Geographical articles from June 2004

Geographical archives from June 2004

Don't dismiss film just yet.(From The Editor)(Editorial)
June 1, 2004... >From time to time, I receive letters from Geographical readers asking me which is better when it comes to photography--the rapidly maturing digital technology or traditional film. At this point, let me declare an interest and say that I...

Inflatable idea.(Prize Letter)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... Clive Tully's useful article Equipped for Endeavour (March 2003) omits an item of equipment that has surely engendered endeavour. In 1968, John Blashford-Snell and his colleagues, working with the Avon Rubber Company, developed special...

That's no horse.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... I was gratified to find a mention of our cave art discoveries at Creswell Crags in your March issue (Worldwatch), but would like to point out that the photograph shows a left-facing ibex figure, not a horse as claimed in the caption. In...

Borneo under threat.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... I've recently read several stories about the threat of extinction to the orangutan (Worldwatch, April 2004). Having been privileged to see these apes in the wild, I would be appalled if the human race allowed this to happen. It appears...

Brussels sprouts.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... I can't help agreeing with Sir Chris Bonington that the application of new Brussels-inspired safety regulations for outdoor workers to those in the outdoor sports industry is wrong (Daily Telegraph, 26 March 2004). While it's essential that...

K2 already discovered.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... I am grateful to Geographical for highlighting the late, great geographer Dr John Auden (Worldwatch, March 2004). I only knew he was the brother of WH Auden, who dedicated to him his play The Ascent of F6. In the article, however, it is...

Stop the carnage.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2004... I read your short article on barn owl deaths on our roads (Worldwatch, March 2004) and was heartened to learn that higher hedges are being considered in order to force them to fly above the height of the traffic. How, I wonder, could the...

Lost in the post.
June 1, 2004... Unusually among tortoises, this African species often enters water and is a strong swimmer. It's found in moist forests, often in marshes and on river banks in this stamp's country of origin. Gaining its independence from France in 1960 and...

Barcelona will host the UNEP World Environment Day 2004 this month.(Spain)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... SPAIN Barcelona will host the UNEP World Environment Day 2004 this month. The theme of this year's event is the world's oceans.

European fisheries ministers have banned deepwater trawling off Scotland's northwest coast in order to protect the unique cold-water coral reefs discovered there in 1998.(Scotland)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... European fisheries ministers have banned deepwater trawling off Scotland's northwest coast in order to protect the unique cold-water coral reefs discovered there in 1998. The ban is time final delivery on a promise of protection made by the HK...

The first English-language educational website about the Arabian peninsula has been launched to develop a better understanding of the region.(Saudi Arabia)(www Exploresaudiarabia.com by Mark Evans)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The first English-language educational website about the Arabian peninsula has been launched to develop a better understanding or the region. The interactive website, which supplements the UK schools curriculum, is the brainchild of previous...

Scottish fishermen trawling for mackerel off Ireland's southwest coast recently caught a three-metre tuna that weighed more than 550kg, the largest ever caught in the British Isles.(UK)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Scottish fishermen trawling for mackerel off Ireland's southwest coast recently caught a three-metre tuna that weighed more than 550kg, the largest ever caught in the British Isles. It was sold for 2,000 [pounds sterling] at Billingsgate Fish...

Temples look to the stars.(Worldwatch)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... MINORCA Bronze Age sanctuaries on the Spanish island of Minorca could have been built in relation to early constellations, according to Dr Michael Hoskin, a historian of astronomy at Cambridge University The sanctuaries, known as taulas, have...

Growing for gold.(Worldwatch)(Chris Anderson's use of old gold mines for sustainable agriculture)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... CHILE He can't quite make money grow on trees, but a New Zealand scientist has devised a way to harvest gold from plants, Chris Anderson, an environmental geologist from Massey University, is using biotechnology to extract gold, mercury and...

New fake reef.(Worldwatch)(HMS Scylla sunk to be artificial reef)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... UK A decommissioned Royal Navy warship has been sunk off Plymouth to create Europe's first artificial reef. The frigate HMS Scylla took just three minutes to sink as she was scuttled by 50 packs of explosives. The project, funded by the...

