Santa Claus meets Chyskhaan, Lord of the Cold, in the village of Tomtor in the remote Sakhar region of Russia. Picture: WENN. via Telegraph

First of all merry merry Xmas to all of you. I really hope you've passed a nice day close to the people you love.
Talking about the picture you can see here above, for sure you've already identified the red-dressed oldman on the background as Santa Claus (Papa Noel, Babbo Natale ecc. ecc..) that is the reason why I've chosen the picture for this post. Probably however you might be wondering "who is the blue one?!?". No, it's not a psychedelic version of Santa Claus even if I have to say that his blue dress is much cooler than Santa's one!
Well, the blue oldman is Chyskhaan The lord of the Cold!



Chyskhaan, the lord of the cold, is a character from the folkore of Yakutia, a federal republic of Russia also known as Sakha Republic (well, if you've played at Risiko at least once in your life you do know what Yakutia is!). It is very difficult to find info on the web about this character because of the many different ways in which the name is translated and transliterated from the Sakha language (you can find him as Chyskhaan, Chyskhan but also Tshicxaan and described as Lord of the Cold, Lord of the Frost or Father of Cold) but also beacause Yakutia is a very remote region, where as you can imagine, an internet connection is not exactly an ordinary thing.

However I've found this description of the legend behind Chyskhaan:

The Lord of Cold has always existed! His responsibility is to keep the cold confined to specific latitudes, to specific heights, and to specific land masses. He keeps the Arctic and the Antarctic pristine with cold and snow. At Yule, the longest night and shortest day, people in the north gathered at shrines built in his name, and offered gifts to him to take away the cold and to allow the sun to return. The gifts were left at the shrine. Chyskhaan would gather up the gifts and redistribute them to those that were in need, keeping for himself what he needed to honour the magic he would work over the next several months. His magic would chase away the night and bring forth the sun. At the same time, he controlled how quickly the ice and snow would melt in order to avoid flooding out the villages and people that depended on him. He also buried sacred places beneath the snow so that they would be undetected by those that would seek to use the knowledge for personal goals and for power. As the people in the world are becoming more enlightened, he is relaxing his hold on the cold to allow discovery of new information at the appropriate time.

Photos by kristin

©William Goodwin via NGM

National Geographic has published the winners of their annual International Photographic Contest. Here you can see some of my favourites water-related winners.
Visit National Geographic International Photographic Contest 2009 official webpage to see all the galleries, download wallpapers and much more


©Yusuke Okada via NGM


©Steffen Binke via NGM


©Cesare Naldi via NGM


©Laurent Mercey via NGM

B17-b (Ap)


A pair of weeks ago, initially, a huge iceberg and then many smaller ones, were spotted around Macquarie Island, an island midway between Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, where icebergs are a very rare sight, as I reported in the this post:
Huge icebergs encircle Macquarie Island

two new icebergs pictures taken from Macquarie Island:

(Ap)

(Eve Merfield/associated Press)

Last week, icebergs has been seen even from the southern tip of New Zealand which is an even rarer sight and then, in a crescendo of breaking news a really enormous one, identified by scientist with the name B17-b has been detected on its way to Australia. The city-sized iceberg is now breaking up into hundreds of smaller icebergs as it drifts into warmer waters. This is creating potentially hazardous conditions for ships trying to navigate the region. The iceberg, was spotted last week on satellite imaging about 1,100 miles (1,700 kilometers) off Western Australia state, prompting New Zealand and than Australia's Bureau of Meteorology to issue a shipping alert. When first observed, B17B was a whopping 140 square kilometers (54 square miles). Now, it is about 115 square kilometers (44 square miles), or around 18 kilometers (11 miles) long and 8 kilometers (5 miles) wide.

The position of B17-b first sight:

The following image provided by Australian Antarctic Division is a satellite view of some giant icebergs when they detached from the ice-shelf, B17-b is the fourth from right. Its journey began almost 10 years ago when it broke away from the Ross ice shelf in Antarctica.


