11 September 2022 - FIRE MEETS ICE AT Mt. EREBUS - ANTARCTICA

 

FIRE MEETS ICE 

AT Mt. EREBUS

 - ANTARCTICA -

G'day folks,

Fire meets ice at the southernmost volcano on Earth. 

Erebus. It’s a good name for the volcano. In Greek myth, Erebus was the son of the god Chaos, and his mother was Gaia or Earth. Erebus was made of darkness and shadow, and he filled the corners of the world with his darkness.

Currently, the most active volcano in Antarctica and the southernmost active volcano on Earth, the Mt. Erebus volcano features a 1,700-degree Fahrenheit lava lake, a swirling pool of magma that may be many miles deep: one of only five such lava lakes that exist in the world.

 

While the inside of Mt. Erebus may be extremely hot, outside of it, one would quickly freeze to death in the Antarctic temperatures. Riddling the side of the snow-covered volcano are ice caves, carved out by the escaping volcanic gases. Because of the gas, the ice caves stay a consistent 32 degrees, making them a likely spot for undiscovered extremophiles. The volcanic gases heat their way through these ice caves and escape into the air to form enormous 60-foot chimneys of ice, or “fumaroles” with deadly volcanic gases pouring out from their tips.

Discovered in 1841 by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross, it was easy to identify Mt. Erebus as a volcano as it was erupting at the time. (Ross Island, which Mt. Erebus is on, is named after him as is the Ross Ice Shelf.) Later, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton would make the first ascent of Mt. Erebus between 1907-1909 on the Nimrod Expedition.

One of the things that makes Erebus significant - and the reason it is the location of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory, or “MEVO” - is that Erebus is one of only a few consistently active volcanos in the world. Rather than lying dormant and then spectacularly erupting once every few hundred years, though it does that on occasion too, Mt. Erebus is always on, bubbling, releasing gas and flinging ten feet wide “volcanic bombs” - hunks of molten rock which sometimes explode on landing - through the air. For a vulcanologist, Mt. Erebus is a dangerous but dreamy research site.

Mt. Erebus is also the site of a famous and tragic air disaster. An Air New Zealand DC-10 airliner on a sightseeing flight became lost in a whiteout and crashed into the side of the volcano on 28 November 1979, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew. Famed explorer Sir Edmund Hillary was supposed to have been on board but canceled at the last moment.

Debris from the crash is still visible on the volcano, despite an extensive recovery and clean up the mission. The unclaimed remains of the crash victims are entombed at a memorial at the Waikumete Cemetery in West Aukland, New Zealand where every year a wreath is laid in memory.

 

16 August 2021 - WORLD'S LARGEST BONFIRE MADE OF PALLETS - NORWAY

 

 WORLD'S LARGEST  BONFIRE 

MADE OF PALLETS - NORWAY

 

G'day folks,

On and around the 24th of June every year, you will find the people in Alesund, Norway stacking pallets.  This unique and seemingly dangerous tradition is how the people of this city celebrate midsummer. Sankthans, or ‘Midsummer’, is a festival held every year on June 24th in commemoration of John the Baptist’s birth. The day is celebrated in Scandinavian countries and other parts of Europe. These people risk their health, and even their lives to help assemble The craziest bonfire stack I have ever seen. Check out the pictures of what happens when they get done stacking pallets.  They stack them until it reaches an astonishing 130 feet high.

 

 

Clancy's comment: Extraordinary, but very dangerous.

I'm ...

 

 

 

1 May 2020 - PANAM NAGAR, BANGLADESH - ABANDONED AFTER FIRE

PANAM NAGAR, BANGLADESH

 - ABANDONED AFTER FIRE -

G'day folks,

This historic textile city was abandoned after being ravaged by fire. 

 

In its heyday, Panam Nagar was home to a prosperous community of Hindu merchants that turned the medieval Bengali capital into a thriving textile trading hub in the 19th century. It’s no coincidence that the East India Company set up its permanent offices in Panam Nagar (Panam City), which was then the Bengali capital. Yet if textiles brought wealth to the town, they likely contributed to its downfall as well. 

