Meet JJ and Jake

Meet Jake -- a 14 year-old Chihuahua who is making his way to the World's Ugliest Dog Contest -- or at least trying! Adopted by JJ about four years ago, Jake survived many struggles, including a nine year stint as a stud dog at a puppy mill.

Read about Jake's adventures in a weekly blog written by JJ.

Come back soon for more blogs -- and find out if Jake makes it to the Competition!

Top 10 Secluded Beaches

Seeking out sun, surf, and sand is an easy enough task, but is it possible to stir seclusion into the mix, too? Our editors say “shore”!

We’ve dug deep into our arsenal of secret sands to present our top picks for secluded beaches around the globe, where quiet coasts invite in-the-know sunbathers to savor their relative solitude. Sure, some of these destinations are downright remote, and require off-the-path travel to far-flung locales in Thailand, Spain, and Down Under, but some of the most isolated shores are right under beachgoers’ noses, in popular stateside spots like Florida, California, and Hawaii. We’ve also included some secluded beaches in hotpots like the Caribbean, Brazil, and the Greek Isles for good measure. You’ll just have to plan a visit soon — while these semi-private sands remain undiscovered for the moment, the cat’s officially out of the bag.

Ao Phra Nang Beach, Thailand
Often cited as “Phuket 10 years ago,” the beach resorts surrounding the Thai port town of Krabi remain, for the time being, far less trodden than those of its famous island neighbor, some 100 miles to the west. Accessible only by long-tail boat from Krabi or from the more frequented beach resort of Ao Nang, the far-flung headland of Laem Phra Nang, or Railay (also called Rai Leh) Beach, is our preferred destination, thanks to its stunning surroundings of karst cliffs (making it popular with rock climbers), lush jungle and the warm waters of the emerald Andaman Sea. Here, four neighboring white-sand beaches unfold, of which Ao Phra Nang Beach is the most secluded with its snorkeling-friendly reefs, soft sands and singular luxury hotel. Visitors are free to relax in relative solitude, or to seek out adventure with a swim to “Happy Island,” just offshore, or by poking about in Tham Prah Nang Cave at the cliff’s base. Go now before it’s discovered by the masses.

Baía de Sancho, Brazil
Red-tinged sands and turquoise-trimmed shores define this pristine bay, which unfolds on the main and only inhabited island of Fernando de Noronha, an Atlantic archipelago off of Brazil’s northeastern coast. Protected as a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site and a national marine park, the ecological sanctuary of the beach and its environs can be explored in near solitude, thanks to strict restrictions on commercial development and controlled visitation. The few visitors that do access the isle are thinned out even further by the precarious approach to the remote Baía de Sancho, which entails climbing down a cliff face along a series of ladders (although the faint of heart can arrange to arrive by boat on snorkeling or diving excursions). The waters here thrive with an array of marine life, from live coral to manta rays and sea turtles to dolphins. Just be sure to pack provisions, as there’ll be no bars, peddlers, or the like on these isolated shores.

Bowman's Beach, Florida
The secret’s out about the beauty of Sanibel Island’s linen-white sand beaches — situated about 25 miles southwest of Fort Myers— so you won’t be alone in searching for a stretch of sand to call your own. But that’s just what you’ll get when you leave your car and make the quarter-mile walk to Bowman’s Beach, Sanibel’s most peaceful place. The island is well-known as one of the best shelling spots in the country, but you’ll find little competition here. There’s minimal development and ditto for amenities — though Bowman’s does have one perk not found on any other beach on Sanibel: barbecue grills. Enjoy the pristine sand at Casa Ybel Resort (www.casaybelresort.com) and slurp down briny oysters at The Lazy Flamingo (www.lazyflamingo.com), where staff let you bring a glass of wine to the beach to watch the sunset.

Beyond the forest veil

Little by little a rainforest island was persuaded to share some of its innermost secrets, revealing a richness and beauty worth waiting for.

Hidden treasures
A tropical rainforest is really good at hiding its treasures. I already knew this, as I had spent a year on Barro Colorado Island studying for a Masters degree. But when I returned to capture the essence of the forest on film, I was faced with a new set of challenges. Barro Colorado was once the top of a large hill in Central Panama. When the Chagres River was dammed during construction of the Panama Canal between 1911 and 1914, the hilltop was isolated, forming the largest island in the artificial water body now known as Lake Gatun. Covered with lush rainforest, the island has been studied and protected since the 1920s. Today, it is home to a modern research station run by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, which attracts scientists from around the globe and makes the island a Mecca for tropical ecology.

