This view of Earth, featuring North, Central and South America was taken by the NASA probe called Messenger, while conducting a fly-by of our planet in order to pick up a gravity-assist boost on its way toward Mercury. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Two days ago it was the 40th Earth Day and we've already spoken about it here.
To celebrate it, The Big Picture, in my opinion one one of the best photoblog of the web, have prepared a gallery of 40 images,

"each a glimpse into some aspect of the world around us, how it affects and sustains us, and how we affect it."

Just as I expected a half of them are strictly related to water and it's anything but a surprise given the key-role that H20 has in our planet...
Enjoy the pics, and check the original The Big Picture's gallery for all the others images.


This undated handout photo provided by the journal Science shows Iron oxides staining the snout of the Taylor Glacier, in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, forming a feature commonly referred to as Blood Falls. The iron originates from ancient subglacial brine that episodically discharges to the surface. Outflow collected at Blood Falls provides access to a unique subglacial ecosystem that harbors a microbial consortium which actively cycles iron, sulfur and carbon for growth. (AP Photo/ Science, Benjamin Urmston)


Local miner Cesar Abac uses a wooden bowl and mercury to pan for gold near at the village of Las Cristinas, southern Bolivar State, Venezuela on January 30, 2009. Four centuries after the lure of Venezuelan gold brought ruin to English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, the riches at one giant mine some say is cursed still haunt treasure hunters from across the globe. But the Las Cristinas saga, involving a ghost town, environmental devastation and fist-sized nuggets, underlines the risks of business in Venezuela, where the draw of natural wealth has been dulled by rule changes and economic turmoil. (REUTERS/Henry Romero)


This photo from 1997, released by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution shows the robotic arm of a three-person submersible aquatic vehicle reaching toward a hydrothermal vent in the east Pacific Ocean far off the coast of Chile. New technology and worldwide demand for metals have combined to make deep ocean mining of the mineral-laden liquid spewed from these vents a possibility. (AP Photo/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Pat Hickey)


A humpback whale raises its tail as it prepares for a deep dive in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of Oxnard, Calif. on Sunday afternoon, April 19, 2009. The offshore oil platform "Gail" is seen in the background. (AP Photo/The Santa Barbara News-Press, Mike Eliason)


Analyzing a variety of samples from the atmosphere above the Amazon, Ilan Koren and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, show in the journal Science that smoke and other so-called "aerosol" particles can encourage or discourage cloud formation, depending on the conditions, and a their new scientific model shows how these two processes produce a joint effect on climate. (Science/AAAS)



Snow-covered pine trees sit in flood water March 31, 2009 near Moorhead, Minnesota. A snowstorm had slowed recovery efforts as residents of Moorhead and neighboring Fargo, North Dakota returned to their homes as the Red River slowly receded. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)


A North Dakota Air National Guard helicopter carries six 1,000-pound sandbags to the edge of the Clausen Springs dam Wednesday, April 15, 2009, as an attempt was being made to control the erosion of the emergency spillway. (AP Photo/ The Forum, Dave Wallis )


An enormous iceberg, right, breaks off the Knox Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory on Jan. 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Torsten Blackwood, Pool


Minnows are deposited through a tube from a tanker truck into Lake Delton as area officials take the first steps in restocking the lake, Monday, April 20, 2009, in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. The minnows will serve as food for larger game fish to be stocked in June. A section of the manmade lake's shore washed away during thunderstorms last June, and the entire lake drained through the opening. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)


A Kenyan fisherman holds a fish that had escaped from his fishing net, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009 in the waters of Diani on the Kenyan south coast. Plastic fishing nets, some bought for poor fishermen with American aid money, are tangling up whales and turtles on Diani, one of Africa's most popular beaches. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)


A bird flies past dumped plastic bottles and other garbage on the bank of the river Sava in Belgrade, Serbia on April 22, 2009. (ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images)