 

 

 

Uncertainty surrounds the origins of the fire that razed much of the historic city to the ground, but the fact that such a large number of textiles were stored in the buildings here made the area a huge fire hazard. It is also not clear whether the Hindu community abandoned Panam Nagar before or after the rumor that the town was haunted began. What is known is that what’s left of Panam Nagar has been left derelict for decades, and locals have nicknamed it “Ghost City” and “City of the Dead.”

 

  Only 52 of the city’s original buildings are still standing. Most are two-story structures, standing one attached to the other along the main thoroughfare. The oldest of these buildings is said to date back to the 15th century, but most are from the 19th century. It is obvious that these were buildings made for affluent residents, judging from the colonial architecture, the thickness of the walls, and their endurance in spite of decades of neglect.

 

Clancy's comment: Sad, but I'm sure it has happened all over Asia where thousands of folks work in cramped areas to earn a pittance.

I'm ...

 

 

 

 

 

4 December 2014 - FIRE

FIRE

G'day folks,

Ever wonder when fire was first used? Read on ...

The discovery of fire, or, more precisely, the controlled use of fire was, of necessity, one of the earliest of human discoveries. Fire's purposes are multiple, some of which are to add light and heat, to cook plants and animals, to clear forests for planting, to heat-treat stone for making stone tools, to keep predator animals away, to burn clay for ceramic objects. Undeniably, there are social purposes as well: as gathering places, as beacons for those away from camp, as spaces for special activities.

The human control of fire likely required a cognitive ability to conceptualize the idea fire, which itself has been recognized in chimpanzees; great apes have been known to prefer cooked foods, so the very great age of the earliest human fire experimentation should not come as a terrific surprise. 

Discovery of Fire

The controlled use of fire was likely an invention of our ancestor Homo erectus, during the Early Stone Age (or Lower Paleolithic). The earliest evidence for fire associated with humans comes from Oldowan hominid sites in the Lake Turkana region of Kenya. The site known as Koobi Fora (FxJj20, dated 1.6 million years ago) contained oxidized patches of earth to a depth of several centimeters, which some scholars interpret as evidence for fire control. At 1.4 million years of age, the Australopithecine site of Chesowanja in central Kenya also contained burned clay clasts, in small areas.

Other Lower Paleolithic sites in Africa that contain possible evidence for fire include Gadeb in Ethiopia (burned rock), and Swartkrans (270 burned bones out of a total of 60,000, dated 600,000-1 million years old), and Wonderwerk Cave (burned ash and bone fragments, ca. 1 million years ago) in South Africa.

The earliest evidence for controlled use of fire outside of Africa is at the Lower Paleolithic site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, where charred wood and seeds were recovered from a site dated 790,000 years ago. The next oldest site is at Zhoukoudian, a Lower Paleolithic site in China dated to about 400,000 BP, Beeches Pit in the UK at about 400,000 years ago, and at Qesem Cave (Israel), between about 200,000-400,000 years ago.

In a paper published in Nature in March 2011, Roebroeks and Villa report their examinations of the available data for European sites and concluded that habitual use of fire wasn't part of the human (meaning early modern and Neanderthal both) suite of behaviors until ca. 300,000 to 400,000 years ago. They argue that the earlier sites are representative of opportunistic use of natural fires.

Indirect Evidence

In 2013, Terrence Twomey published a paper in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, which included a comprehensive discussion of the early evidence for human-controlled fire at 400,000-800,000 years ago, citing Gesher and the newly revised dates for Zhoukoudien level 10 (780,000-680,000 years ago). Twomey agrees with Roebroeks and Villa that there is no direct evidence for domestic fires between 400,000 and 700,000 years ago, but believes that other, indirect evidence supports the notion of controlled use of fire.

Twomey's argument is based several lines of indirect evidence. First, he cites the metabolic demands of relatively big-brained Middle Pleistocene hunter-gatherers, and suggests that brain evolution required cooked food. Further, he argues that our distinctive sleep patterns (staying up after dark) are deeply rooted; and that hominids began staying in seasonally or permanently cool places by 800,000 bp. All of this, says Twomey, implies effective control of fire. 

 The Cooking Hypothesis

One additional evidence for the early use of fire is the reduction of the size of mouth, teeth and digestive system, which are striking in Homo erectus, compared to earlier ancestors. The benefits of having a smaller gut could not be realized, goes the theory, until high-quality foods were available all year long. The adoption of cooking, which softens food and makes it easier to digest, could have led to these changes. See Gowlett and Wrangham for a discussion.

Hearth Fire Construction

As opposed to fire, a hearth is a deliberately constructed fireplace. The earliest fireplaces were made by collecting stones to contain the fire, or simply reusing the same location again and again and allowing the ash to act as hearth construct. Those are found in the Middle Paleolithic period (ca 200,000-40,000 years ago, at sites such as Klasies River Caves (South Africa, 125,000 years ago) , Tabun Cave (at Mt. Carmel, Israel), and Bolomor Cave (Spain, 225,000-240,000 years ago).

Earth ovens, on the other hand, are hearths with banked and sometimes domed structures built of clay. These types of hearths were first used during the Upper Paleolithic (ca 40,000-20,000 years BP), for cooking, heating and, sometimes, to burn clay figurines to hardness. The Gravettian Dolni Vestonice site in the modern Czech Republic has evidence of kiln construction, although construction details did not survive. The best information on Upper Paleolithic kilns is from the Aurignacian deposits of Klisoura Cave in Greece (ca 32,000-34,000 years ago).

Fuels

Relict wood was likely the fuel used for the earliest fires. Purposeful selection of wood came later: hardwood such as oaks burns differently from softwood from pines, the moisture content and density of a wood all affect how hot or how long a fire burns. Other sources became important in various places with limited wood supply, because when timber and branch wood was needed for structures, furnishing and tools would have reduced the amount of wood spent on fuel.

If wood was not available, alternative fuels such as peat, cut turf, animal dung, animal bone, seaweed, and straw and hay can be used in a fire. Animal dung was likely not consistently used until after animal domestication led to the keeping of livestock, about 10,000 years ago.

But of course, everyone knows that Prometheus stole fire from the gods, the Greek myth as reported by our Ancient History expert.

Clancy's comment:  Amazing, eh? Like most things we have, they can be helpful and also harmful.

I'm ...

11 June 2014 - 'PA JOE'S PLACE' - RELEASED!!!

'PA JOE'S PLACE'

by

Award-winning author Clancy Tucker

JUST RELEASED!

G'day folks,

Finally, my next novel has been published - 'Pa Joe's Place'. So, what is it about? This is a powerful story about a seven-year-old Thai girl, Boo. I met Boo many years ago and she changed my life for the better. Yes, this is based on a true story. It is also based in Thailand, and forty years passed before I was capable of writing it. This is the story of two of my real-life heroes - Boo and Pa Joe. Pa Joe was a Jesuit priest who gave fifty years to the great unwashed kids of Thailand.  

FREE GIVEAWAY!

Want to win a free copy of 'Pa Joe's Place'? Of course you do, so I will offer five signed paperback books free. All come with a matching bookmark. Check the bottom of this post where I have a question for you. Don't be shy!

Here are some comments and reviews provided by those who have already read it:

“I am delighted to inform you that I have just finished reading PJP, and I am really moved. Boo seems like an extraordinary girl. It is a moving and inspiring story which can be an inspiration for so many people, young and old, regardless of their race or religion. I can't put it any other way but to say "Love your work, Khun Clancy."

Charkrieno​rrathip Sevikul

Counsellor & Consul, Royal Thai Embassy, Tehran.

“This is a powerful story of an ordinary girl. This is truly a loving, and moving story that touches  the heart of readers."

Anchansiri Sriyananda , Former Senior Diplomat, Bangkok, Thailand.

 “Love the logo, the cover’s great; the contents even better. Well done my friend! I have never read anything like it. A movie is an absolute must. You have a gift my friend. I know & understand why you love Thailand.”

 Kim Stedman, Author, Western Australia.

“I am glad that I have read a wonderful story that deeply touched me, and I am glad to know that there are foreigners who love Thailand. I would like to call your story a masterpiece, because it has inspired me very much. Rarely has any story touched me this much, and rarely has any story made me want to keep reading on and on.”

