manly exercise of crushing soda and beer cans with a slight twist uses 1/3 the space at home and inside the collection truck resulting in less fuel overall.

3. USE LESS STUFF (in the first place). This is the real secret to a self-sustainable society. Start with the easiest; grocery bags. Bring your own cloth bags to the store. Plastic store bags should be banned from seacoast communities. Do you really NEED a bag for that pack of gum? Carelessly handled bags fill with water and set adrift could be mistaken for food causing a horrible death to an unsuspecting animal. That cannot be fair.

The ‘very classy‘ human being in all of us wants to be ‘exceptionally hip’. Start your personal hippness by bringing your own grocery bags to the store. Believe me, you will stand out and you will be respected for doing it. My wife gets a nickel for each bag. People grasp the concept. How many times have I heard myself say, “I could do more, and perhaps one day I shall.” Today I did do more.  I wrote this article!

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I find myself often questioning the intelligence of humans. The average person spends more time choosing a new car color than choosing a president. As a nation we’re loose ground to third world countries; we’re not too overly concerned. We’ll call it a ‘darn shame’ and toss money at it again. We sulk and sink into a great national depression if the home town b-ball team doesn’t bring home the prize. Forget having an open discussion on religion- unless you don’t mind being nailed to a wall. Just as radical are computer platform wars; I’ve been known to aggrevate a few lively discussions.

But animals are intelligent. Far more so than the average human is aware. I have seen proof in my life and have participated in the ‘development of animal intelligence’ training Service Dogs, Assistance Monkey, and I have most recently experienced Therapy Dolphins www.islanddolphincare.com And scientists claim they’ve barely scratching the surface. Science discovers amazing things about animals each year. Here is very interesting study to explore the intelligence of African elephants and to bolster our own ‘intelligence of animals’. LOL
Nature camera artist Martyn Colbeck treks alongside African elephants. His video documentary spans over 15-years and reveals the most stunning interactions not just of elephants, but of wild elephants accepting humans in their midst. , accepting him as one of the family. Can you imagine such an encounter? Lying with 15 sleeping elephants? The snoring? Colbeck watched and filmed a wild birth. You have to see this documentary come true in 2007. They demonstrate for him their astonishing feats of memory in the finding of water holes. The second half features the development of a baby, Ebony, in Nature’s daytime soap opera. The plot includes a kidnapping by a neighboring herd. You’ll have to tune in to find out what happens. As Colbeck states; and this is the guy who has studied, observed, and filmed 15 years, these African elephants exhibit community cooperation, group aggression and teamwork to accomplish family goals, family tenderness and party atmosphere, joy and sadness, but mostly intelligence.

Calling Martyn Colbeck only a cameraman is unlikely. His observations and documented elephant activities from forest to desert are unprecedented. His documentary a must see. Here’s a preview of the documentary on PBS Nature, see the Elephant preview dated 1/24/2008:

Get HD2O under sea media. Your purchases help make the important work of Island Dolphin Care possible.

Interested readers can jump to: elephantconservation.org/ AND: nationalgeographic gorillas-weapons

I was so fortunate to spent four days with an Asian elephant and her crew. A group of California ranchers had her brought in as the very special guest of their annual round up. Day one: The sunrise directly behind as the elephant comes over the ridge with riders. The horses and men go wild and the sound rises from her footsteps to a roaring canyon. She paused for perhaps ten seconds. The trainer whispers, scratching some tiny piece of her. After a few more seconds we led her down into the valley. Day three: The ranchers do a trail ride. The elephant was disappointed when the trainers stopped her to the tree line. She wouldn’t have fit. That day we roamed the lush green valley in a small group. She would trumpet and listen for the horses to return. In that moment, it was amazing to be accepted (in a small way and for only four days) by that magnificent giant. There is nothing to explain her affection and care for me. I could see it in her eyes. Martyn Colbeck is a Hero for his cinematographic body of evidence.

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Las Vegas - The Hotel Casino Monte Carlo was ablaze today.

This morning was an exceptionally beautiful sunrise. Looking in any direction from 6:00AM through sunrise was inspiring. I stared out at the western mountains is awe and with disappointment. I was out of video tape.

Around 11:00 I was outside and noticed smoke coming from the direction of the STRIP. From our second floor windows we cannot see to the Monte Carlo, although we can just see the Luxor light.

My first impression was a fire much closer to us, perhaps an McCarran Airport tragedy? Thank God that was not the case.

This is a good test of the emergency systems of Las Vegas. Crisis Management and Emergency Services are Las Vegas all the way. I am certain this minor issue will be resolved quickly, smoothly, and the hotel will do everything to comfort our guests.

The biggest disaster today is my running out of video tape!