Sixth mass extinction on its way.(Worldwatch)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... UK British scientists have produced the best evidence yet that our planet is experiencing a mass extinction. Two separate studies of British wildlife have highlighted concerns held by scientists for more than ten years. The first study,...

Carbon dioxide changes rainforests.(Worldwatch)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... AMAZON A 20-year study of nearly 14,000 trees in the Amazon has shown that pristine rainforests have changed dramatically due to the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Research carried out by scientists from the Smithsonian...

Seventeen Ayoreo--Totobiegosode Indians from the last uncontacted indigenous group in South America outside the Amazon Basin have emerged.(Paraguay)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Seventeen Ayoreo--Tutobiegosode Indians from the last uncontacted indigenous group in South America outside the Amazon Basin have emerged from Paraguayan rainforest due to pressure from deforestation. The five men, seven women and five...

Top 10 countries with the most threatened species.(Worldwatch)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... TOP COUNTRIES WITH THE MOST 10 THREATENED SPECIES 1 Ecuador 1,140 2 USA 1,099 3 Malaysia 828 4 Indonesia 794 5 Brazil...

A Ghanaian lawyer fighting a World Bank-funded water-privatisation initiative is one of seven winners of this year's Goldman Environment Prize.(Ghana)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... A Ghanaian lawyer fighting a World Bank-funded water-privatisation initiative is one of seven winners of this year's Goldman Environment Prize. Rudolf Amenga-Etego has been campaigning to halt the scheme and has become a hero in his...

A coalition of more than 140 NGOs from 55 countries, including WSPA, RSPCA and Care for the Wild, is lobbying the International Whaling Commission to bring the issue of cruelty in whaling to the fore at its annual conference in Italy next month.(Global)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... A coalition of more than 140 NGOs from 55 countries, including WSPA, RSPCA and Care for the Wild, is lobbying the International Whaling Commission to bring the issue of cruelty in whaling to the fore at its annual conference in Italy next...

Edward Whymper (1840-1911): mountaineer, writer and artist, best known for making the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn, improving the aneroid barometer and studying altitude sickness.(Late Great Geographers #44)
June 1, 2004... What was his background? Edward Whymper was born in London in April 1840. The son of an artist, he was privately educated before going on to train as a wood engraver. He became interested in mountaineering in 1860 having been commissioned...

20 years ago today ... geographical Magazine, June 1984.(Worldwatch)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... This issue opened with a look at the construction of the first Japanese-owned car factory in Britain. Nissan's new manufacturing plant, located just outside Sunderland, was the product of three years of political wrangling and was predicted to...

Up to 40,000 children known as 'night commuters' leave their homes every night for the safety of hospital grounds and other public areas in the town of Gulu so as to avoid abduction and murder, says the African Medical and Research Foundation.(Uganda)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Up to 40,000 children known as 'night commuters' leave their homes every night for the safety of hospital grounds and other public areas in the town of Gulu so as to avoid abduction and murder, says the African Medical and Research Foundation....

Baghdad is the world's worst place to live, according to a quality-of-life survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.(Iraq)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Baghdad is the world's worst place to live, according to a quality-of-life survey by Mercer Human Resources Consulting. Of the 215 cities surveyed, Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland came first and second, and Vancouver on Canada's Pacific Coast...

June: thunderstorms and tornadoes are some of the world's most dramatic and destructive weather phenomena. Helen Willets explains what they are and discusses the ways in which they form.(Weatherwatch with Helen Willets)
June 1, 2004... Because air is a natural insulator, it's reluctant to let electricity pass through it. But when levels of charge in cumulonimbus clouds--distinctive anvil-shaped formations created from rising bubbles of warm, moist air--build to the order of...

WMF strives to save Iraq's heritage.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... IRAQ The World Monuments Fund (WMF) and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) have launched an initiative to address the "catastrophic damage" sustained by Iraq's cultural heritage during the USA led invasion of the country and its subsequent...

Global population watch.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The world population at the time of going to press was according to: the United Nations 6,432,140,237 the CIA 6,376, 046,714 the US Bureau of the Census 6,369,866, 054

I keep hearing that the UK is an overcrowded island. Just how densely populated is it?(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... I keep hearing that the UK is an overcrowded island. Just how densely populated is it? K Bloom, North Walsham ANSWER: If the UK is overcrowded, someone needs to tell the statisticians. The country doesn't come anywhere close to the top...

Which island chain is the world's longest?(Quizzical)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Which island chain is the world's longest? N Heather, Oxted ANSWER: Chains of islands are testaments to plate tectonics, in which vast plates of rock move over the Earth's viscous, molten mantle. Over 30 million years, the movement of the...

Why is scrubland so scrubby?(Quizzical)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Why is scrubland so scrubby? R Doig, Grassmere ANSWER: The unattractive clumps of weeds that grow on unused land represent the start of a process that would eventually see the land revert to woodland if left unchecked. They are the first to...

How smooth is the Earth?(Quizzical)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... ANSWER: A good comparison is with a billiard ball Analysed under a microscope, its surface would look more like a mountain range than a polished, smooth surface, with peaks and troughs that deviate from the average diameter Manufacturers...

What has happened to the Marsh Arabs of Iraq?(Quizzical)
June 1, 2004... ANSWER: The Marsh Arabs were persecuted by Saddam Hussein for their part in the uprising that followed the Gulf War of 1991. He gassed and bombed them and eventually forced them out of the marshes by having the land drained. The result was that...

Expedition Research Grant deadline.
June 1, 2004... The deadline for applications for those wishing to apply for Expedition Research Grants for field research taking place in autumn/winter 200d or spring 2005 is 2b June 2004. Grants are given to teams carrying out field research with a...

Researching the world.
June 1, 2004... Grant recipients Returning from the field shared their experiences and reported on their research findings at the Society's annual grants forum. The presentations included research on land degradation and livelihood diversity in South Africa,...

Why should I become a chartered geographer? Dr Samantha Arnold BSc PhD CGeog of Imperial College London is the field manager for the ESPRC-funded DAPPLE (Dispersion of Air Pollution and Penetration into the Local Environment) project. She talks to Dr Sarah Jones, professional officer at the RGS-IBG, about becoming a Chartered Geographer.(In Society: a round-up of news, views and recent and forthcoming events at the RGS-IBG)(Interview)
June 1, 2004... When did you become a chartered geographer? I applied shortly after it was introduced in 2002, after reading an article in fire Society's newsletter. Why did you apply? In my job as project manager on DAPPLE, I interact with a variety of...

Geography in a dry climate.(In Society: a round-up of news, views and recent and forthcoming events at the RGS-IBG)(RGS-IBG and Temple World Tours' tour to Namibia)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The RGS-IBG, in partnership with Temple World Tours, is offering a geographical tour to Namibia, fully guided by a specialist geographer and safari guides. The lodge-safari tour, which runs from 18 September to 2 October, will be both an...

A selection of Society events taking place in June.(In Society: a round-up of news, views and recent and forthcoming events at the RGS-IBG)(Calendar)
June 1, 2004... For details, please contact the Events Office on 020 7591 3100 or see www.rgs.org/events 7 June, 3-5pm Annual General Meeting Address by the Society president, Sir Neff Cossons, presentation of medals and awards and election of...

Cartography for the benefit of mankind: hemispherical world map by Abraham Orlelins, 1603.(Map Of The Month)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... This hand-coloured copper engraving measures just 5.5 centimetres where it appears on the title page of Nomenclator Ptolemaicus, a 77-page gazetteer found at the end of post-1579 editions of the world atlas Theatrum orbis terrarum by Abraham...

The barriers to peace: with the Middle East peace process in tatters and relations between Palestinians and Israelis at an all time low, Michael Keating, who recently worked in the region for the United Nations, examines the history of the conflict and highlights the role extremists are playing in undermining hopes for peace.
June 1, 2004... "What peace process?" was the Egyptian foreign minister's reaction when asked about the effect on the Middle East peace process of the Israeli Air Force's targeted killing on 22 March 2004 of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas....

