Letter to the Tenant (no mistake, it’s for you), Read, it takes only 2 minutes or so.
Mr tenant, I inform you that the lease we made thousands of years ago is about to expire.It needs to be renewed, but we have to review some fundamental points:1 – You need to pay the energy bill. It’s too high! How do you spend so much?2 – Before I’ve given you plenty of water, today I no longer have that amount. We need to renegotiate your use.3 – Why are there people at home eating enough and others who are starving if the field is so big? If you take good care of the land, there will be food for everyone!4 – You cut trees that gave shade, air and balance. The sun is very hot and the heat has increased. Think about starting to plant them again!5 – All animals and plants in my huge garden must be cared for and preserved I looked for some animals and didn’t find them. When I leased you the house they existed…6 – I did not see the fish that lived in rivers and lakes. Did you catch them all? NOT?! So where are they?7 – What strange colors are these that I see in the sky?! I don’t see blue!8 – Speaking now of garbage, what is this dirt, hey??? I found strange objects along the way! Tires, plastics… what is this?Well, it’s time to talk. I need to know if you want to continue living here. If so, what do you want to do to fulfill the contract? I wish you were always with me but everything has a limit.Do you want to stop and think? I await your answers and attitudes….SINCERELY: Your house, Earth
From the PowerPoint presentation “Carta al inquilino” by Pequeñas Semillitas
The blue hour is the period between day and night, when the sky is filled with a darker blue than daytime blue due to “Rayleigh scattering”.The blue hour in Bruges (Belgium)Bergen, Norway
Summer is a good time to take advantage of the blue time. This waiting time when day passes into night and the sky takes on a particular tone that allows you to see the shadows invading the Earth…
Prague, Czech RepublicTokyo station at the blue hour, JapanLas Vegas, United States of AmericaIt is in the first moments of the “blue hour” that the birds start to sing.Boston, Massachusetts, United States of AmericaVenice, Italy
It’s the time of the “blue hour” that I prefer, when everything becomes prettier, smoother and brighter. It’s like a dream veil…
Haarlem, NetherlandsHallstatt – AustriaBlue Hour at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
The sun is setting, but night has not yet fallen… It’s like time is suspended, in complete harmony with the World and the light… …
Rome, ItalyPont Megyeri, Budapest, Hungary
With the tops of the mountains touching the sky in this enigmatic blue hour, all things get confused and the time seems to have gone wrong, being enveloped in a scenario of perfect tones announcing the darkness to come…
Ho-Chi-Minh, VietnamBlue Hour in Mithimna Molivos, GreeceBlue Time at Paris, France
In the morning, the blue hour precedes dawn and at night, twilight follows, marked by its pink tones. For photographers, this is a moment of unique magic!!!
Berlin, GermanyChateau Frontenac, Quebec, Canada
The blue hour is the time of day when the sky glows dark, a deep blue, almost electric. It happens twice a day: in the morning before sunrise and in the afternoon after the sun goes down.
Budapest, HungaryBlue Time on the London Eye, United KingdomLa Malbaie, Quebec, CanadaThe blue time in Summer is the best time to feel the scents of flowers!!!Pont Couverts, StrasbourgThe blue hour in the passage from day to night is a very short transitional moment, but very beautiful. It’s like a state of grace.Paysages à l’heure bleu
Looks like a Teletubbie?It looks like a man’s face. We can clearly see the eyes, nose, mouth and beard …Does this seem to you a prehistoric giant?Iceberg … looks like a horse trying to get out of the water – Awesome!Did anyone have the ability to carve this by hand? FANTASTIC.Cat … Amazing!Crab Island!Astronomical … the face is clearly visible. That seems like a person thinking…Looks like a woman reclined, with one leg bent…Another woman reclined, looking at the sea?Hmmm, how strange! – Is it an Alien or something?Is it true that it looks like a human face?
This is one of the precious photographs that any tourist can take, on a bright day, of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, in Peru.
