Hidden Life under The Sea

Great White sharks, wrecked planes and huge clouds of fish: Photographers take the plunge to capture beautiful images of life underwater
By Jaymi Mccann
PUBLISHED: 08:05 GMT, 1 June 2013 | UPDATED: 08:27 GMT, 1 June 2013

A Great White shark, a curious seal are some of the subjects that won prizes in the world's biggest photography competition.

Thousands of entries from more than a hundred countries submitted to underwaterphotography.com's competion.
The annual event covers 15 categories from wrecks to sharks and divers, with the UK's Nick Blake being made a Grand Master after picking up five awards.

 Allen Walker's Great White shark. The website is the longest running and most visited resource for underwater photographers

Nick Blake won the title of Grand Master as he managed to get five awards in one competition

 Another of Christian Vizl's stunning freshwater photographs taken off the coast of Mexico
These included a gold medal for a wonderful shot of a grey seal off Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel.
He explained: 'As he clambered over the top of my head, I turned the camera to shoot at myself, capturing an image of the cheeky chap at the same time.'

Mr Blake also picked up a silver for his atmospheric shot of Boo Windows, a natural phenomenon in Misool, Indonesia, and three runner up prizes, including one of a sunken jet plane at Capernwray Quay, Lancashire.
British snapper Leena Roy also got a gold medal for a spooky natural light shot of the ladder on the US submarine rescue vessel Kittiwake in Grand Cayman. The UK's Elaine White got a silver for her image of the vessel's stern.

 Overall winner was Christian Vizl who became the first photographer to win gold, silver and bronze in a single category for his collection of stunning photographs
 

 British photographer Nick Blake won gold for his amazing shot of a curious seal

 American Jeri Curley won a bronze medal for her close focused and wide angled photograph
The optical illusion of a 'strong beauty' holding up a rock won a gold medal for Slovakian photographer Martin Ferak while the US's Greg Zagaglia took silver for a close up of a Great White's teeth. Both pictures were captured off the coast of Mexico.
Other winners included male elephant seals fighting for dominance on the Pacific coast, lillies under palm trees in Guam and the Laguna Beach shallows in the Pacific.
Website spokesman Benny Sutton said: 'UK photographer Nick Blake becomes a Grand Master by building on his success in previous years with five placings including a Gold in temperate waters category and a silver in the "wide angle close focus".
'The latter was a tropical waters shot but we know Nick best for his temperate waters work shot whilst diving around the UK. His usual environment is therefore a difficult one to work in, yet he always delivers the goods

 Leena Roy's creepy photograph of a ladder inside a US submarine rescue vessel Kittiwake in Grand Cayman

 Christian Vizl submitted this unique photograph to the competition
But overall winner was Mexico's Christian Vizl who became the first photographer to win gold, silver and bronze in a single category for his collection of stunning freshwater photographs.
Mr Sutton said: 'This year's World Champion and breakout star is without doubt Mexican underwater photographer Christian Vizl who has demonstrated consistently high quality over such a relatively short period of time.
'He is the only underwater photographer in our history to take Gold, Silver and Bronze in one year.
'He did this with three very different model shots that he entered in the Freshwater category.
'These shots were so good they would have got medals in the Divers or Wide Angle categories. For good measure he also won a gold medal in the sharks category and a bronze in the Wide angle category.

Kip Nead won a silver medal for his striking above water action shot

Another of Christian Vizl's award winning photographs, this time featuring a shark in his natural habitat
'He has demonstrated such a wide range of skills and mastery of a broad spectrum of subjects he stood out head and shoulders.
'Christian describes himself as a photographer and artist, which is confirmed by his strong graphic sense exhibited in his entries.'
Mr Sutton added: 'The UnderwaterPhotography.com photo contest is the longest running and most prestigious online, or off. If you want to make a name for yourself it is the place to do it.
'One of our medals is the reward for all the hard work underwater photographers put in chasing those great shots in far flung destinations.
'It is the industry's most coveted prize because it says you succeeded in the most competitive environment there is, against the top talent of the moment.

