At first glance, California’s Mono Lake seems eerily barren. Twisting limestone pinnacles, called tufa towers, line its shores, some reaching heights of over 30 feet. Tufa towers grow only underwater, but Los Angeles’ diversion of Mono Lake’s tributary streams beginning in 1941 exposed the gnarled formations. Mono Lake, which is at least 760,000 years old, has no outlet to the ocean, causing salt to accumulate and create harsh alkaline conditions. Yet, oddly enough, Mono Lake hosts a flourishing ecosystem based on tiny brine shrimp, which feed the more than 2 million migratory birds that nest there each year.

Like Mono Lake 1,000 miles south, British Columbia’s Spotted Lake is landlocked, resulting in salty, alkaline waters. Over the summer, much of the water dries, leaving behind a lava lamp pattern of mineral “spots” that can appear white, pale yellow, green, or blue, depending on their composition. These mini-islands consist mostly of magnesium sulfate, which crystallizes to form grayish walkways around and between the spots.

Years of erosion by vegetation and expanding ice carved Zhangjiajie National Park’s narrow, terraced sandstone pillars, some of which climb over 650 feet. The park’s steep cliffs and plunging gullies also make the perfect home for more than 100 vertebrate species, including scaly anteaters, giant salamanders, and sprightly rhesus monkeys. Meanwhile, the damp subtropical climate nourishes diverse, sometimes unusual, flora.

The smallest of Yellowstone’s geyser basins, Midway Geyser Basin (also dubbed “Hell’s Half Acre”) actually contains two of the park’s largest hydrothermal features: Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser, which dumps 4,000 gallons of water a minute into neighboring Firehole River. The spring’s psychedelic coloration comes from pigmented bacteria in the surrounding microbial mats.

Blood Falls’ grisly appearance comes from its iron-laden waters, which rust when they come in contact with the air, reddening the briny outflow as it trickles down Taylor Glacier onto ice-covered West Lake Bonney.

According to geological studies, the Giant’s Causeway first formed as a lava plateau when molten rock erupted through fissures in the earth. During a period of intense volcanic activity about 50 to 60 million years ago, differences in the lava cooling rate caused the columns to form, while further weathering created circular formations nicknamed “giant’s eyes.”

Measuring up to 400 feet tall, the hills are made of limestone containing marine fossils dating back millions of years. The verdant grass that usually covers the hills turns a milky brown come dry season, giving the more than 1,200 mounds their famously delectable appearance – ‘Chocolate Hills’.

Named after the Hawaiian word for “spewing,” the mythical home of the volcanic goddess Pele rises 4,190 feet from the southeastern part of the Big Island. One of the world’s most active and perilous volcanoes, Kilauea has been erupting for more than three decades, fitfully coughing basaltic lava into the Pacific Ocean below.

Spewing scalding water in all directions, the aptly named Fly Geyser sits about 10 miles from the site of Burning Man, the annual counterculture art festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. This geological curiosity was formed accidentally in 1916, when ranch owners drilled a well in the area. They hit water, all right—too bad it measured a piping 200 degrees. The drilling crew plugged the well, but the geothermal water seeped through, leaving behind calcium carbonate deposits that continue to accumulate, forming a 12-foot-high bulbous mound resembling a scoop of rainbow sherbet.

Lake Hillier sits like a giant punchbowl at the edge of Middle Island in Western Australia’s Recherche Archipelago, surrounded by a thick forest of paperbark and eucalyptus trees. A slender strip of shore separates Lake Hillier from the predictably blue Southern Ocean, highlighting the lake’s otherworldly appearance.

You can read more about them over here.

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“They dove beneath the waves, and helped to win massive global wars. But submarines can’t submerge forever. Eventually, these old warhorses get swept away by history. Here are some images of the most haunting dead submarines of all time.”

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 Plug in your Nexus 7. Open the folder view from your OS (i.e. in Windows, use Windows Explorer, in Mac use Finder), double click Internal Storage then again on Music. This is where you need to copy and paste all your music too. 

So go find your music. If you use iTunes you can drag and drop music from iTunes to your desktop or elsewhere. Drag your music into your Nexus 7 and in Windows select Yes. In Mac it just works…

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The Google Nexus 7 home screen is set in portrait mode, but you can rotate other screens by turning the screen rotation lock off. 

To do this, swipe down from the top of the screen to access notifications and then click on the icon that has the two arrows forming a circle.  If you see a padlock in the circle it means your screen is locked.  If you see an icon with a rectangle you can rotate your Nexus 7 screen – with the exception of the home screen.

