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The beautiful TAAL LAKE CRATER

The breathtaking scenery at Taal Lake, on the Philippine island of Luzon, makes it one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Located just thirty miles from Manila, Taal is the Philippines’ equivalent to Oregon’s famous Crater Lake, because it fills the caldera of a massive prehistoric volcano. But its geologic history is even more bizarre than that of its Oregonian cousin. Unlike Crater Lake, Taal Lake was once part of the ocean—it was an arm of Balayan Bay, which opens to the South China Sea. It’s not unheard of for bays to become lakes. After the last Ice Age, for example, it took centuries for the earth to rebound to its pre-glacier elevations in many places. Even Lake Ontario was part of the Atlantic Ocean for a while. But Taal Lake was part of the ocean just a few hundred years ago! During the 18th century, a series of eruptions filled in the entrance to the inlet, isolating it from the ocean except for one narrow river. Rainfall over the past three hundred y

Top Story: Ben Affleck’s ARGO in the Blast Furnace of Benghazi

November 4th, 1979. As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA exfiltration specialist concocts a risky plan to free six American hostages. Ben Affleck and Bryan Cranston in “Argo” [Photo: Warner Bros.] SOMETIMES A FILM meets with an event in history and the fusing becomes a moment meant to teach. Ben Affleck’s spectacularly entertaining ARGO is that film, coming in the aftermath of the Benghazi terrorist attack. The suspense collides with darkly hilarious moments helping you survive the drama on a sled of emotions, the larger plot some of us remember all too well. The Oscar buzz is worthy, especially for Affleck, as is the 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But like all important films it excavates history on the wings of great entertainment. It wasn’t anticipated that Affleck’s film would land in the middle of the furor over a terrorist attack on another 9/11 in a country we are trying to help begin anew. Such is the sweet nod of serendipity to artistic br

Night time in St Barts

It is slowly picking up here, meaning that it is the end of the (s)low season, places are opening up again and more and more people are coming back to the island. We enjoyed a great meal by the harbour last night and discussed some plans for the following weeks and months of sailing towards South America, further out into the Pacific ocean and French Polynesia and eventually onto South East Asia. Things look brighter than ever before and with the newly refitted boat, many fabulous projects on the horizon and more energy and excitement than in a long while, we have a lot to look forward to in the nearest future.

Rain in paradise

If only the weather was like this also this weekend as we're finalizing our week long film project, instead tropical storm Rafael has brought thunder storms, rain and heavy grey skies to our region and there's nothing else to do than sit inside, listening to the aggressive rain drops hammering on deck, drinking tea, eating tartelettes au citron and organizing the material that we have on hand. Hoping for the sun to reappear shortly but seems as we will need to wait at least 48 hours for that wish to come true. Our stay here in St Barts got a bit prolonged which has been very pleasant, and we shall be sailing Southwards later this upcoming week. If all goes as planned, we will be celebrating our three year anniversary as well as our two year anniversary for this World Tour on the beautiful private island of Mustique in the end of the month.

Stormy night / Life on a boat

Compared to living on land where you are dry and safe from storms and torrential downpours, a life on a boat is a little different. For example, it's always a chore to drive back to your home (boat) during heavy weather. Our dinghy, as well as most other dinghies worldwide, has no roof like a car does so you'll always get wet and battered when moving between boat and land during rainfall. If there's a storm expected, like tonight, you'd need to take a few safety precautions to not put your home and yourself in too much danger when the worst of the storm passes by. A house stands for most of the time safely on the ground and we all rely upon it to shield us from any type of weather, whereas a boat is either tied up to a dock, hooked to the bottom of the sea with an anchor or two or tied to one or a couple of mooring buoys with a few lines. I believe it goes without saying that neither of these options, on the ever so changing sea, can ever be as safe as that house w

The World and Nuclear Fission

Purely as a physical phenomenon nuclear fission offers ample scope for intellectual problem-solving. If it implied nothing further it could be left to those specialists who might find satisfaction in its intellectual challenge; the rest of us could busy ourselves with other more pressing concerns. Unfortunately, nuclear fission - as everyone knows - implies much more than abstruse mathematical argument and donnish hairsplitting. Almost from the time it was first recognized, in 1938, nuclear fission has implied not merely articles in learned journals but major decisions of public policy. The social, economic and political context of nuclear fission has been from the beginning an essential factor in its development; in turn, it has exerted an extraordinary range of social, economic and political influence. To foresee with any clarity the shape of the nuclear future, a historical perspective is imperative. It is necessary to know not only how nuclear fission occurs, but also