Veerabhatr (Jug) Sriyananda, Student, Bangkok, Thailand.

 

“It’s a great book … A very moving story … Highly passionate. It has a real presence, and the humanitarian component. It’s great, She’s great, You’re great.” 
Dr Judith O’Malley-Ford, Author, GP, Queensland, Australia.

 Hoei, Boo! With ‘Pa Joe’s Place’, Clancy Tucker has created an extraordinary piece of writing. From the first page, I fell in love with little Boo’s unpretentious yet endearing character, as will every reader, whether young or young at heart. Wherever Boo goes, she touches people in a special way. The novel has superb writing with excellent narrative and dialogue; a jewel. This book can be read more than once, revealing flashes of pleasure that may have been missed before.

 ‘Pa Joe’s Place’ also plunges the reader into aspects of Thai culture and the harsh life of its people struggling to survive in an environment tourists perceive as idyllic. Given this glimpse, the reader will be tempted to visit Songkhla for himself and see that land through Boo’s eyes. The ending is sure to leave the reader tearful. This is a story no one will forget soon. I enjoyed reading this book immensely; a pleasure to come across such a work, having reviewed some very ordinary efforts. 

Stefan Vucak, editor & award-winning Australian author.

Based on real-life characters, Pa Joe’s Place is a novel about an unpretentious yet extraordinary Thai girl, Boo Nawigamune, who survives remarkable events and influences many lives. Aged seven, Boo leaves her family home when her father is diagnosed with a terminal illness and travels alone over 1,000 km to an orphanage in Songkhla where she is to live. She carries little with her – food, clothes and an unopened letter of introduction. On the way, however, the train journey is interrupted by a crash, following which Boo assists stricken passengers. And, too, the girl meets strangers – influential men who aid her at the time and later when she has reached her destination.

There is much that happens to Boo which defies the odds – she is bitten by a snake, survives a tsunami, meets rich and influential people, and manages to establish a jam-making business which pours money into the orphanage’s coffers. All of her adventures point to what a remarkable, enterprising and inspirational child she is.

Pa Joe’s Place deserves a wide readership if only to showcase two remarkable people, Boo Nawigamune and her surrogate father, Pa Joe Carey.

 Di Bates, Award-winning author, Australia.

BOOK BLURB:

 

Boo is a seven-year-old Thai girl whose father is dying.

She must leave home and travel 1700 kilometres to live

in an orphanage, ‘Pa Joe’s Place’, run by a foreigner

(farang). With a bag of clothes, some food and a

mysterious envelope addressed to ‘Pa Joe’, she

endures an adventurous train trip to Songkhla.

On the way, she meets influential people who

know Pa Joe and a wise monk who gives

her a lucky amulet.

Boo settles into ‘Pa Joe’s Place’, makes friends and

inspires Pa; an American Jesuit priest who

has cared for Thai orphans for 50 years. She and

her friends establish a successful jam-making business

to make money for Pa and Boo meets Jack Ryan,

an Australian farmer she admires. Shattered by the

death of her father, she runs from Pa Joe’s Place

but is soon found by Pa and the Chief of Police.

Boo has survived four life-threatening situations since

she left home: a train derailment, snakebite, tsunami

and a fire. Suddenly she takes ill and is rushed to hospital.

Will her lucky amulet help her to survive?

 GREAT QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:

       'Boo.’

     ‘Yes, Pa?’

     ‘I’m really worried. I can’t seem to find a way to lift your spirits. I’ve failed you,’ he said with the saddest face. I leant against his door and thought about what he’d just said. It was so typical of him. He had 156 kids to worry about, but he always cared for us as individuals.

‘Don’t worry. You lift my spirits every day, Pa. That’s why I love you.'

    ‘I took Pa’s hand and squeezed it. He looked down and smiled.

     ‘Boo, Boo, Boo. You’re such a resilient kid.’

     ‘Resilient? What’s that mean, Pa?’ 

He frowned and sighed. ‘It means courageous, brave and strong. You’re an amazing survivor, Boo. You’re also inspirational.’

     ‘Inspirational? Is that good, Pa?’ I asked. He replied with one of my favourite expressions.