Or you can pay for an App. Or try a free App – Rotation Locker

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If you have 6 tabs open just swipe the right side of the screen and Chrome changes between tabs.

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This is my guide to making your Facebook account secure. Well, as secure as it can be and still be nice and usable.

It’s pretty easy, just follow each of the steps right through to the end.

Anyone can do it – and it is free.

The whole guide is after the jump…

Don’t forget to visit Story A Week for some great free stories!

2012 Facebook Lockdown Guide

This document is written in a geeky version of business speak. You’ll just have to get over it, I don’t have time to rewrite this so that it is less nerdy. This guide is provided as is and is not connected to my employer in any way and neither I, nor they, hold liability. Nor is it connected to Facebook in in any way. Use entirely at your own risk – from http://www.creationrobot.com

This is a short guide on how to secure Facebook. It keeps Facebook usable but won’t allow anyone to view your private information, unless you friend them. It will also prevent people logging on from unauthorised devices even if your account was compromised through click-jacking or phishing.

Action, Check, Post

These are three steps to go through when using social media:

Within Facebook

Security

Log in > (Look to top right of screen, use down arrow) Account settings > Security
Disable Secure browsing if it is enabled (This is a required step or everything below fails. This gets enabled again later in the document.)

Account settings > Login notifications – enabled
Account settings > Login approvals – required
Account settings > Apps – remove ALL non-essential Apps by pressing X next to App name
Account settings > Mobile – make sure only your current phone is listed here
Account settings > Payments

• Remove any payment methods saved
• Check currency is CDN dollar

Account settings > Facebook Adverts

• Edit third party advert settings – no-one
• Edit social advert settings – no-one

Privacy

(Look to top right of screen, use down arrow) Account settings > Privacy Settings

Privacy settings > How you connect – These settings will allow you to be found by name, and let them contact you, but restrict anything further until they are ‘friends’:

• Who can look up your profile by name or contact info? – Everyone
• Who can send you friend requests? – Everyone
• Who can send you Facebook messages? – Everyone
• Who can post on your Wall/Timeline? – Friends
• Who can see Wall/Timeline posts by others on your profile? Note: Stories about Likes, friendships and some other types of wall content aren’t included in these settings.) – Friends

Privacy settings > How tags work >

• Profile review – On
• Tag review – On
• Maximum profile visibility – Friends
• Tag suggestions – Not yet available in Canada but in future – Off
• Friends can check you into places – Off

Privacy settings > Apps and websites >

• Apps you use – Already done earlier in this guide
• How people bring your info to apps they use – Untick all
• Instant Personalisation – Not yet available in Canada but in future – Off
• Public search – Make sure Enable public search is not ticked

Privacy settings > Limit the audience for past posts – Limit old posts This setting turns all your old public posts into ‘friends only’ posts. This only works on public posts you made in the past, not custom or more restricted posts.

Privacy settings > Blocked people and Apps >

• Add friends to your restricted list – Edit list This setting allows you to create a restricted list of friends you already have, the people in this list will only ever see your Public posts. They are not made aware of being placed on the restricted list.
• Block users – Block users, they are not informed of this action
• Block app invites
• Block event invitations
• Block apps – Makes sure an app can never access your details again.

Last step

Account settings > Security > Enable Secure browsing – save changes

Done!

Facebook’s ‘Opt in Security Features’ page (as of Apr 2012): https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=132501803490562

Don’t forget to visit Story A Week for some great free stories!

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Why?

If my harddrive fails, the files are easy and FREE for me to get back. If I have a house fire, or a break-in, same applies; I get my work back to me.

If you are not using cloud storage yet, why not? You really should.

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See here.

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“94% of Oscar voters are Caucasian and 77% are male. They have a median age of 62, with just 14% of voters under 50.”

So unless you are old, white and male, don’t bother with the Oscars any more. They no longer represent the society in which we live. The question then becomes, what was the last time they did reflect society?

Via

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OK, so maybe it is the wrong colour, but it is close, and it beats the TARDIS you made.

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So, how?

It’s easy. Log into Google, then go to this URL: https://www.google.com/

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• Facebook
• My new website

This new website is called Story a Week. Much like the title suggests, I write a new story each week for an entire year. It’s mostly Sci-Fi, Fantasy/Urban Fantasy with a few other genres thrown in – such as horror or erotica.

Please go take a look, it’s been running for six months already so it has quite a bit of content already!

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This is for two reasons, Aztus is cheaper and Canadian. As I now live in Canada all my services have been moving to Canada, CR is the last.

Sorry if this takes anything offline – it should only be brief.

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