Residents walk in debris after a dam burst in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, March 29, 2009. Attention shifted to caring for homeless and hungry survivors after the dam burst outside the Indonesian capital, sending a wall of water crashing into homes and killing at least 91 people, and leaving more than 100 others missing.(AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)


Lebanese workers use water pressure to clean-up the oil spill which polluted Rabbit Island, offshore the Nothern Lebanese city of Tripoli, on March 31, 2009. The oil spill was caused by the explosion of fuel reservoirs stationed in the southern coastal town of Jiyyeh during the Israeli offensive on Lebanon in July 2006. (Georges Haddad/AFP/Getty Images)


Tropical Cyclone Billy, off the coast of Western Australia on December 25, 2008. (NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center)


Dead carp are seen in the "Las Tres Pascualas" lagoon in Concepcion city, some 322 miles (519 km) south of Santiago, Chile on March 30, 2009. Environmentalists say a clandestine dumping of sewage in the lagoon led to the waters being polluted and caused the high rate of fish mortality, local authorities said. Picture taken March 30, 2009. (REUTERS/Jose Luis Saavedra)


Russian Emergency Ministry staff watch a blast ripping through the ice covering the Kan river in the town of Kansk some 220 km (136.7 miles) from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk April 4, 2009. Explosive experts used dynamite to break the ice cover to ease pressure that could cause floods as melting snow increases the river's water volume. (REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin)


Rescuers work to keep alive one of the 17 long-finned pilot whales that were being battered by rough seas after they were beached in Hamelin Bay, Western Australia on Monday, March 23, 2009. About 80 whales and dolphins were stranded on the remote southwest Australian beach where authorities tried to truck the few survivors to a protected bay before attempting to launch them back to sea. (AP Photo/Steve Mitchell)


Elang, an Indonesian student, swims in foamy, polluted waters after school, at the Pluit Dam in Jakarta, Indonesia on April 20, 2009. (REUTERS/Beawiharta)

©Joakim Berglund

Look at this picture.
Take a few seconds.. realize what it is... isn't it one of the most amazing picture you've ever seen???

This is the story:
Between 8 and 9 January 2005 a devastating hurricane, at least by European standards, called "Gudrun", hit northern Europe. In Sweden, at least 15 people have been killed as a direct consequence of the hurricane. Severe damage struck the forests and parts of the infrastructure, where a conservative estimation gives that at least 40 million cubic meters of timber was destroyed, which equals more than five years of normal harvest.
The picture above is an aerial view of a stricken part of the forest after logging trucks have collected the felled trees. The pattern has been created by the traces of the trucks in the ground full of pine-needles of the destroyed conifer forest. Amazingly, seen from above it is a tree itself!!!!!!
Joakim "Jocke" Berglund, who took this photograph from a Cessna aircraft, described it this way:

"It's as if the heavens had sent a message to the forest industry reminding them that, in this area, deciduous trees would have withstood the winds much better than pine."

I'm amazed... and you?


This picture has reminded me another one:

©Carolyn Ruth Newman

Here there are no messages from the heaven.. just the incredible patience of someone who stucked logs to create a pile of wood that resemble a tree!
Artistic temperament could be hidden even in the roughest woodman!

Today, 22nd April, is the Earth Day. And if you are a little bit confused you're right because there are two different traditions and practically there are two Earth Day celebrations each year:
22 April is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year.
20 March, during the spring equinox is the day chosen by The United Nations to celebrate an Earth Day each year, a tradition which was founded by peace activist John McConnell in 1969.
So we have two Earth Days... and recently we've had also an Earth Hour (the global event organized by WWF, held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change), but as far as I'm concerned we should celebrate an Earth Day each and every day of the year

However if today is a day to consider about our planet and you need a little bit of inspiration just visit the ENVIRONMENT section of this blog: you'll find lots of suggestions...

