Geographical articles from March 2005

Geographical archives from March 2005

Responding to the tsunami.(From The Editor)(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... A number of readers have written to me this month asking the same question: why was there no coverage of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in the February edition of Geographical? The answer isn't, as one reader in Devon unkindly put it,...

Giveaway.
March 1, 2005... To mark the publication of Earthscan's Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises by Erich Hoyt, Geographical has 25 accompanying poster maps showing the world's 500 marine protected areas and sanctuaries to give away. These...

Seven families of 34 hill tribe people have been found living in remote northeastern Cambodia, where they have been hiding since 1979 from Vietnamese troops, who left the country 15 years ago.(Cambodia)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Seven families of 34 hill tribe people have been found living in remote northeastern Cambodia, where they have been hiding since 1979 from Vietnamese troops, who left the country 15 years ago. The fugitives lived off birds and wild plants and...

Hope for child camel jockeys.(UAE)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A rehabilitation centre for rescued young boys who have been forced to work as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been established in Abu Dhabi by its ruler and with the help of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International...

Hand-carved stone may be an early map.(UK)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A 4,000-year-old carved stone discovered on moorland at Fylingdales, near Whitby, could be a prehistoric map, say archaeologists. The stone, believed to be unique in England, is the only Neolithic or Bronze Age rock art to feature a zigzag...

UK's first glacial map.(UK)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A team of British academics has compiled the first glacial map of Britain based on 150 years of existing geological data. The map plots moraines, erratics (large rocks carried by glaciers), meltwater channels and other glacial features such as...

The world is getting warmer.(Global)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Just weeks before the Kyoto Protocol comes into effect, stark new climate data from the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have highlighted the need for swift action. According to the data, released at the tenth annual Conference...

Top 10 countries most economically dependent on agriculture.(Worldwatch)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... TOP 10 COUNTRIES MOST ECONOMICALLY DEPENDENT ON AGRICULTURE % of gross domestic product 1 Guinea-Bissau 62 2 Central African Republic 57 3 Myanmar 57 4 Congo ...

New monkey species found in Himalaya.(India)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Scientists working in northeastern India have discovered a new species of monkey. A type of macaque, it was spotted in the Himalayan districts of Tawang and West Kameng in remote Arunachal Pradesh state. The elevation at which it lives--between...

The Green Party has called for four million tonnes of freight.(UK)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Green Party has called for four million tonnes of freight--the equivalent of more than 400,000 lorry journeys--to be transported on London's canal network.

A population of 300 Asiatic--African hybrid lions in India will be prevented from reproducing in order to preserve pure Asiatic stock.(India)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A population of 300 Asiatic--African hybrid lions in India will be prevented from reproducing in order to preserve pure Asiatic stock. A largely unregulated breeding programme that began in the late 1970s has devastated the country's lion gene...

The US State Department has given the World Monuments Fund a US$550,000 grant.(Cambodia)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The US State Department has given the World Monuments Fund a US$550,000 grant for the conservation of the ninth-century Phnomm Bakheng temple complex at Angkor. * Info: www.wmf.org

The Police Expeditions Society has distributed 5,000 books to Nigerian schoolchildren before conducting an eight-day.(Nigeria)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Police Expeditions Society has distributed 5,000 books to Nigerian schoolchildren before conducting an eight day, 700km canoe expedition from New Bussa to Asaba to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Cornish explorer Richard Lander,...

50 years ago today ... Geographical Magazine, March 1955.(Worldwatch)
March 1, 2005... The March 1955 Geographical featured a forerunner of our own Map of the month. Explorers' maps, a series of articles written by RA Skelton, superintendent of the map room at the British Museum, presented "some episodes in the history of...

Immanuel Kant: (1724-1804) better known for his contributions to philosophy, Immanuel Kant also played an important role in the development of geographical thought in the 19th and 20th centuries.(Late Great Geographers #53)
March 1, 2005... What was his background? Immanuel Kant was born in Konigsberg, East Prussia, on 22 April 1724. The son of a craftsman, he spent eight years at the Collegium Fridericianum, where his parents hoped he would study theology. However, his...

British couple in South Pole record bid.(Conrad and Hilary Dickinson)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Not content with becoming the first British couple to trek unsupported to the South Pole, Conrad and Hilary Dickinson from Hexham in Northumberland have returned to Hercules Inlet in order to complete the longest ever foot journey in Antarctica...

Lynx have been spotted in Belgian forests for the first time in 300 years.(Belgium)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Lynx have been spotted in Belgian forests for the first time in 300 years. However, experts believe that the cats aren't the product of a miraculous recovery, but releases by environmental campaigners.

Rough Guides has published The Rough Guide to a Better World in partnership with the Department for International Development.(UK)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Rough Guides has published The Rough Guide to a Better World in partnership with the Department for International Development. The free booklet, which features a foreword by Sir Bob Geldof, explains the challenges currently facing international...

