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5:06 AM
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Why is it that Greenland isn’t called Iceland and vice versa? After all, we know that Greenland is nearly entirely covered in ice and Iceland, well, isn’t!
Iceland had a few other names throughout history, including “Snæland” (snowland) and Garðarshólmur ("Garðar's little island"). Iceland current name came from a Norwegian Viking called Flóki Vilgerðarson. He chose the name after seeing a distant fjord full of sea-ice from a mountain. He didn’t think very much of Iceland, and that may be why he chose this uninviting name. You sometimes hear the story that Iceland was so named to discourage excessive immigration, but there seems to be no basis for this claim as thousands of people did in fact immigrate from Norway.
Greenland is said to have gotten its name from the Viking Erik the Red. After being banished from Norway and then Iceland, he settled in what is now Greenland. When his term of banishment expired, he returned to Icleand to invite his neighbors and friends to settle the new country with him. He purposely chose the pleasant name Grænland ("green land") to attract settlers, and he wasn’t really lying. Some parts of Greenland, especially where they settled, really are green, as these pictures from the tourist board attest (www.greenland-guide.dk/outdoor_life_photo.htm).
Mystery solved!
4:15 AM
Unknown
The clouded leopard is a felid found from the Himalayan foothills through mainland Southeast Asia into China, and has been classified as vulnerable in 2008 by IUCN.
Its total population size is suspected to be fewer than 10,000 mature individuals, with a decreasing population trend and no single population numbering more than 1,000 adults !
9:21 AM
Unknown
The Pudu: World’s smallest deer. They live in bamboo thickets to hide from predators, and can weigh up to 12 kilograms (26 pounds).
9:17 AM
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Its Phyllomedusa sauvagii, commonly known as the Waxy Monkey Leaf Frog.They belonging to the subfamily of South and Central American leaf frogs that inhabits the Chaco (dry prairie) of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Males and females range from about 2 to 3 inches in length, with the females usually about 25% larger than males. They move by walking rather than hopping, which is the reason for the “monkey” in their name.
9:10 AM
Unknown
In this incredible macro photograph of a human eye, we see the stitches that resulted from a recent corneal transplant. The surgery was used to treat a patient suffering from Keratocnus, a degenerative disorder of the eye in which structural changes within the cornea cause it to thin and change to a more conical shape than its normal gradual curve.
3:23 PM
Unknown
Gate Tower Building With a Highway Through it
One of the most curious building in Japan is the Gate Tower Building in Osaka, Japan. The 5th, 6th and 7th floors of this 16-story office building is occupied by an express highway - passing right through the building. On the building's floor information board on the ground floor, the tenants for the three floors are listed as the Hanshin Expressway. You can’t alight there tough as the elevator skips from the 4th floor to straight to the 8th
3:11 PM
Unknown
The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a deep sea fish of the family Psychrolutidae. Inhabiting the deep waters off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania, it is rarely seen by humans.
Blobfish live at depths between 600–1,200 m (2,000–3,900 ft) where the pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient for maintaining buoyancy.Instead, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. Its relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats in front of it. Blobfish eat invertebrates like crabs and sea pens.
Blobfish can be caught by bottom trawling with nets as bycatch. Such trawling in the waters off Australia may threaten the blobfish in what may be its only habitat.
The blobfish is currently facing extinction due to deep-sea fishing or bottom trawling.
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