GM crops: a risk worth taking?(Geographical dossier)
June 1, 2004... Few controversies have been as polarised as the debate over genetically modified (GM) food and crops. The scientists promoting them have been both lauded as potential saviours of the world's starving masses and condemned as latter-day Dr...

A new food science: for millennia, farmers have sought to improve their crops by crossbreeding. But the arrival of GM technology has greatly increased success rates.(Geographical dossier)
June 1, 2004... The public is deeply suspicious and pressure groups have loudly voiced their opposition, but the UK government has still gone ahead and announced its intention to join 18 other countries and approve the planting of a genetically modified (GM)...

Mutated arguments: many of the potential problems associated with GM organisms aren't new and are equally likely to arise in crops bred using conventional methods.(Geographical dossier)
June 1, 2004... It seemed an ingenious solution to an age-old problem: genetically modify a staple food of developing nations and protect millions from malnutrition. But the story of GM soya has acquired almost mythical status as an example of what happens...

More and better crops? Not even GM's most vehement supporters see it as an answer to world hunger. So just what are the claims for GM's benefits and do they really stack up?(Geographical dossier)
June 1, 2004... Higher crop yields, a reduction in the use of weedkillers and insecticides, cheaper food, better food--these are the benefits GM technology is supposed to offer the world. And its supporters are quick to point to evidence that some of these...

The best-kept secret in London: this month, the RGS-IBG opens up its archives to the public for the first time in its 174-year history. Dr Rita Gardner, the Society's director, presents a sneak preview of the Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Unlocking the Archives project.
June 1, 2004... Tucked away at the end of Exhibition Road in London's Southwest Seven, up the road from the grand Victorian museums and around the corner from the Royal Albert Hall, is a nondescript black door that barely gets a glance from the crowds that...

Footsteps to the past: one of history's longest-running empires was that of the Tiwanaku, a little-known, but very advanced people who created a network of highways through the mountains and forests of South America. Ian Gardener travelled to Bolivia to trace one such path from the Altiplano to the Amazon Basin.
June 1, 2004... The scattered ruins of the ancient city of Tiwanaku do little to inspire visions of its former splendour. Located near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, on the Bolivian Altiplano, they are all that remain of a capital that once boasted a...

The remotest festival on earth: for centuries, the Tuareg nomads of the Sahara have gathered at oases to make music and race camels. Recently, one such event in Mali has become one of the hottest dates in the World Music calendar. Beatrice Newbery pays a visit and finds that the Festival in the Desert may hold the key to boosting the country's tourism industry.
June 1, 2004... There's little beyond the remote Malian town of Timbouctou but a vast expanse of desert. Most people consider it the end of the Earth, and even its residents rarely venture north into the Sahara. But for one day in January, a host of musicians,...

Snap to it: as Kodak announces its decision to stop selling film cameras in Western Europe and North America, Clive Tully examines the inexorable rise of digital photography.(Focus On Photography)
June 1, 2004... I will always remember my first outing with an SLR camera. Purchased with hard-earned holiday wages, I'd taken it to an air display in the late 1960s where the star of the show was Concorde 002. I snapped away happily with my new Praktica as...

On a roll: Clive Tully introduces the latest digital and conventional film cameras and associated products, cutting through the sales hype and techno-babble to ensure you choose the best kit to help you improve your photography.(Focus on Photography)
June 1, 2004... DIGITAL CAMERAS Olympus C-8080 Wide Zoom 749.99 [pounds sterling] This new top-end pro model from Olympus offers much more than an impressive eight-megapixel CCD. The 5x zoom lens gives the equivalent of 28mm at its widest setting and...

British trailblazers in the Trentino Dolomites.(Advertisement Feature)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2004... It's rush hour in Rifugio Tuckett: muscular mountaineers are tucking into steaming bowls of polenta and melted cheese, followed by mushrooms and grilled meats. This alpine inn, tucked into the glacial terrain of Trentino's Brenta Dolomites, is...