France.(Geographical Flags Of The World)(flag)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Description: Le dropeau tricolore consists of vertical bands of blue, white and red. History: When the flag was created during the revolution of 1789, the colours appeared in reverse. The blue and red bands were swapped in 1794, during the...

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH).(Geographical Organisations of Note)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... How and when was the centre set up? The CEH is a research centre of the Natural Environment Research Council and was formed in 2000 from four long-existing national research institutes. The CEH is funded partly by direct government grant...

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has successfully bred a spiny turtle in captivity, the first in Europe and only the second worldwide.(Jersey)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has successfully bred a spiny turtle in captivity, the first in Europe and only the second worldwide. A native of Southeast Asia, the diminutive turtle--it grows to only 23cm in length--is highly...

The BBC plans to help 1,000 UK schools become twinned with schools in Africa.(UK)
March 1, 2005... The BBC plans to help 1,000 UK schools become twinned with schools in Africa. At present, only ten per cent of schools in the UK have overseas twinning programmes.

Throughout the dry season, elephants in the Khao-Ang Rue-Ni wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand.(Thailand)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Throughout the dry season, elephants in the Khao-Ang Rue-Ni wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand have been blocking roads and ambushing convoys of trucks laden with tapioca and sugar cane.

A BBC funded archaeological dig on Silbury Hill, Wiltshire.(UK)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... A BBC-funded archaeological dig on Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe, that took place between 1968 and 1970 has left "substantial voids" in its structure that are threatening its stability, according to...

Satellite meteorology.(Weathern watch with BBC weather forecaster Helen Willetts)
March 1, 2005... What are the different types of weather satellite? Two types of satellite provide weather data: geostationary and polar-orbiting. Geostationary satellites orbit above the equator at a height of 35,780 kilometres. Their orbits are...

Earth-circling birds.(Global)(grey-headed albatross )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... New British Antarctic Survey (BAS) research into the movements of the grey-headed albatross has revealed where the birds go when they aren't breeding The results should help reduce the threatened birds' loss to long-line fishing. ...

Global disaster paves way for global thinking: in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami, disaster expert and geophysicist Bill McGuire explains why future disaster management must place a greater emphasis on preparedness as well as response.(Tsunami)
March 1, 2005... The resilience of the human condition, and the speed with which memories are erased following even the most devastating natural catastrophe, are truly astonishing. Little more than 120 years ago, in 1883, Indonesia's coastlines were battered by...

Global population watch.(Quizzical)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The world population at the time of going to press was according to: the United Nations 6,501,986,020 the CIA 6,437,018,248 the US Bureau of the Census 6,421,619,875

Is the hole in the ozone layer still growing?(Quizzical)
March 1, 2005... ANSWER: In 1987, just two years after the hole was first detected above Antarctica, governments agreed to phase out the chemicals that caused it. It wasn't that they moved particularly quickly, rather that the effects of those chemicals were...

Is it true that cattle contribute to global warming?(Quizzical)
March 1, 2005... ANSWER: When it comes to global warming, most attention is given to the rise in levels of carbon dioxide, which acts like a blanket, trapping heat in the atmosphere. But C[O.sub.2] isn't the only gas with this property. Along with nitrous...

How well is the UK doing on cutting C[O.sub.2] emissions?(Quizzical)
March 1, 2005... ANSWER: When it came to power in 1997, the Labour government set a target of reducing C[O.sub.2] emissions by more than 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010. However, by the end of last year, it had become clear that this self imposed...

How much of Finland is land?(Quizzical)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... ANSWER: Finland's territorial boundaries encompass an area of 338,144 square kilometres, placing it just behind Germany in the list of Europe's largest countries. But Finland has the world's highest number of lakes--about 190,000 of...

Why did the Portuguese leave the discovery of most of the Americas to the Spanish?(Quizzical)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... ANSWER: Despite its naval strength, Portugal lacked one important element of power in post mediaeval Europe--papal influence. After Columbus discovered the West Indies in 1492, the Spanish pushed for control of what they saw as a vital set...

New GIS handbook.(Field Techniques, GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Expedition Advisory Centre has produced a new manual entitled Field Techniques, GIS, GPS and Remote Sensing. Written by specialists from the world of geographical information sciences, the handbook covers many aspects of planning and using...

RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2005.
March 1, 2005... If you are planning to attend the 2005 RGS-IBG Annual Conference in London, please act quickly and book your accommodation and travel in order to avoid disappointment. For booking options, please visit the conference website at...

The global climate change blame game.(In Society: a round-up of news, views and recent and forthcoming events at the RGS-IBG)(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... EDITORIAL The subject of global climate change never fails to spark a heated debate, and here at the Society it's an ever-present topic, be it during our Annual Conference and lectures or as the focus of a research expedition. New studies are...

Wilderness medical training course.(In Society: a round-up of news, views and recent and forthcoming events at the RGS-IBG)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The majority of geographers have an inbuilt passion for exploration and the pursuit of new and exciting scientific and cultural knowledge. