5 February 2023 - WORLD'S TALLEST SOLAR TOWER - ISRAEL

 

WORLD'S TALLEST 

SOLAR TOWER 

- ISRAEL -

G'day folks,

Deep in the Negev Desert, the world's tallest solar tower looks like it's straight out of a science fiction comic. 

Thanks to drip irrigation, the roads to Be’er Sheva in Israel are fringed with fields that were once barren. A simple system of water-carrying pipes have transformed the Negev Desert into productive agricultural land. But a newer addition just south of Be’er Sheva, transforms the desert into something more akin to a science fiction movie.

 

The first sign of something unusual ahead appears just after you leave the city limits. If you look carefully, you’ll notice a pale orange flame floating just above the horizon. As you get closer, a tall dark tower appears, its pinnacle glowing as bright as the sun. Light radiates towards the ground, seeming like sunbeams. This is the Ashalim Power Station.

Opened in September 2019, Ashalim is the tallest solar power station in the world, standing 260 meters (853 feet) tall. Ashalim Power Station uses an array of 56,000 solar panels known as heliostats arranged around the tower to reflect sunlight onto the pinnacle. The heliostats are computer-controlled and follow the sun as it moves from east to west through the day.

From the barren hilltops surrounding the station, the tower and the heliostats look like a scene from a futuristic story. The system produces enough clean energy to power 120,000 homes, about five percent of all homes in Israel. And development at the power station is still ongoing. While electricity production has already started, further plans will allow Ashalim Power Station to combine solar thermal energy, photovoltaic energy, and natural gas.

7 April 2019 - BIMMAH SINKHOLE in OMAN

BIMMAH SINKHOLE in OMAN

G'day folks,

Here is a sinkhole turned swimming hole, full of dazzling turquoise water. Long attributed to a meteorite, this beautiful swimming hole is actually a naturally occurring sinkhole.

 Sinkholes are often the result of groundwater eating away at rocks like limestone and carbonate. Caverns form as the rocks dissolve, and eventually the ground above caves in, sometimes taking cars, houses, and even the occasional pizza place with it.

In Northern Oman, just off the road between Dibab and Bimmah, there’s a particularly beautiful example of the natural phenomena. In an otherwise flat area, a sinkhole formed about a third of a mile from the sea, resulting in a turquoise mix of fresh and salt water.

 Geologists have confirmed the 65-foot deep pool is in fact a sinkhole, but locals hold on to the legend that a meteorite hit the spot. When the local municipality developed the area into a park to preserve and protect the hole, the name Haweat Najm (The Falling Star) Park was chosen.

A large concrete staircase sticks out among the natural landscape, but offers a less precarious way down to the picturesque pool. Many folks just go to admire its beauty, or dip their feet in the vividly blue-green water for a fish-administered pedicure of sorts. Still some take full advantage of the salty water, diving from the cliffs within the cavern.

Clancy's comment: Wow. Nice spot, eh?

I'm ...

24 March 2019 - Strange Rock Garden at Duqm, Oman

Strange Rock Garden at Duqm, Oman

G'day folks,

 I'm always interested in odd things. This is one of them.

A section of this desert has an array of unusual sandstone and limestone formations.  

 Whichever way you approach this place, you’re likely to have traveled through hundreds of kilometers of rocky desert.  It is, therefore, somewhat surprising to find 3 square km of desert fenced off and signposted “Rock Garden.”  If you leave behind any preconceived ideas of what a garden may look like, and focus instead on the rock part of the name, you’ll be better prepared for the site.

At first sight, there is little (if any) difference between the fenced off and the surrounding area.  Yet, once you start wandering around, you’ll find a curious array of sandstone and limestone formations. Water, wind and millions of years combined managed to create this bizarre landscape.

Almost perfectly spherical stones sit next to rocks resembling animals, thrones, human body parts, and whatever else your imagination can conjure up. Some large rocks stand balanced on smaller ones, while others sit at improbable angles.

It may not be the most jaw-dropping site you’ll ever see, but it does provide the chance to marvel at the beauty of rocks.  There is something hypnotic about contemplating the way time has made some rocks smooth, and others jagged, some flaky and others scaly, and so on. If you take time to notice these little variations, the Rock Garden has a striking variety of rock surfaces, shapes, and colors.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... It looks like a former playground. That whopping big bone is extraordinary.

I'm ...

13 June 2018 - WELCOME TO POSSUM TROT, CALIFORNIA – A LABOUR OF LOVE

WELCOME TO POSSUM TROT, CALIFORNIA

- A LABOUR OF LOVE -

G'day folks,

Well, here is a story about two very dedicated people. Welcome to Possum Trot, California. Human population: 2. Doll population: 80. 

For decades, its human residents were Calvin Black and his wife Ruby, who moved out to the Mojave Desert in 1953, bought some land off of Ghost town rd. (an actual road that still exists), and proclaimed it “Possum Trot.” Over the course of 20-years, the Blacks populated the makeshift village with their handmade dolls and folk-art attractions.

By the 1970s, the town boasted a train, a totem pole, stagecoaches, a merry-go-round, and a theatre for the spectacular main attraction, “The Fantasy Doll Show.”

Initially, Possum Trot was just another rock souvenir shop by the side of the road. Neither Calvin nor Ruby had received a formal education, but Calvin’s creativity blossomed in the desert. He began painting tongue-in-cheek signs (i.e. “beautiful dolls of the desert wasteland,” and “we don’t know where ma is but we got pop on ice”. ) Some  made some pretty poignant social commentaries:

As a resourceful inventor, Calvin used what he had. In this case, that meant harnessing the desert wind to power his creations. It was an environmentally friendly move as well:

Calvin soon began carving dolls out of found objects like telephone polls that had been damaged by cars from roadside accidents. He even learned how to wire speakers into the 3-4 ft. tall dolls to project his own falsetto singing voice from their mouths.

In the 1970s, documentary filmmakers Allie Light and Iriving Saraf stumbled across Possum Trot and created a 28-minute film about the site (released in 1977). They were lucky enough to interview Ruby, who looked after Possum Trot’s attractions after her husband’s death in 1972, and up until her own in 1980, with the utmost diligence:

The film treads lightly, and with a sensitive eye, into Calvin and Ruby’s world. By its end, you’re head over heels for the couple who wanted nothing more than to bring joy to the passer-byes on Ghost town rd. “I’m happy to say that I’ve made thousands, and thousands, and thousands of people happy,” Calvin says in a sound-clip taken from a previous interview in the film, “As long as I can do that, money don’t mean a thing to me.”

Luckily, the Blacks’ creations were saved by various collectors of outsider folk art, and in 2007, a red-haired doll named “Gypsy Wheel” even sold for $82,500 at auction. You can also visit the dolls at the Milwaukee Art Museum, The Museum of American Folk Art, and the New Museum in New York.

Clancy's comment: And, they were together for 39 years. That is some feat by modern standards.

I'm ....