Stunning diversity
Within the forest live tens of thousands of different organisms, variations of life, each with its own individual qualities and role in the system. It is this stunning diversity, interwoven in a vivid and complex web, that makes the forest function as a whole. Most of this life happens secretly and quietly, hidden behind a thick, green curtain of vegetation or concealed by its miniature scale. My aim, working with tropical ecologist Egbert Leigh, was to lift this curtain for brief moments, to reveal the layers of the forest, to unravel its complex ecology and to convey its beauty.

In the dark

We decided to focus on certain animals and plants as ambassadors of the ecosystem, examples to represent the multitude of creatures playing a similar role. But the sheer number of species present made any particular one hard to track down, and even when I spotted what I was looking for, there were a thousand ways to miss the crucial moment. Only about 1 per cent of the light that hits the tree canopy ever reaches the ground, resulting in permanently low light levels, and the extreme climate - constant heat and moisture - was an ever-present threat to my camera equipment.

Waiting and watching
I spent 15 months in the forest, hours and days of waiting for the right animal or sufficient light, often in pouring rain. At times, I felt like giving up. But then there were single moments of magic, short windows in time and space when the forest was willing to share one of its secrets. Suddenly a bird would fly by, the sun would shine on just the right spot and I would grab one or two images before the forest closed in once again.

A quick look at the largest and smallest River

Longest River, the Nile and the Amazon can both be called the longest river in the world depending on how you define longest. With several mouths, the exact point at which the Amazon ends continues to be uncertain. Counting the Para's estuary (the most distant mouth), the Amazon's length is approximately 4,190 miles. Once officially recorded as having a length of 4,145 miles, the Nile has since lost a few miles due to the formation of Lake Nasser behind the Aswan High Dam.
Deepest Lake, is Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. The Olkhon Crevice, the deepest point of the lake, has a depth of 5,370 ft, of which 3,875 are below sea level.
Biggest Lake, is the Caspian Sea, an inland sea which covers parts of Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. It is 760 miles long, with a surface area of 143,560 miles and an estimated volume of 21,500 cubic miles.
Biggest Ocean Covering 32.6% of the Earth's surface or 64,186,300 miles, the Pacific Ocean is officially the world's biggest ocean.
Smallest Ocean, more than ten times smaller than the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, which has a surface area of 5,105,700 miles, is the world's smallest ocean.
Biggest Lake Shrinkage Due almost entirely to the extraction of water for irrigation purposes, the Aral Sea has shrunk the most in recent times having lost almost two-thirds of its original size. By 1994 (with 10,500 miles left compared to 26,300 miles in 1950) it had divided into two smaller bodies of water.

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Fruit development

A fruit is a ripened ovary. After the ovule in an ovary is fertilized in a process known as pollination, the ovary begins to ripen. The ovule develops into a seed and the ovary wall pericarp may become fleshy (as in berries or drupes), or form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In some cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower fall off. Fruit development continues until the seeds have matured. With some multiseeded fruits the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.
The wall of the fruit, developed from the ovary wall of the flower, is called the pericarp. The pericarp is often differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp (outer layer - also called epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower (such as the floral tube, including the petals, sepals, and stamens), fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. The plant hormone ethylene causes ripening. When such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms.
Fruits are so varied in form and development, that it is difficult to devise a classification scheme that includes all known fruits. Many common terms for seeds and fruit are incorrectly applied, a fact that complicates understanding of the terminology. Seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds. To these two basic definitions can be added the clarification that in botanical terminology, a nut is not a type of fruit and not another term for seed, on the contrary to common terminology.

Entering the Underwater Forest

Underwater Harvester represents the first true arrival of viable marine technology in underwater forests. Developed and manufactured by Triton, it is the world's only deep-water logging machine, combining proven elements from timber-harvesting and submarine vehicle technology on an innovative platform.
Deepwater Access The Sawfish™ not only navigates precisely by a remote pilot, it can operate to any depth. Alternative systems (grapples or divers) are limited to approximately 25 m, even though 80 percent of submerged timber resources are found at greater depths.
Economical and Efficient While alternative systems use the same mechanism to cut and retrieve trees, The Sawfish™ achieves significant efficiencies by de-coupling the cutting and surfacing processes, enabling it to perform multiple cuts without returning to the surface. And with no new roads to build and no fires or pests to control, Triton’s system becomes even more economical.
Safety Triton’s harvesting operation does not involve falling trees or working with heavy machinery in tight spaces or sloped terrain. And by removing hazardous trees from reservoirs, Triton creates safer environments for recreational and commercial use.
7000 lbs on land and slightly buoyant in water
Fully remote with 8 video cameras and sonar
Powered by a 75 HP electric motor, using biodegradable and vegetable oil-based hydraulic fluids
Feller grapple and 55-inch chainsaw
Handles larger trees than any land-based mechanical harvester due to water buoyancy
50 inflatable/reusable airbags to float trees to surface (one bag per tree)