Grains of Sand . . .

. . .  Magnified 240 Times!

The pictures and short video are simply incredible!

All this is what we are walking on....unique grains of color.
Looking deep into Mother Earth and we find such Beauty.

Grains of sand magnified 240 times!

This is totally incredibly unbelievably amazing!
YOU WILL NEVER VIEW A SANDY BEACH IN THE SAME WAY AGAIN.

Grains of sand magnified 240 times!
Please click on this link to see more pictures

http://www.inspirationgreen.com/index.php?q=magnified-grains-of-sand.html

Don't forget to watch the 1 1/2 minute video half way down!

 The glacially deposited sands around Lake Winnibigoshish, Minnesota, contain abundant sediments from the igneous and metamorphic minerals of the Lake Superior basin. A sample includes pink garnets, green epidote, iron-rich red agates, black magnetite, and hematite. Image Copyright © 2008 Dr. Gary Greenberg.

The tip of a spiral shell has broken off and become a grain of sand. After being repeatedly tumbled by action of the surf this spiral sand grain has become opalescent in character. It is surrounded by bits of coral, a pink shell fragment, a foram (a type of protozoa) and volcanic material. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.

 Sand Magnified by Yanping Wang www.nikonsmallworld.com

Sand Magnified 250x.

 Puffy Stars -- Star-Shaped Sand Grains from Okinawa. These tiny foram, a type of protozoa, secrete beautiful star-shaped, calcium carbonate shells, or tests.www.sandgrains.com

 Magnified 250 times. Every grain of sand in the world is unique when viewed through a microscope.

A handful of sand grains selected from a beach in Maui and arranged on a black background. Photo copyright Dr. Gary Greenberg.

TAKE PAPAYA AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN

Update
Originally native to southern Mexico and now cultivated in many tropical countries (including Brazil , India , Indonesia , South Africa , Vietnam and Sri Lanka ), the papaya plant has been touted by traditional healers for centuries as a source of powerful medicine. Not only is papaya fruit delicious and loaded with vitamins and phytochemicals, but other parts of the plant have been used historically to treat health problems too.
Now University of Florida (UF) researcher Dr. Nam Dang and his colleagues inJapan have announced new evidence that the papaya fights cancer cells. In fact, they discovered that an extract made from dried papaya leaves produced a dramatic anti-cancer effect against a broadrange of tumors grown in the laboratory — including cancers of the cervix, breast, liver, lung and pancreas.
The study, recently published in theJournal of Ethnopharmacology, not only showed that papaya has a direct anti-tumor effect on a variety of malignancies, but it also documented for the first time that papaya leaf extract increases the production of key signaling molecules called Th1-type cytokines.
That’s important because this regulation of the immune system raises the strong possibility that the use of papaya could help the body’s own immune system to overcome cancers. In addition, it suggests papaya could be helpful in treating or preventing other health problems such as inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
The research team found that papaya’s anti-cancer effects were strongest when cancer cells received larger doses of the papaya leaf extract — yet, unlike many mainstream cancer therapies, there were no toxic effects at all on normal cells.
In a statement to the media, Dr. Dang pointed out that the ability of papaya extract to stop cancer without toxicity is consistent with reports from indigenous populations in Australia and in his native Vietnam .
“

What exactly does papaya do to halt malignancies? To find out, the researchers focused on a T-lymphoma cancer cell line. They discovered that at least one of the mechanisms that makes papaya extract a potent anti-cancer weapon is the natural compound’s ability to cause malignant cells — but not normal ones — to die.
The researchers hope to follow up these experiments by eventually testing the papaya cancer treatment in animal and human studies. Up next for Dr. Dang and his colleagues: they’ve applied to patent a process to distill the papaya extract through the University of Tokyo and they are working to identify all the specific compounds in the papaya extract that are active against cancer cells.
To this end, Dr. Dang has partnered with Hendrik Luesch, a UF Shands Cancer Center professor of medicinal chemistry who is an expert in the identification and use of natural products for medical purposes. Dr. Luesch recently discovered yet another natural cancer fighter — a coral reef compound that blocks cancer cell growth in cell lines.

