There’s nothing I enjoy more while traveling than exploring a new destination with a vigorous early morning run. Here’s a few of my top spots to embrace the day. Cape Town, South Africa: It doesn’t get more beautiful than this picturesque city in the Southern Hemisphere; it also happens to be a runner’s paradise. The promenade along the Atlantic Ocean coastline takes you through the tony towns of Sea Point, Bantry Bay, Clifton and Camps Bay. If you’re staying along the V&A Waterfront area, there’s an easy 5k run from the Waterfront to the town of Sea Point. On weekends you’ll find plenty of like-minded runners out there along with soccer players, surfers and an all around buff looking crowd.
Tag Archives: Southern Hemisphere
Southern Night Sky Revealed: Chile's Atacama Desert (Photos)
The night sky view from Chile’s Atacama Desert offers stunning views of Southern Hemisphere constellations. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Space.com
NGC 602: Taken under the 'wing' of the small magellanic cloud
(Phys.org) —The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbors. Even though it is a small, or so-called dwarf galaxy, the SMC is so bright that it is visible to the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere and near the equator. Many navigators, including Ferdinand Magellan who lends his name to the SMC, used it to help find their way across the oceans. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Rising temperature difference between hemispheres could dramatically shift rainfall patterns in tropics
(Phys.org) —One often ignored consequence of global climate change is that the Northern Hemisphere is becoming warmer than the Southern Hemisphere, which could significantly alter tropical precipitation patterns, according to a new study by climatologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, Seattle. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Video: This is how you use a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 to set a lap record at New Zealand's newest track
By Zach Bowman
Filed under:
New Zealand officially has a new international-standard road track. Highlands Motorsport Park is a 2.8-mile circuit with three complete tracks that can be safely operated at the same time. Designed to serve as a members-only facility, the boots on the ground say track is likely one of the best in the Southern Hemisphere.
The organizers behind Highlands wanted give the facility a proper break in, so rather than throw some sort of gala, they simply unleashed Craig Baird and a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 on the course with just one instruction: set the first official track record.
Baird is something of a legend in New Zealand, having won three consecutive New Zealand Formula Atlantic Championship titles as well as four consecutive New Zealand Touring Car Championship titles, and he wasted no time in putting hammer to steel in the MP4-12C GT3. By the time all was said and done, the track was left with a 1:41.9-second lap. Something tells us that one’s going to stand for awhile, though Baird says he thinks he can get his time down into the 1:30s with a bit more practice. That may be the case, but we’re simply glad for the excuse to watch the guy hammer on this McLaren. Check it out.
This is how you use a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 to set a lap record at New Zealand’s newest track originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog
First Battlefield 4 Details Officially Revealed, Powered by Frostbite 3
Following simultaneous debut events in San Francisco and Stockholm EA has officially revealed initial details for Battlefield 4, plus a first glimpse of the game in action.
Powered by DICE’s proprietary Frostbite 3 engine, EA has confirmed Battlefield 4 is set to launch in Autumn 2013 (or Spring, for Southern Hemisphere readers).
According to information released by EA, Battlefield 4 will see a variety of multiplayer game design elements incorporated into the single-player campaign. In single-player, gamers are promised huge environments, access to a variety of vehicles and the ability to direct squad mates. The single-player mode will also now track players’ progress, adding a layer of social competition to the game’s campaign.
Photos: Working-class beach for Peru's capital
While Lima’s elite passes its summer weekends in gated beach enclaves south of the Peruvian capital, the working class jams by the thousands on a single municipal beach of grayish-brown sands and gentle waves.
The only barrier to entry to Agua Dulce beach is two dollars, the price of bus fare to and from the beach some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the city center.
“There are Sundays when it’s just packed to the gills,” says Carlos Vergara, a portrait photographer who has been working Lima’s beaches for 50 years.
Until the mid-20th century, Lima’s lower classes couldn’t afford beach-going, said Juan Pacheco, a historian of the city. Road-building to the coast solved that, and the rich began to largely abandon Lima’s beaches to the poorer set.
On some weekends during the Southern Hemisphere summer, which runs from December until March, as many as 40,000 people a day visit the half-mile-long (kilometer-long) strip of Agua Dulce. Beachgoers arrive in groups of 20-30, hauling enormous pots of fragrant chicken and rice.
Some from Andes mountain communities are getting their first glimpse of the gray-green sea, a color it takes from the Lima sky and the sand of the beach.
“I thought the ocean was blue, but it’s gray,” said Dolores Silva, 72, smiling as she adjusted a brown cloth hat she’d brought from home, the interior state of Apurimac.
As she speaks, Vergara and other photographers take instant portraits of cooing couples, soldiers on leave, fathers parading first-borns. Other vendors pick their way through the throngs selling candy apples, hot baked bread and plastic inflatable versions of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Children dig holes in the sand and bury each other up to their necks.
As the sunset spreads an orange glow over the Pacific, mothers rinse the sand and salt off their children at the fresh-water fountain fed by a spring that gives the beach its name.