(Australian Antarctic Division)

Currently, B17-b journey to Australia is controlled carefully due to the danger that it represents.
These are three NASA satellite images of B17-b:

November 5, 2009:

(Nasa)

November 29, 2009:

(Nasa)

December 11, 2009:

(Nasa)

©Vladimiro Formicola

This year, sorrowfully, there has been many whale and dolphin strandings as you may see in this summarizing post:
Whale and Dolphins Strandings Picture Galleries
However no beaching happened in the Mediterranean Sea. Until now. This Thursday a pod of nine sperm whales, stranded on the beaches of Lago di Varano, a beautiful laguna in the Gargano promontory (which is the "spur" in the boot-shaped Italian peninsula). My friend Vladimiro Formicola, who lives not far from there kindly sent me some pictures. Two of the nine sperm whales managed to swim back to deep waters, but the other seven died. When Vladimiro arrived the poor whales (measuring about 12m) were already decaying and biologists were taking some tissue samples in order to try to find explanations for this tragedy. Infact, even if that zone of Adriatic Sea is caracterized by shallow waters, strandings are extremely rare, especially for whales of that size, occurring once every 150-200 years.


©Vladimiro Formicola

©Vladimiro Formicola

©Vladimiro Formicola

©Vladimiro Formicola

©Franca Biraghi

©surfglassy

Last week, massive waves between 9 and 12 metres, hit Hawaiian Archipelago due to the contemporaneous presence of two storms North West of the islands. They were the biggest waves seen in the last 40 years and on Tuesday 8th they gave the chance to hold "The Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau" also known as "The Eddie", a surfing tournament held at Waimea Bay on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Created in 1985 and named after famed Waimea Bay lifeguard Eddie Aikau (see the bottom of the article for more info), the irregularly-held tournament is known for a unique requirement that ocean swells reach a minimum height of 20 feet (this translates to a wave face height of over 30 feet) before the competition can be held, (Open-ocean swells, rather than wave faces, are the preferred method of Hawaiian wave measurement.) As a result of this requirement, the tournament has only been held eight times during the history of the event, the previous one was back in 2004.

Enjoy some REUTERS pictures of last week's event collected via DAYLIFE:






















Greg Long, winner of this edition

EDDIE WOULD GO

Edward Ryan Makua Hanai Aikau (Kahului, Hawaii, May 4, 1946 – March 17, 1978) was a well-known Hawaiian lifeguard and surfer, but more than this he is a legend and a sort of Hawaiian national hero. His story is amazing:
He became the first lifeguard hired by the City & County of Honolulu to work on the North Shore. The City & County of Honolulu gave Aikau the task of covering all of the beaches between Sunset and Haleiwa. Not one life was lost while he served as lifeguard of Waimea Bay, as he braved waves that often reached 30 feet (9.1 m) high or more.
In 1978, the Polynesian Voyaging Society was seeking volunteers for a 30-day, 2,500-mile (4,000 km) journey to follow the ancient route of the Polynesian migration between the Hawaiian and Tahitian island chains. At 31 years of age, Aikau joined the voyage as a crew member. The Hokule'a left the Hawaiian islands on March 16, 1978. The double-hulled voyaging canoe developed a leak in one of the hulls and later capsized about twelve miles (19 km) south of the island of Molokai. In an attempt to get help, Aikau paddled toward Lanai on his surfboard. Although the rest of the crew was later rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, Aikau was never seen again. The ensuing search for Aikau was the largest air-sea search in Hawaii history.



In the 1980s, bumper stickers and T-shirts with the phrase "Eddie Would Go" spread around the Hawaiian Islands and to the rest of the world. According to maritime historian Mac Simpson, "Aikau was a legend on the North Shore, pulling people out of waves that no one else would dare to. That's where the saying came from -- Eddie would go, when no else would or could. Only Eddie dared."

©Pekka Komi via tersiger.com

The picture here above is an internet meme, specifically it spread as an email with a text saying the picture was shot by a hunter in Montana. That's not true, the real author is Pekka Komi a finnish nature photographer. The picture is amazing, and gives the idea that a golden eagle is taking a fox away from a partially-eaten, snowbound carcass. However if you take a look at the whole sequence it seems the other way around, probably is the pretty bold (or hungry) fox that's trying to fight off the eagle from the carcass:


©Pekka Komi via tersiger.com

©Pekka Komi via tersiger.com

©Pekka Komi via tersiger.com

©Pekka Komi via tersiger.com

©Pekka Komi via tersiger.com