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13
Oct 09

Venture to the Interior

‘Prehistoric predator.’ Okavango Delta, Botswana.

There is nothing quite like the silent appearance of a crocodile alongside your makoro to make you realise the totally futile presence of a thin piece of wood lying between you and the jaws of one of the most efficient predators of all time. The yellow eye gazed unblinkingly at me in my seat at the bow of the makoro whilst the tip of its tail beyond the stern of the boat propelled it with consummate ease as our guide paddled frantically for the bank. With a languid indifference our pursuer disappeared below the murky waters to reappear a couple of seconds later with a metre long barbel clasped between its jaws. Bad news for the barbel but good news for us – I retain enough composure to reel off a couple of photographs as the hunter thrashes its prey to death in the water beside me.

Posted by Nick in Travel | No comments
29
Sep 09

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Posted by Matt in Miscellany | No comments
25
May 08

On beauty and building materials

This is a difficult thing for a coral biologist to say, but the top spot in my Favourite Sedentary Marine Creatures list has just been taken by a sponge. The Venus’ Flower Basket sponge dwells in the deep sea sediments of the Western Pacific and is probably the only marine creature to have appeal to structural engineers, architects, biologists and die-hard romantics.

Posted by Joanne in Environment / Future / Technology | No comments
22
Mar 07

Just Like Being There

There are a few threads that weave in and out of my thirty-odd years, one of those being the Cricket World Cup. One of the more interesting ones for me was the 1996 series hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Interesting not because of the performances or results, but the way in which I followed the games. The time difference was a bit rough and we didn’t have Sky at home so I was reduced to listening to the game in bed on the wireless. I have a delicious memory of Jeremy Coney and Brian Waddle spending the best part of five overs discussing the sandwiches they’d had for lunch that day. Two of the best, no doubt.

Posted by Matt in Sport / Technology | No comments
01
Feb 07

Watch Yourself (Part I)

In capturing and documenting our lives online we’re providing a potential surveillance feed of ourselves – and of those around us. When you chuck in geo-tagging using cell towers, and the time and date saved with your files, it’s possible that you are providing whoever wants to see it with a complete record of where you’ve been, when you were there, who you were with and what you were doing. And as network speeds and devices improve, the ability to stream video from webcams in your house or in your hand means that this record will be available real-time…

Posted by Matt in Future / Politics / Technology | 3 comments