Francis I, A Pope from the Developed World
By Brian Domitrovic, Contributor
Francis I is the first pope from the Americas/the Southern Hemisphere/the “global south.” That last one is a favorite of those who like the word “neoliberalism.” Francis is also from the “developing world” (which used to be called the “third world”), said CNN. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
First Day Of Spring 2013: Vernal Equinox Comes On March 20
By The Huffington Post News Editors
Spring! Wonderful, warm, beautiful spring is almost here.
At 7:02 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 20, the sun will cross directly over the Earth’s equator during a moment known as the vernal equinox when both day and night are about equal — also the official start of the new season. The seasons are reversed for those in the Southern Hemisphere and the event instead signals the beginning of fall.
Spring will last three months until June 21, and summer will carry on until the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22 at 4:44 p.m, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Antarctica Tourism Damages Environment Of Pristine Land (PHOTOS)
By The Huffington Post News Editors
ROSS ISLAND, Antarctica (AP) — Across most of Earth, a tourist attraction that sees 35,000 visitors a year can safely be labeled sleepy. But when it’s Antarctica, every footstep matters.
Tourism is rebounding here five years after the financial crisis stifled what had been a burgeoning industry. And it’s not just retirees watching penguins from the deck of a ship. Visitors are taking tours inland and even engaging in “adventure tourism” like skydiving and scuba diving under the ever-sunlit skies of a Southern Hemisphere summer.
In a remote, frozen, almost pristine land where the only human residents are involved in research, that tourism comes with risks, for both the continent and the tourists. Boats pollute water and air, and create the potential for more devastating environmental damage. When something goes wrong, help can be an exceptionally long way off.
SpaceX's Dragon Space Capsule Visible in Southern Night Sky
Stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere have a chance of spotting SpaceX’s private Dragon capsule chasing the space station. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Space.com
Coughing Manequins Shed Light On Flu Transmission
Influenza is a winter disease. For decades, scientists have wondered why the virus is epidemic in the winter months but relatively absent the rest of the year. The first step to answering the question is to look at patterns. While we take a break from influenza during the North American summer, flu attacks the Southern Hemisphere, and in the tropics, flu rates are relatively stable throughout the year. Could it be the weather? …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Large shark kills man in New Zealand; beach closed
A shark has killed a man off a New Zealand beach that was closed after the rare attack there.
Police said the man was found dead in the water Wednesday afternoon after being “bitten by a large shark.” Police and surf lifesavers recovered the man’s body. The police statement said Muriwai Beach near the city of Auckland has been closed.
Witness Stef McCallum told Fairfax Media that about 200 people were at the beach at the time, during the Southern Hemisphere summer. She said she saw a police officer go out in a surf lifesaving boat and fire multiple shots into the water at the shark.
Fatal shark attacks are relatively rare in New Zealand. Fairfax reports 14 deaths since record-keeping began in the 1830s.
Bright Comets Grace Earth's Night Sky in February and March
Two comets in the Southern Hemisphere will light up the sky in late February before moving north in early March. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Space.com
Chile arrests welder who started massive wildfire
Chilean police say they have arrested a man responsible for the worst forest fire in decades in the hills above the port of Valparaiso.
The 27-year-old mason confessed early Saturday to accidentally igniting the blaze with a welder’s torch. Police did not release the suspect’s name.
The fire destroyed more than 100 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 1,200 people on Thursday. At least 27 people were injured, including five children.
Strong, changing winds and hot, dry weather at the height of the Southern Hemisphere‘s summer holiday season stoked the fire.
President Sebastian Pinera cut his vacation short to visit the victims Friday at shelters. He vowed to rebuild the area and give everyone new homes.
Chile battles huge fire in port of Valparaiso
A forest fire that engulfed a hill in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso destroyed at least 70 homes and forced the evacuation of more than 500 families, officials said on Thursday.
Chile‘s emergency office, ONEMI, issued a red alert after the blaze broke out on the city’s San Roque hill, some 75 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of the capital, Santiago.
Strong, changing winds and high temperatures at the peak of the Southern Hemisphere‘s summer holiday season stoked the fire. Valparaiso Regional Gov. Raul Celis called it “the city’s worst blaze in two decades.”
Local television stations aired images of a towering plume of smoke billowing over Valparaiso. The smoke kept firefighting aircraft grounded while more than a dozen firefighter units, 700 policemen and several army platoons continued to battle the fire five hours after it started.
Twenty-seven people, including five children, are being treated for minor injuries and smoke intoxication, said Claudio Fernandez, director of the local Van Buren Hospital.
Police said they had arrested at least three people for looting.
The port of Valparaiso is surrounded by dozens of hills where most people live. Authorities say the fire is centered near the hills in the highest part of Valparaiso, and is still far away from the city’s low-lying downtown area.
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Associated Press Writer Luis Andres Henao contributed to this report.
Super-TIGER lying low for the Southern Hemisphere winter
(Phys.org)—Late Friday, Feb. 2, an overcast day in St. Louis, the twitter feed for the Super-TIGER cosmic ray experiment burst into life, as the Super-TIGER team received word that NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, which provides operations support for scientific ballooning in Antarctica, had decided to terminate the flight of the balloon carrying their detector aloft in the polar vortex. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Ozone depletion trumps greenhouse gas increase in jet-stream shift
Depletion of Antarctic ozone is a more important factor than increasing greenhouse gases in shifting the Southern Hemisphere jet stream in a southward direction, according to researchers at Penn State.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Three Canadians killed in Antarctica plane crash
Three Canadians were killed in Antarctica after their plane crashed last week into the freezing cold and hurricane force winds of the icy continent, the National Science Foundation confirmed Monday.