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When it comes to discussing global warming, glaciers melting, or oceans rising it’s sure to charge up some tempers. Pick a side and start firing across the fence. There’s an overwhelming ‘peek pressure’ to convict without a jury anyone who doesn’t see it a certain way! I try to present a balanced view, but we all have our prejudice and peeves.

VP Al Gore has a movie, Academy Award, & Nobel Prize and yet I’m not going to fall over backward, sorry. For anyone to question any point about Earth temperatures is like a crime equal in shame to calling the earth flat and asking for equal time to present that view. That’s just not the case. If you feel the evidence is compelling and indisputable I encourage you to do whatever you can. If you don’t think there is accelerated human impact it still makes total sense to support a cleaner planet and to recycle. For the middle-of-the-road folks I suggest a reasonable combination of these two approaches. Just don’t flip off the guy driving a Hummer because he may, in his way, be doing more than you!

MIT Technology Review (Nov - Dec 2007) stated that science has a POOR understanding of the ice sheets. With poor data it would be hard to predict how sea levels will respond. Scientists tend to agree sea levels are rising due to rising temperature, but the impact on the oceans is near impossible to determine with poor data.

Use of Stock Footage: I have the exact same shot used by Mr. Gore’s Academy Award film showing in slow motion as a chunk of glacier falls into the sea. Very emotional especially in slo-mo. That’s not uncommon. It’s what glaciers do - they constantly move - they recede - they retreat to the sea. All hope to resolve or understand Global Warming was lost forever when a United Nations’ formed a Panel to analyze and report. They predicted from 7 - 24 inches of ocean rise this century. What? Can they hit a barn with a snowball? Way to narrow it down for the rest of the world to comprehend and rest easy. But wait, there’s more; this same panel conceded the estimate “might be unreliable” because knowledge of how ice sheets disintegrate is limited. So they took a wild guess for the heck of it? Why not just say they can not make an accurate determination vs. guessing?

MIT Scientists (WJS - 11/02/007 Section: B6 The Informed Reader) will have data from an archaeological expedition setting out this summer to drill into an ice sheet in Greenland. They will study cores from glacier ice that formed 115,000 to 130,000 years ago, WHEN GREENLAND WAS ABOUT 12 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT WARMER THAN IT IS TODAY!

Did I miss Mr. Gore covering these thought-altering facts? He had to run across these studies just as easily as I did. After all, too much Political Science and not enough Natural Science don’t make him right. Not saying he’s wrong, but he doesn’t really know.

New flash player for blogging adds dimension to info. Let’s see how it works and please: let me know what you think of the quality! Here’s a few clips from HD2O ~ The Keys. Pick up the DVD and relax!
Regards,

We are using a technology that has only been available for weeks. There are a few bugs to iron out. For best video performance click the red title above to open the article’s full page. Videos are not always available in the drop-down page mode. In the interest of quality- videos are being compressed using the H.264 codec which provides about 3:1 advantage over MPEG 2. You will need the latest Flash Player to play some video files! The link will tell you your current Flash version, Mac and PC.

 

[flashvideo filename="http://hd2o.tv/flog/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/videos/13xsample.flv" /]

[flashvideo filename="http://hd2o.tv/flog/wp-content/plugins/flash-video-player/videos/SAMPLE14a.flv" /]

The video samples above are from Key Largo Florida summer 2007.

A few weeks back we asked the question, ” What ever happened to Gateway?” Now we can look at another approach; Dell’s all-in-one desktop computer (like the iMac). I hate to add that Apple disclaimer, but all tech companies are up against Apple as the hands-down tech leader of this century. But it is always smart for companies like Dell and Gateway to compete with the market leader? Isn’t it Innovation (not emulation) that makes the technology that ignites the next wave of consumer spending.

The Wall Street Journal (Thurs, 12.27.007) Personal Technology guru Walter Mossberg covers it first. And he used a word, “Craplets” referring to the trial software and come-ons for online services that are installed on your brand new computer. None of it works but it’s all preloaded on your brand new computer? And just try the un-install!

Be sure to bookmark Wally’s new blog site sponsored by the WSJ: http://walt.allthingsd.com

If I was Dell, and I’m not, but if I was… I wouldn’t put out an XPS ONE ‘just about as good’ product and expect the public to react with anything but a yawn. When #2 (Dell) is putting out a competing product it has to beat #1 at; price point or performance. This is most especially important when #1 has Boot Camp which can do whatever #2 can do… and then can do all the cool things #1 could always do.

Dell offers a 20-inch screen for the same price as the iMac with 24-inch and 100dpi.  Bla, bla, bla. Pull up your own side by side.        

Dell XPS One

         iMac

I’ve been asking for years, “What does Dell make?” It seems to me what they do is assemble products. One big factor to their success and credit is the tech support element. Whereas HP is a technology company with many patents. Let’s see if Dell can do any better than Gateway. They are considering putting Dell machines in retail stores. Time will tell.

