DELANEY ALLEN

80 YEAR HIDEOUT

Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

"Here's the story: About 13 miles from this spindle of rock, there's a bigger island, called Lord Howe Island.

On Lord Howe, there used to be an insect, famous for being big. It's a stick insect, a critter that masquerades as a piece of wood, and the Lord Howe Island version was so large — as big as a human hand — that the Europeans labeled it a "tree lobster" because of its size and hard, lobsterlike exoskeleton. It was 12 centimeters long and the heaviest flightless stick insect in the world. Local fishermen used to put them on fishing hooks and use them as bait.

Then one day in 1918, a supply ship, the S.S. Makambo from Britain, ran aground at Lord Howe Island and had to be evacuated. One passenger drowned. The rest were put ashore. It took nine days to repair the Makambo, and during that time, some black rats managed to get from the ship to the island, where they instantly discovered a delicious new rat food: giant stick insects. Two years later, the rats were everywhere and the tree lobsters were gone.

Totally gone. After 1920, there wasn't a single sighting. By 1960, the Lord Howe stick insect, Dryococelus australis, was presumed extinct.

There was a rumor, though.

Some climbers scaling Ball's Pyramid in the 1960s said they'd seen a few stick insect corpses lying on the rocks that looked "recently dead." But the species is nocturnal, and nobody wanted to scale the spire hunting for bugs in the dark....."

BUDS

PUYEHUE-CORDON CAULLE

"A volcano in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle chain, dormant for decades, erupted in south-central Chile on Saturday, belching ash over 6 miles (10 km) into the sky, as winds fanned it toward neighboring Argentina, and prompted the government to evacuate several thousand residents, authorities said."

story and photos

VOLCANO TIME LAPSE

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

ASH IN THE AIR

Iceland's erupting volcano is sending volcanic ash into the air, which is subsequently floating into Scandinavia and Britain and shutting down their airports.

NY Times Article

DE BOOMHUT

2010 Bologna Children's Book Fair Winner

"De Boomhut is a wise, clear, even poetic, example of how an established topos of the collective imagination may be revisited with a fresh eye to reveal a continued relevance to modern times. Marije Tolman and Ronald Tolman return to the “house in the trees”. Their house, however, is rich with subtle cultural references ranging from symbolist painting to the most refined 20th century graphic art. The book’s message is not declaimed, but is conveyed quietly. It pleads for an enlightened ecological stance in which an intense awareness that we are part of nature does not forego our need for elegance and intellectual enquiry."

ICELAND'S VOLCANIC

News on BBC

HORSETAIL FALLS

"Yosemite puts on a unique show this time of year.

Horsetail Falls is a small seasonal waterfall that only appears in late winter and early spring. It flows over the east side of El Capitan, so as a backdrop it has one of the most impressive walls of granite in the entire park. Then – only for part of February, and only when the sky is clear – the very last sunrays of the day selectively linger on the falls, lighting it up with a golden glow that makes the water look like lava.

After seeing amazing photos of this scene from many different photographers here on Flickr, I decided to try my hand at it too. Originally I planned to drive to Yosemite this past weekend, but the weather forced me to reconsider. On Thursday the forecast showed clouds and snow moving in on Friday and potentially sticking around for a long time. So I pulled the trigger early.

I took Thursday afternoon off work, rushed out of San Francisco just before 1pm, and found myself in Yosemite Valley a little after 4pm. The sky was not encouraging. A hazy layer of high clouds covered the entire route from San Francisco to Yosemite and I began to worry that the odds of catching the full ‘firefall’ effect were slim to none. But you don’t know if you don’t go, so I crossed my fingers and kept driving.

By 4:30 I’d joined a crowd of 20 or so other photographers who had gathered near a pull-off on the south side of the valley loop road. It wasn’t easy to find an unoccupied spot with a clear view of the falls, but I scouted out an ideal location right on the edge of the Merced River. At this point the sun started to peek through, and – at the risk of jinxing it – I let myself begin to hope I might actually get the shot.

The layer of high clouds never backed off, but an opening on the horizon let direct light pass through once the sun dropped low enough. At about 5:20 the firefall effect started to emerge, followed by the sound of rapid clicking from all 20 cameras around me. I took this shot at 5:28, which turned out to be the peak. A minute later the clouds shut down the show.

I’m thankful the clouds opened as much as they did, but I really wish I could have captured the effect at full strength… I’ve been ready for a second try, although it’s looking like the weather may not cooperate again this year." (via Wiggum03)

ELEPHANT FOOT GLACIER

Around 81N along the East coast of Greenland.

RUN

We're after you.

SWEETGRASS

Really want to see this movie about sheep herding in Montana. Currently playing at Film Forum in Manhattan.

CUEVA DE LOS CRISTALES

"...the crystals measured up to 12 meters long (over 36 feet) with a single crystal weighing approximately 55 tons....Millions of years ago, volcanic activity filled the mountain with anhydrite, a waterless form of gypsum. As magma eventually cooled, the anhydrite began dissolving, enriching cave waters and allowing gigantic crystals to form. Amazingly enough, the size of the crystals has no limit and given enough time will grow to even larger proportions."

Giant Crystals of Naica, Mexico

ICE BURIAL

“Keeper of the faith, Jörmundur Ingi, leader of Iceland’s pagans, stands in their Reykjavík burial ground. The old religion faded as the Vikings adopted Christianity. But change came slowly. Some became not-so-peaceful missionaries, seeking converts by the sword. Viking times are ancient history, yet something, Jörmundur thinks, lives on. ‘Cattle die, kindred die, every man is mortal,’ states an Icelandic poem. ‘One thing that never dies: the glory of the great deed.’”
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Photograph by Steve Raymer Sisse Brimberg
Source: National Geographic

Ásatrúarfélagið is an Icelandic neopagan religious organization with the purpose of promoting and continuing a revived form of Norse paganism.

AOKIGAHARA

The strange Japanese forest of Aokigahara. "Japanese spiritualists believe that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated Aokigahara's trees, generating paranormal activity and preventing many who enter from escaping the forest's depths. Complicating matters further is the common experience of compasses being rendered useless by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the area's volcanic soil."

ALONG THE AT

Connecticut Fog from PSDANZIG on Vimeo.

HIDDEN LANDSCAPES

Hidden Landscapes by Chris Thompson.

GOD MADE DIRT

This made me disproportionately extra happy yesterday.
God made dirt, so dirt don't hurt.

TENNIS PASTELS

One of my fave bands, the Pastels, finally has a new album. It's a collaboration with the Japanese band, the Tenniscoats. The video above is for the song "Vivid Youth." The album is called "Two Sunsets" and it comes out this fall.

GUY'S LAND

Please take a look at the portfolio of Guy Sargent photographs.