“On behalf of the U.S. National Science Foundation and all in the U.S. Antarctic Program, I wish to extend our profound sympathies to the families, friends, and colleagues of the three Kenn Borek Twin Otter crew, whose deaths in Antarctica while en route to support the Italian national Antarctic science program have recently been confirmed,” said Kelly K. Falkner, director of NSF’s Division of Polar Programs, in a statement.
Officials with theU.S. Antarctic Program(USAP) andAntarctica New Zealand decided to recall their search-and-rescue teams from the crash site Monday, saying it would be unsafe to disturb wreckage that is largely embedded in snow and ice on a steep mountain slope. The coming Antarctic winter and the generally poor weather conditions — winds of up to 104 miles per hour blew through on Thursday and Friday — made the rescue effort impossible.
“In many ways, their contributions make possible hard won but vital advances in scientific knowledge that serve all of mankind. Although everyone associated with the pursuit of science in Antarctica makes personal sacrifices to do so, very infrequently and sadly, some make the ultimate sacrifice,” Falkner said.
The propeller-driven Twin Otter was flying from a U.S. station near the pole to an Italian research base in Terra Nova Bay. Rescuers believe it crashed in the Queen Alexandra mountain range at an elevation of about 13,000 feet.
The plane’s emergency locator started transmitting late Wednesday about 420 miles north of the South Pole, but the weather has prevented search planes overhead from seeing the presumed crash site itself.
One man on the plane was identified as Bob Heath from the Northwest Territories, an experienced pilot in both the Antarctic and Arctic. Rescuers say the other two men were also part of the flight crew and that no passengers were aboard.
The plane was owned and operated by Kenn Borek Air Ltd., a Calgary firm that charters aircraft to the U.S. Antarctic program.
Antarctica has no permanent residents, but several thousand people live there in the Southern Hemisphere summer as a number of countries send scientists and other staff to research stations. The U.S. runs the largest program, with about 850 staff at its McMurdo Station and another 200 at its Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where the Canadians’ flight originated.
Elsewhere in Antarctica, a team of U.S. scientists announced Sunday night that they had successfully drilled half a mile through the ice covering Lake Whillans, a subglacial expanse of water hidden deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.
News wires contributed to this report.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Wind, snow hamper Antarctic search for 3 Canadians
Hurricane-force winds and snow were preventing searchers Friday from reaching a plane believed to have crashed in an Antarctic mountain range while carrying three Canadians.
Its emergency locator started transmitting late Wednesday about 420 miles north of the South Pole, but the weather has prevented search planes overhead from seeing the presumed crash site itself.
Rescuers don’t know if the men are alive. Their plane has survival gear including tents and food.
The locator stopped transmitting Thursday night and crews have been unable to establish radio contact. Rescuers say a break in the weather is forecast Saturday.
One man on the plane has been identified as Bob Heath from the Northwest Territories, an experienced pilot in both the Antarctic and Arctic. Rescuers say the other two men were also part of the flight crew and that no passengers were aboard.
The propeller-driven de Havilland Twin Otter, was flying from a U.S. station near the pole to an Italian research base in Terra Nova Bay. Rescuers believe it crashed in the Queen Alexandra mountain range at an elevation of about 13,000 feet.
Winds of up to 104 miles per hour have been blowing Thursday and Friday.
Steve Rendle, a spokesman for New Zealand‘s Rescue Coordination Centre, said rescue planes circled the area on Thursday and Friday but have been unable to spot the downed plane due to poor visibility. He said the battery on the locator beacon may have run out but that rescuers have a good fix on its location.
He said that when the weather clears, crews hope to establish a forward base at the Beardmore Glacier about 30 miles from the assumed crash site. He said there’s a rudimentary runway and a fuel depot at the glacier.
For now, two helicopters and a small plane remain at McMurdo Station, the main U.S. base about four hours’ flight away. He said the elevation provides extra challenges for helicopter crews.
Heath’s wife, Lucy Heath, told the Calgary Sun newspaper that airline officials had told her her husband’s plane was down, and she said she was just waiting for more news: “I’m so worried.”
Bob Heath wrote on networking site LinkedIn that he typically spends this time of year coaching and mentoring other pilots in polar regions.
The missing plane is owned and operated by Kenn Borek Air Ltd., a Calgary firm that charters aircraft to the U.S. Antarctic program. In a release, the National Science Foundation said the plane was flying in support of the Italian Antarctic program.
Authorities from New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. and Italy are working on the rescue operation.
Antarctica has no permanent residents, but several thousand people live there in the Southern Hemisphere summer as a number of countries send scientists and other staff to research stations. The U.S. runs the largest program, with about 850 staff at its McMurdo Station and another 200 at its Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where the Canadians’ flight originated.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News