WAY BACK, and I mean way-the-heck back in Computer Time: 1982 Media coverage of computer technology was still science fiction to most Americans. Reading the specs of a dinosaur PC is testament to the patience of those souls who were pioneering with those early PCs.

Read this: PCs go Mainstream. Published in Wired, Time Magazine named the personal computer its person of the year 25 years ago today. The article, which we found on Wired, is an entertaining reminder of how computers have changed the way we live and do business. Be grateful for what we’ve got! I guess!

State of the art IBM PC, circa: 1982
Computers were more than a fad, they were the rage.

PC sales hit 2.8 million, double 1981’s 1.4 million, and quadruple the 724,000 in 1980. The article is fun to read as a reminder of what we now take for granted. Do you remember 14.4 K dial-up modems? The article also talks of “a way to transmit messages by connecting a telephone to a PC,” the introduction of “e-mail”. Something your grand mother is most likely using today!

Here’s a link to the PC sales 25-year Anniversary Stats.

In 2006 InfoWorld report was not good for PC vendors, moving 66 million units in the US, 163 million in the rest of the World. Has technology topped out? I believe the average person has enough computer on their desk to do most anything. How much processing power do most users need? That’s as individual as shoe size.

Who wouldn’t like a shinny new machine? But I have a good friend who still runs Windows 2000, MicroSoft does offer a massive support site for every OS. Typically, I don’t suggest any upgrade until it is seemingly necessary. I want to be sure it works before putting my workstation at risk.

No doubt, PCs are a big part of our lives. My wife’s hair curlers have a computer chip! What happens if the power goes off someday? Could you manage without a computer? Without the Internet? I admit trying to turn on the ceiling fan during a blackout. I’m hooked on things that require power. We’re all hooked - to various degrees, so we should all take responsible measures to conserve natural resources so they might be available for not just hundreds, but thousands of years.

We can all do our part to conserve, do no harm, and enjoy life. Happy New Year!

Paul Dymon films, inc has announced the DVD title release of : The Keys. Featuring HD widescreen underwater content. Way more than an aquarium, this visit to the reef is perfect for entertaining, relaxing, meditation, or exercise. An excellent gift for those on your list who have just about everything. Special Holiday offers available in our store: visit this link.

Happy Holiday’s to All

Thank you,

Do you know the basis of the international Three Mile Treaty? Each nation has a three mile right to the ocean off their land mass. It’s called the Cannon Shot Rule because that’s about how far they fly. In 1702 sailing within three miles without permission could draw cannon fire. Things are different today. We’ve got bigger cannons! We realize the treasures lying beneath the ocean. Not scuba-type treasures, but the natural resources and shipping lanes.

Recent Arctic news has been mostly doom and gloom. Gore grandstanding and crowd pleasing consensus “on ice” is a Nobel NOT for science. Svante Arrhenius was a scientist, and the first to describe the greenhouse effect, but he didn’t get a Nobel Prize for it. There was no mass media hysteria. He did get one in 1903 in science for something else. Green is back and this time it has political punch, vengance, lobbying and available media pumping into the crowd’s belief. Hundreds of billions of dollars per year is the cost for the US to counter what China projects as their emission growth over that same period. It makes no sense to Go Green on some sort of global agenda. We can’t control China or even the local city hall. Green is local. Your house. Turn off the extra light, turn down the AC by one degree, recycle all make total sense on a personal level. Green has an impact on all of us at the local dump, your trash. Here’s a big one we can all do instantly. Take our foot off the gas peddle and glide when we see the light is red ahead. Instant results on an individual level. That’s green.

Now the Arctic thaw may open waterways that would be oceanic shortcuts for navigation. This has to be good news, right? Less fuel taking cargo either East or West? That can save money and fuel. Ships put out spent fuel, but the level per ton has to be lower than any other means of moving cargo. But it has to be managed.
First problem(s): Who owns the mineral rights? Who will manage the ecosystem? Keep peace in the shipping lanes? Collect taxes, zillions of barrels of oil, precious metals and harvest who knows what else is down there for us to take.

Second problem: Do we really need another tug-of-war international organization to manage this?

Russia (which I thought was dissolved into smaller countries) has planted a flag below the Arctic Ice Cap, some 15,000 feet down. Does this mean Russia owns everything below the ice? Russia should get some, as should Canada, US, Greenland (which should have been called Iceland) should hit the jackpot. Iceland doesn’t even have a piece of polar ice.

In the end I hope there is a supercomputer program that can take into account all the wants and needs of the world. Divide up the ocean floor so we can wait a few thousand years for the ice to reveal what we have won.