Health Benefits
Sweet and tasty papaya makes an excellent breakfast and is good in fruit salads. It can be blended with yogurt to make a delicious digestive smoothie. It also works well as an added ingredient in green salads. It tastes particularly good with lemon juice squeezed over it. The health benefits of papaya include heart disease and cancer prevention, cold and flu prevention and healthy digestions.

Papaya Nutrition
Papaya is an excellent source of vitamin C, with one medium papaya containing about 150% of the Daily value. It is also a good source of vitamin A, in beta-carotene form. It is also a good source of vitamin K, vitamin E and folate as well as the mineral potassium.

Papaya for Heart Disease Prevention
One of the health benefits of papaya is related to the fact that it contains high doses of three vitamins involved in heart disease prevention- vitamin A, vitamin E and beta-carotene. In addition, the high levels of folate found in papayas can help lower levels of the heart disease promoting amino acid homocysteine.

Papaya for Cold and Flu Prevention
Foods high in vitamin C, such as papaya, help boost the immune system. Vitamin C has been shown to help ward off symptoms of influenza A, the common cold and pneumonia. Vitamin A provides additional immune system support.

Papaya for Neural Tube Defect Prevention
Because papayas are rich in folate, they have applications in preventing neural tube defects. Eating folate-rich foods pre-pregnancy and during pregnancy can help the fetal spinal column to develop normally.

Papaya for Digestive Health
Papaya contains special digestive enzymes, called papain and chymopapain, which help digest proteins. Papaya is often used as a detoxification food and to give the digestive system a break, because it is so rich in its own digestive enzymes. Papaya also contains anti-oxidant vitamins C and E as well as folate, all of which can help prevent colon cancer.

Papaya Leaf Papaya Tree

Papaya/Pawpaw apaya (Carica papaya) originates from tropical American countries. Today Papaya is cultivated in most tropical countries around the world.


Dengue Fever Remedy

I would like to share this interesting discovery from a classmate's son who has just recovered from dengue fever. Apparently, his son was in the critical stage at the ICU when his blood platelet count drops to 15 after 15 liters of blood transfusion.

His father was so worried that he seeks another friend's recommendation and his son was saved. He confessed to me that he gave his son raw juice of the papaya leaves. From a platelet count of 45 after 20 liters of blood transfusion, and after drinking the raw papaya leaf juice, his platelet count jumps instantly to135. Even the doctors and nurses were surprised. After the second day he was discharged. So he asked me to pass this good news around.

Accordingly it is raw papaya leaves, 2pcs just cleaned and pound and squeeze with filter cloth. You will only get one tablespoon per leaf. So two tablespoonful serving once a day. Do not boil or cook or rinse with hot water, it will loose its strength. Only the leafy part and no stem or sap. It is very bitter and you have to swallow it like "Wong Low Kat". But it works.

*Papaya Juice - Cure for Dengue*
You may have heard this elsewhere but if not I am glad to inform you that papayajuice is a natural cure for dengue fever. As dengue fever is rampant now, Ithink it's good to share this with all.

A friend of mine had dengue last year. It was a very serious situation for her as her platelet count had dropped to 28,000 after 3 days in hospital and waterhas started to fill up her lung. She had difficulty in breathing. She was only32-year old. Doctor says there's no cure for dengue. We just have to wait for her body immune system to build up resistance against dengue and fight its own battle. She already had 2 blood transfusion and all of us were praying very hard as her platelet continued to drop since the first day she was admitted.


Furthermore it's so easily available. Blend them and squeeze the juice! It's simple and miraculously effective!!

Interesting Helpful Hints

Peel a banana from the bottom and you 

won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. 

That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. 

If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. 

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. 

It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter 

and better for eating.  Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom 

are firmer and better for cooking. 

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. 

It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

Easy Deviled Eggs 

Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. 