     ‘It’s not good. It’s excellent.’

‘I felt an awful burning feeling in my arm and I wanted to vomit. 
‘Come on, Boo. Let’s get you to hospital.’ Pa picked me up in his arms and ran towards the car where he gently placed me on the back seat, closed the door and slammed the boot lid. The last thing I remembered was the noise of the tyres spinning in the dirt.’

***

‘For a few seconds my body shook. I felt shattered, lost and lonely; a feeling I’d never experienced before. Pa held me and gently stroked my hair. He did his best to make me feel secure but I needed to be alone. Still crying, I jumped up and ran from his office, needing to escape from the place I’d been sent while my father died.

     ‘It’s not fair, Pa!’ I screamed.

     ‘Boo!’ he shouted, but I ignored his pleas, ran down the front steps and left Pa Joe’s Place.’

Paperback:
* 316 pages
* All are signed.
* All come with a matching bookmark

‘Boo, how could I have a happy birthday when one of my kid’s is missing? I’ve worked hard for the past 50 years for kids like you ... And I’m damned if I’ll have a happy birthday when one of them is feeling lost and upset. No way.’

  I felt tears running down my face, but Pa was very calm. He reached up, removed his silver cross and placed it around my neck.

     ‘But, Pa,’ I sniffled. ‘I can’t take this. It was given to you by your momma.’ 
Pa raised his eyebrows. ‘Yes, you can take it. It’s mine. I’ll give it to whoever needs it,’ he said, stood up and stretched. ‘I’ll be outside, waiting for you. You take your time. There’s no hurry, Boo. Please be gentle on yourself. You’ve been so strong since you left home. We’re proud of you. God, you’ve done amazing things. Your poppa would be so very proud of you. I certainly am.’

 ‘The old monk laid his mat beside me and softly offered me a personal message before he closed his eyes.

     ‘Boo. Thank you for your courage today. I didn’t mention you earlier. I wanted to tell you privately.’

     ‘Me? Courage?’ I spluttered.

     ‘Yes, and extraordinary love. I heard what the other kids said when they saw you race that rubber tube to Khun Jack.’
 I rolled onto my side and looked at him in the half-light.   ‘What did they say, sir?’ 

He clasped his hands on his chest and took a deep breath. ‘Your closest friends were so proud of you. They got everyone to hold hands and pray for you. The Muslim Imam, Mr Al Farran, and his entire family, knelt down and prayed to Allah. Then, when you safely returned, everyone cheered.’

Mates are mates!

‘My friends gasped when they heard my name mentioned. I didn’t. I was too busy listening to Khun Bluey. I was also silently crying.

     ‘Jack reckoned she was a gorgeous kid. He said she was the smartest kid he’d ever met, and they became close mates. Sadly, she’s doing it tough right now ... If it hadn’t been for her bravery, seven Thai kids would have died that day. Apparently, she risked her life and raced across the beach to give a rubber truck tube to Jack, with a massive tsunami wave bearing down on her. Man, you’ve got to admire that sort of courage,’ said Khun Bluey, looking away for a few seconds to wipe tears from his eyes.’

Boo's journey - 1700 kilometres.

‘That night I slept with Khun Jack’s photograph under my sausage pillow. Before I closed my eyes I whispered a special message to two of my heroes.

     ‘Goodnight, Poppa. Goodnight, Khun Jack. Thank you for loving me.’

      ***

‘Pa, you are just like my poppa. I love you very much. You have given me so much opportunity ...’

*** BOOK TRAILER ***

Clancy's comment: Although I am normally a young adult fiction writer, this story is more suited to big kids - adults. Kids will find it entertaining, but it will make adults want to hug their kids and grandkids. I promise you that! Pa Joe's Place will give you goosebumps, but goosebumps you will tell your friends about. Boo will steal your heart, but you'll be glad she did. If she doesn't, you don't have a heart worth stealing. I know. I met her.

Clancy Tucker

FREE GIVEAWAY QUESTION!

Based on what you have read today, send me an email (clancy_tucker@hotmail.com) and tell me in no more than 30 words why you'd like to read this book. I will post the winning replies. You have a week!

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