Yes. However, the effect is surprising if we rotate the photo 90º. The striking resemblance of the mountain mass to a gigantic human face, adorned with Indian costumes; its formation was hardly made with human hands. Then, in the publication of this photo, the members of the international scientific community concluded the theory about its origin from an alleged extraterrestrial civilization.A human faceThe resemblance between this island and a puzzle piece is tremendous.Is the great similarity between the photo and a dolphin casual?It’s curious, isn’t it?In 1986, on the island of Faial in the Azores, a gigantic storm occurred. In Horta Bay (mythical port), waves of 15 to 20 meters reached the coast. A photographer takes a series of photos to immortalize them. Two years later he realized that he photographed Neptune’s face. The photo cross the World (the cliff on the image is about 70 meters high).How about this elephant?And these rocks praying to heaven.Beware for the crocodile!!!!!A fish coming out of the sea.A camel leaning on the Grand Canyon, Colorado.A giant hare drinking sea water.
It was worth seeing … Wasnt’ it?
Taken by the PowerPoint translated by Tadeusz Roman from Spanish.
You don’t have to leave your planet to feel like you’re in some other remote world. See a list of 10 places, here on Earth, where the feeling of being on another planet is guaranteed.
10. The Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves, Austria
Ice caves are very different from normal caves. When we are inside it, it seems that we are not on Earth, but in the bowels of some remote planet. There are many ice caves around the world and the Eisriesenwelt are the best known. They extend for 40km. Only a portion of this labyrinth is open to tourists, but it is enough to feel the climate and the mystery that surrounds the place.
9. Dry Valleys, Antarctica
Seals who wander, lost, into the Dry Valleys of the Transantarctic Mountains, die from lack of food and water. Their carcasses can exist for centuries due to the dry climate.
The Dry Valleys of Antarctica, according to scientists, is the area on Earth most similar to what would be a Mars landscape. The region hardly ever has snow and, except for some rocky plains, it is the only continental part of Antarctica that is not ice. The valley floor features some lakes permanently frozen, several meters thick and, under that ice, live some organisms extremely simple, which are objects of study.
8. Socotra Island, Indian Ocean
This island simply dispenses with any notion of what is considered “normal” for a terrestrial landscape. If you woke up there, you would probably think you are on another planet, or at least some remote era. Socotra is part of an archipelago that was geographically isolated from Africa 6 or 7 million years ago. As in the Galapagos Islands, it has about 700 rare and very different species. The climate is arid, and yet there are incredible specimens of plants – some species have not changed in the last 20 million years.
7. Rio Tinto, Spain
Rio Tinto’s giant open pit mines create a surreal environment, transforming the landscape into something similar to what we would see on the Moon, for example. The growth of the river not only consumed mountains and valleys, but village lands. The river had its name taken from the color of its waters, practically red and extremely acid (with pH ranging between 1.7 and 2.5), rich in metals.
6. Kliluk, Lake Stained, Canada
In the hot summer sun, the water of Lake Manchado evaporates and the minerals contained in it are crystallized. This causes the formation of several circles with white edges: shallow pools, which reflect the mineral content of water in shades of green and blue. This water contains one of the highest concentrations of minerals in the world: sulfate magnesium, calcium and sodium sulfate, plus traces of other minerals, such as titanium and silver. Canadian Indians bathed in these waters and in the mud of the lake to heal wounds.
5. Uyuni Salt Lake, Bolivia
The Uyuni Salt Lake is perhaps one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world. A magnificent area with an impressive salt desert (the largest in the world), active volcanoes and geysers – like an alien mirage, completely out of reality.
4. Vale da Lua, Brazil
The Brazilian representative of “alien” landscapes is Vale da Lua, in Brazil. It is a rock formation, sculpted by water erosion, full of natural pools. It is located 38 km from Alto Paraíso, in Goiás. Its rock formations are one of the oldest on the planet, made of quartz and other crystals.
3. Hot Blood Stream, Japan
Chinoike Jigoku
or Blood pond hell in Beppu, Oita, Japan. Chinoike Jigoku features a pond of hot, red water and a large souvenir shop. It is one of the more photogenic of the eight hells.
The Hot Blood Stream is one of the “hells” (jigoku) of Beppu, Japan. Nine spectacular hot springs that are more “to see” than to shower. The landscape includes a lake of red and hot water, colored by the iron present in the liquid. Hot Blood was elected the most photogenic of the “hells”.
2. The Stone Forest, China
Shilin (in Mandarin, Stone Forest) is formed of smooth stones, surrounded by water that covers the floor. Water erodes everything but the pillars. The Stone Forest has been known since the Ming Dynasty as the First Wonder of the World.
The Richat Structure, Mauritania
This spectacular formation in Mauritania is located in the southwestern part of the Sahara desert. It is so large that it is visible from space, with a diameter of 30 miles. Previously, it was thought that the formation was caused by the impact of a meteorite that had fallen on the region, but now it has been concluded that it is the result of erosion. The exact cause of its circular shape is still a mystery.
To reflect: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good men do nothing”. (Edmund Burke)
To your knowledge…At 12th position is Chongqing (China), with 15,872,179 inhabitants.The 11th is Karachi, Pakistan, reaching 16,093,786 inhabitants.In 10th place is Osaka (Japan), with 19,165,340 inhabitants.9th is Mumbai (India) with 20,411,274 inhabitants.The 8th is Beijing (China) with 20,462,610 inhabitants. China today has about 1 billion and 400 million inhabitants, almost the same population that had all the world, at the end of the XIXth century.The 7th is Cairo (Egypt) with 20,900,604 inhabitants.The 6th is Dhaka (Bangladesh) with 21,005,860 population.The 5th is Mexico City with 21,782,378 inhabitants in the metropolitan area (on its way to have the same number of inhabitants as the entire Mexican Republic by the 1950’s).The 4th is São Paulo (Brazil) with 22,043,028 inhabitants. A city that grows at giant steps.The third is Shanghai (China) with 27,058,480 inhabitants.The 2nd is Delhi (India) with 30,290,936 inhabitants (India has an estimated population of 1 billion and 300 million inhabitants).And in 1st place, the undisputed champion, is Tokyo, Japan with 37,393,128 inhabitants. A real population explosion!We will now make some important observations: – No European city appears on the list. Moscow is the most populated European city (12.5 million) and ranks at 23rd. – China has three cities with many million inhabitants: Shanghai, Beijing and Chongqing. The three together exceed 63 million inhabitants.
Now let’s look at some aspects of the conditions in which people live in large cities, especially in Asia …
Thousands of families live here … Transport and housing units make people feel… compressed, huddled, squeezed in small spaces.Multifamily buildings resemble huge anthills.A beach saturated with bathers…HOW HORRIBLE!!!! Look at this saturated highway and sincerely say if it isn’t much better to live in smaller cities. A city, for it to be “livable”, should not have more than 500 thousand inhabitants …The Earth has space and natural resources to give healthy lives to 6 billion human beings. Today we are already 8 billion. And, at the current rate of growth, we will be 10 billion in 2050. There is not enough space or natural resources for all of this! Something has to be done urgently to curb and reduce population growth of human beings on Earth.
Based on the PowerPoint made by Irene Aguir, that can be found here. These are the 2020 top 12 population countries.
Curious WorldMore than half of the United States coasts are in Alaska.The Amazon Forest supplies more than 20% oxygen to the Earth.The Amazon River releases so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than 160 km from its mouth, fresh water can be found.The volume of water in the Amazon River is greater than that of the eight rivers that follow it in size together, and three times greater than that of all the rivers of the United States together.Antarctica is the only part of our planet that does not belong to any country. 90% of the planet’s ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents 60% of all fresh water in the World.Although 99.6% of its surface is covered with ice, Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute lower humidity than that of the Gobi Desert.Brazil got its name from the nut that exists there, not the other way around.Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world. Canada is an indigenous word that means “big town”.After Warsaw, Chicago has the largest number of Polish in the world.Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, was the world’s first paved road.Damascus is the oldest city in the world and was already a thriving city two thousand years before the founding of Rome in 753 BC.Istanbul is the only city in the world built on two continents.The full name of Los Angeles is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Ángeles de la Porciúncula” and is generally abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: “LA”.The term “Big Apple” was used by musicians who played jazz in the 1930s. They used the word “Apple” to refer to any city or town in which they played.There are no natural lakes in the State of Ohio, they are all man-made.There are more Irish people in New York than in Dublin, more Italians than in Rome and more Jews than in Tel Aviv.The smallest island that has the status of an independent country is Pitcairn, in Polynesia, with only 4.53 km2 of surface.The first city to reach a population of one million was Rome, in 133 B.C. There is at least one city with the name of Rome on each continent.Siberia contains more than 25% of the world’s forests.The smallest sovereign entity in the world is the “Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta” (S.M.O.M), better known as The Order of Malta. It is located in the city of Rome, has a surface of two tennis courts and a population of 80 people.In the Sahara desert there is a village called Tidikelt, in Algeria, which has not received a drop of rain in 10 years.The name of Spain literally means “land of rabbits”.Colombia has the highest coastal mountain in the world, at 5,770m above sea level. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.The probability of finding an unpaved road in the United States is 1%. In Canada it is 0.75%.The biggest man-made hole is the “Kola Superdeep Borehole” in Russia. It has a depth of 12 km and was drilled for scientific investigations, in which an immense hydrogen deposit was discovered.The interstate system “Eisenhower”, in the USA, requires that one in every five miles of road be straight. The purpose is that, in times of war and other emergencies, interstate highways can serve as airstrips.The Salto do Anjo in Venezuela, is the highest waterfall in the world, having a height of 979 m, 15 times higher than that of Niagara.“Å” means “river” in 3 Scandinavian languages. There are 7 villages in Norway and one in Sweden with this name.Hulunbuir, with 263,935 km2, is the largest municipality in the world. It is a province in Inner Mongolia, China, ruled by a councilor.San Marino, founded in the year 301, is the oldest constitutional republic in the world.The end
“In the middle of the Algarve (near Loulé), a rock salt mine makes a trip to the depths of the Earth to visit the “Sea of Tethys” …
The site that is both a wonder of nature and human technique. It is a rock salt mine.