Seal, mash till they are all broken up. 

Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, 

keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, 

cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. 

Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

To make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, 

add a couple of spoonfuls of 

sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream 

in and then beat them up.

Expanding Frosting - When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Reheating refrigerated bread -  To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go, cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.


Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress.
Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone.

Broken Glass -
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

Measuring Cups .Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.



Foggy Windshield?

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material .. I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ... the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free ..... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box . well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what caus es dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at l east e very six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds Then when I rinsed it .. the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

January 2013

Neat "stuff", I didn't know that!

You're going to say
"I didn't know that!" at least 5 times.
Really neat stuff here:


Alaska

 More than half of the coastline of the 

entire United States is in Alaska .




Amazon

 The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20%

of the world's oxygen supply.
The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that,
more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river,
one can dip fresh water out of the ocean.
The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater
than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined
and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States .



Antarctica

 Antarctica is the only land on our planet 

that is not owned by any country.

Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica .

This ice also represents seventy percent

of all the fresh water in the world.

As strange as it sounds, however, 

Antarctica is essentially a desert;

the average yearly total precipitation is about two inches.

Although covered with ice 

(all but 0.4% of it, ice.), 

Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, 

with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil

 Brazil got its name from the nut, 

not the other way around.




Canada

 Canada has more lakes than the rest 

of the world combined.
Canada is an Indian word meaning 'Big Village '.



Chicago

 Next to Warsaw , Chicago has the largest 

Polish population in the world.


Detroit

 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, 

carries the designation M-1,
so named because it was the
first paved road anywhere.



Damascus , Syria

 Damascus, Syria, was flourishing 

a couple of thousand years
before Rome was founded in 753 BC,
making it the oldest continuously
inhabited city in existence.



Istanbul , Turkey

 Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city 

in the world
located on two continents.



Los Angeles

 Los Angeles ' full name is:

El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula
-- and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.



New York City

 The term 'The Big Apple' was coined

by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s
who used the slang expression
'apple' for any town or city.

Therefore, to play New York City
is to play the big time - The Big Apple.

There are more Irish in New York City
than in Dublin, Ireland ;
more Italians in New York City
than in Rome, Italy ;
and more Jews in New York City
than in Tel Aviv, Israel ..




Ohio

 There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, 

every one is manmade.



Pitcairn Island

 The smallest island with country status is 

Pitcairn in Polynesia,
at just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.


Rome

The first city to reach a population
of 1 million people was Rome, Italy
in 133 B.C.
There is a city called Rome on every continent.


Siberia

 Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.

S.M.O.M.

 The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M).

It is located in the city of Rome, Italy ,
has an area of two tennis courts
and, as of 2001, has a population of 80
-- 20 less people than the Vatican ...
It is a sovereign entity under international law,
just as the Vatican is.




Sahara Desert

 In the Sahara Desert, 

there is a town named Tidikelt, Algeria,
which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.  Technically though, the driest place on Earth  is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island.  There has been no rainfall there for two million years.


Spain

 Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits'.

St. Paul , Minnesota

 St. Paul , Minnesota , was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant who set up the first business there.

Roads

 Chances that a road is unpaved:

in the US.A. . = 1%;
in Canada = ...75%



Russia

 The deepest hole ever drilled by man is the 

Kola Superdeep Borehole, in Russia .
It reached a depth of 12,261 meters (about 40,226 feet or 7.62 miles) It was drilled for scientific research and gave up some unexpected discoveries, one of which was a huge deposit of hydrogen - so massive that the mud coming from the hole was boiling with it.



United States

 The Eisenhower interstate system 

requires that one mile in every 

five must be straight.

These straight sections are 

usable as airstrips in times of 

war or other emergencies.

Waterfalls

 The water of Angel Falls 

(the world's highest) in Venezuela
drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).
They are 15 times higher 

than Niagara Falls ...

I have always said, 
you should learn something new every day. Unfortunately, many of us are at that age where what we learn today, we forget tomorrow.

1/22/2012