The slowest waltz: in an edited extract from his book The Earth: an Initimate Portrait, award-winning palaeontologist Richard Fortey explains how the subterranean world has shaped the surface of the Earth and continues to influence our lives today.(Excerpt)
June 1, 2004... Since the Earth formed some 4.5 billion years ago, it has been in a constant state of flux. The movement of tectonic plates conspires to cause the Earth's surface to dilate and collapse, the seas to rise and fall and the continents to move. It...

Natural forces: Octavia Lamb looks through the archives of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) to uncover a selection of pictures that give a historical slant to such natural phenomena as earthquakes, volcanoes and storms.(Geographical Archive)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The technological advances that humanity has made over the past few hundred years have made many of us feel impervious to the natural world. Tarmac and concrete, central heating and air conditioning, plumbing, aeroplanes and ships have all...

A very British explorer: Miranda Haines talks to writer and explorer Hugh Thomson about his recent mountaineering expedition to a sacred mountain in the Indian Himalaya that is closed to all but a few climbers.(Interview)
June 1, 2004... As you read The White Rock, Hugh Thomson's modern adventure story about discovering Inca ruins in Peru, there's something in his style that makes you believe that you're there with him. And he's such good company that you're more than happy to...

Vanished Kingdoms: a Woman Explorer in Tibet, China & Mongolia 1921-1925.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China & Mongolia 1921-1925 by Mabel H Cabot, Aperture, hb, pp224, 19.20 [pounds sterling] Vanished Kingdoms recounts the extraordinary adventures of Janet Wulsin and her scientist husband,...

The D-Day Atlas.(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... The D-Day Atlas by Charles Messenger Thames & Hudson, hb, pp176, 22.50 [pounds sterling] It's now 60 years since D-Day, which, from the Allied perspective, was probably the most significant set piece of the Second World War. The surviving...

Facing the Frozen Ocean.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Facing the Frozen Ocean by Bear Grylls, Macmillan, hb, pp313, 18.99 [pounds sterling] "You're all mad," is a phrase that regularly crops up in this book and, faced with the aim of the expedition, you can't help but agree. Bear Grylls,...

Underground London: Travels beneath the City Streets.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Underground London: Travels beneath the City Streets by Stephen Smith Little, Brown, hb, pp390, 17.99 [pounds sterling] So much has been written about London that it's hard to believe there is anything left to say or any new way of saying...

Attention all Shipping.(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Attention all Shipping by Charlie Connelly Time Warner, hb, pp352, 12.99 [pounds sterling] Charlie Connelly has seafaring in his veins: his great-grandfather was shanghaied while collecting sailors' laundry and wound up on the far side of...

The Book of Rule.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... The Book of Rule Dorling Kindersley, hb, pp320, 20 [pounds sterling] A look at the map near the beginning of this book makes you think it should be a lot shorter than it is. It shows which countries now have democracies in place, a...

Coastline UK: Amazing Views from the Air.(Coastline UK: Amazing Views from the Air)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Coastline UK: Amazing Views from the Air Richard Cooke, Thames & Hudson, hb, pp208, 24.95 [pounds sterling] This large and lovely volume brings another visual perspective to the UK's wonderfully diverse coastline. Internationally renowned...

The Road to Oxiana.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron First published in 1937. Most recent edition published by Penguin, pb, pp341, 8.99 [pounds sterling] Robert Byron is the doyen of travel writers, despite dying tragically young--probably in 1941 on the day...

The Long Summer.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... The Long Summer by Brian Fagan Granta, hb, 320pp, 20 [pounds sterling] Good inter-disciplinary work is always to be welcomed in these days of increasing specialisation, and Brian Fagan's The Long Summer is an excellent mix of anthropology,...

Flat Feet and Full Steam: Around the World in Every Way.(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Flat Feet and Full Steam: Around the World in Every Way by Christopher Portway Summersdale, pb, pp320, 7.99 [pounds sterling] Around the World in Every Way is no false boast--Christopher Portway seems really to have used just about every...

Kandahar Cockney: a Tale of Two Worlds.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
June 1, 2004... Kandahar Cockney: A Tale of Two Worlds by James Fergusson HarperCollins, hb, pp384, 15.99 [pounds sterling] When journalist James Fergusson arrives in the troubled Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, one suspects his book, Kandahar Cockney, may...