©BPlan/Stefano Gattini

During the last few days there has been no update on the blog because I was with Carlo Borlenghi and Stefano Gattini taking pictures for the first stage of the Audi Melges 32 Sailing Series in Malcesine, Italy, on the wonderful coasts of Garda Lake.
Melges 32 is definetely an exciting class and in this year's edition with 21 identical boats at the start the spectacle is guaranteed. Enjoy the pics and if it's not enough for you, you can also take a look to last year's edition


©BPlan/Guido Trombetta

©BPlan/Guido Trombetta

©BPlan/Carlo Borlenghi

©BPlan/Carlo Borlenghi

©BPlan/Stefano Gattini

©BPlan/Carlo Borlenghi

©BPlan/Carlo Borlenghi

©BPlan/Stefano Gattini

©BPlan/Stefano Gattini

©BPlan/Guido Trombetta

©BPlan/Stefano Gattini

©BPlan/Carlo Borlenghi

©Bruno Cocozza/Alinghi

If you've been in the neighbourhoods of Geneva Lake in Switzerland last thursday you could have seen something quite strange.. two catamarans flying!
It's not a new incredibly technological sailing device and no UFO is involved.
It was just the launch of two new Decision 35 catamarans: Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi and Ladycat, the female team of his sister Dona Bertarelli.


©Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi

©Bruno Cocozza/Alinghi

©Bruno Cocozza/Alinghi

©Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi

©Bruno Cocozza/Alinghi

The terrible moment when the bear attacked the woman

Nobody still knows the reasons why a woman jumped into polar bears enclosure at the Berlin zoo after having climbed down a fence, over a wide hedge full of thorns and got past a concrete wall.
Berlin Zoo's polar bear enclosure has became very famous in Germany mainly due to Knut, a cub that was hand-raised by a keeper and quickly became a star for german kids.
Knut is now an adult bear but the one that attacked the woman is an elder one.



What it's sure is that swimming towards a polar bear during feeding time is probably one of the most stupid thing a human being can do in his life...
Infact the 32-year-old woman has been immediately attacked by one of the four fully grown polar bears in the enclosure.



The bear kept on biting woman's pullover after she was rescued

Despite the efforts of six zookeepers to distract the four predators the bear bit the woman several times on her arms, legs and back before she could have been rescued.


The terrifying sequence of the desperate rescue attempts

The woman, who has not been identified, was taken to Berlin's Charite hospital for treatment, and after undergoing surgery to heal her wounds is now recovering.

Look at the video of the attack and the rescue:

I've already spoken about Carl Warner and his fabulous "Foodscapes", landscapes realized exclusively with food, in a previous post that I reccomend you to take a look at if you've never heard about it, you'll be amazed.

In the meanwhile Carl Warner have keep creating new amazing foodscapes like the following one that is certainly quite related to this blog!


©Carl Warner

The author have precised that only sustainable fish were used to create this sea-food-scape. Well done!
I'm particularly impressed by the sea itself, realized with fish, it's very realistic.
Enjoy yourself trying to spot and recognize all the "ingredients". I'm sure there are oysters, scallops and crabs in the foreground, mackerel and herrings for the sea itself, and pollock and sprats for the banks. Thyme stands in for trees, while the boat is a marrow. The best little detail? the olives as fender tyres on the side of the fishing boats!

Eric Gay/ AP

Allison is a Green Sea Turtle that has been swimming round in circles for most of her short life, (5 years with a life-expectancy of 150) because a shark attack left her with just one of its four flippers.


Eric Gay/ AP

Normally one flippered turtles are usually put down because they could just swim in circles and also would struggle to reach the surface for air. But when Allison unexpectedly recover from its really severe injuries, the staff of the Sea Turtle Inc., a Texas rescue centre to rehabilitate injured sea turtles decided to do anything to improve its quality of life.


Eric Gay/ AP

So scientists designed a special black neoprene suit with a carbon-fibre attachment to allow her to glide gracefully along with other turtles.


Eric Gay/ AP

The prosthetic fin mounted on the top side of the suit finally allow Allison to swim in the desired direction.


Eric Gay/ AP