The adventure begins on the surface and requires proper care and safety equipment.
The journey into the mine begins at the “cage,” a tower-mounted elevator that was built on top of one of the mine’s access pits.
Then, to the depths of the Earth, it takes four minutes.
Four minutes of darkness, only broken by the beams of the mining lanterns.
When the elevator finally stops, we are 230 meters deep. This is a descent made almost daily by Alexandre Andrade, technical director of the mine, who is perennial in ensuring that there is no safer and milder place.
The conditions are very stable inside this salt mine: the temperature remains at 23 degrees and the humidity is scarce.
But this is not just any mine, it is a unique geological monument that tells us the story of this place on Earth over the last 230 million years.
It is a place where you work hard and hard, with the passion of selfless miners.
But it is also a unique place in the country, where the history of the planet is engraved in the rocks.
It is therefore a must-visit place for all those interested in science.
When the hike begins, surprises lurk around every corner. Or rather, in each gallery.
Because everything here is rock salt: the floor, the walls, the ceiling.
Pink, compact and hard salt.
The other surprise is the size of the open corridors in the rock, which is over four meters high and about ten meters wide.
And since rock salt mining began here, nearly 40 kilometers of galleries have opened.
In front of the mine, where everything happens, the safety of the miners and the facility comes first.
The use of civilian explosives has been banned and, on the exploration front, salt dismantling is done by a brushcutter, which makes mining work very safe.
Until a few decades ago, all this salt went to the chemical industry that used it as a raw material for chlorine production.
Currently, its use is quite different.
The salt extracted from this mine is used for road safety, promoting the thawing of roads and animal feed as an additive to rations.
But in this immensity of galleries, there is room for other activities.
CUF knows that a mine like this is not only of interest to the industry.
It can – and should – be open to the community, which is why, each year, the Loulé rock salt mine is part of the “National Summer Geology Program” promoted by “Ciência Viva”.
Visitors are always welcomed by the technical director of the mine, who is keen to share his knowledge, satisfying the eager knowledge of the curious.
It is over a long journey of three hours that visitors learn that this saline dome was formed over a period of 230 to 150 million years.
And that, before that, this whole area was sea.
The continent was much further back, and there was a string of coastal lagoons set in a shallow embryonic sea – the Tethys Sea.
With the Earth’s natural movements, the whole landscape changed and this sea gave rise to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
And the salt has been trapped under newer rock layers of limestone and sandstone.
Explanations aside, these miners’ daily lives are filled with salt extraction.
That is their mission.
Their life.
The salt, once disassembled and collected by the brushcutter, goes by truck for sieving and grinding.
It is the only transformation this raw material undergoes here.
The final granulation will depend on the intended purpose.
Only then is it loaded and sent to the surface.
Every year in this mine there is the capacity to extract up to one hundred thousand tons of salt.
At present this is not the value reached.
But at this rate, this saline dome beneath the city of Loulé still has salt for the next three thousand years of industrial exploration …”
(This was an email that I received from a friend and I just translated it. I tried to find the original source, but with no luck. So, if you own the rights to this amazing article, make sure everyone knows it. Best regards, ZT)
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