Mambo.(Sound Recording Review)
June 1, 2004... Various artists Playing time: 66:47 (Rough Guide, 9.99 [pounds sterling]) Has it really taken this long for the Rough Guide to discover mambo? This compilation celebrates the legends and the modern experimentalists of a branch of music...

Black Sea gold comes to Amsterdam: Jo Sargent visits the Hermitage Amsterdam to view its inaugural exhibition, a glittering collection of ancient gold unearthed from the funeral barrows of the region surrounding the Black Sea.
June 1, 2004... The Hermitage Amsterdam Nieuwe Herengracht 14, Amsterdam Open: Daily, 10am-Spm Adults: 6, children up to 16 years free Website: www.hermitage.nl Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the private art collection of the...

Geographical travel: this month we travel to Lille, 2004 European Capital of Culture, speak to Sam McConnell of Desert Exec about his company's Land Rover trips in the Namib Desert and catch up on the latest travel news.
June 1, 2004... TAMBOPATA NATIONAL RESERVE, PERU The sun rises over the rainforests of Tambopata National Reserve, accompanied by the myriad calls and cries of the dawn chorus. Named after the river that flows from the eastern cordillera, through southern...

French revelation: celebrating its status as a 2004 European Capital of Culture, the French city of Lille has transformed itself to mimic other cities around the world. But, as Octavia Lamb discovers, its many attractions make it well worth a visit in its own right.
June 1, 2004... At its inception in 1985, the European Capital of Culture concept was founded on the observation of two basic principles: first, that Europe has always produced and encouraged a rich and diverse vein of artistic and cultural activity; and...

Tasmanian tourism bedevilled.(travel news)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... A US animal-rights organisation has called for tourists to boycott Tasmania in protest against the clear-felling of native forests and their replacement with plantations of fast-growing trees. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)...

TourismConcern filling the gap--but for whom?(travel news)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... With the market for gap years widening, it's estimated that 200,000 people from the UK will take such a break in 2004. Sixteen-year-aids are embarking on gap years before their A-levels, while 25-35-year-old professionals are taking breaks from...

Animals under stress.(travel news)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Tourists on wildlife-watching holidays may be threatening animals' long-term survival, say biologists. Studies on dingoes, dolphins and polar bears, among other species, show that the proximity of humans interrupts animals' behaviour patterns...

Field guides become interactive.(travel news)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... A Somerset based company, Conservation Technology, has developed an electronic field guide Capable of storing reference information on any subject, the pocket sized gadget allows complex searches and cross referencing and lets the user note...

Heathrow Airport is soothing passengers with a free permanent exhibition of photography selected from entries to competitions held by the United Nations Environment Programme.(UK)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Heathrow Airport is soothing passengers with a free permanent exhibition of photography selected from entries to competitions held by the United Nations Environment Programme. The images, which can be also be viewed online, focus on the...

The world's largest double-decker passenger jet is expected to go into operation in 2006.(Germany)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The world's largest double-decker passenger jet is expected to go into operation in 2006. Carrying up to 555 people, the Airbus A380 'Superjumbo' will be capable of flying nearly 15,000 kilometres without refuelling. * Info www.airbus.com

Travel for a living: Sam McConnell tells Jessi Tucker about his company, Desert Exec, which runs Land Rover trips into the Namib desert, and why he made a solo trek across the world's oldest dunes.(Interview)
June 1, 2004... What first attracted you to Namibia? When I was a child I saw the film Sands of the Kalahari in which survivors or a plane crash in the desert walk across the dunes to a rocky escarpment. The film had a profound effect on me, but over the...

In conversation: Bear Grylls is the youngest Briton to have climbed Mount Everest and survived. He talks to Jessi Tucker about his latest expedition--crossing the North Atlantic in a small inflatable boat.(Interview)
June 1, 2004... How would you describe what you do? I find it really difficult actually. I think so many of the labels I get branded with sound self-important, which I hate. I always say I have lots of different strands in my life and they go round in a...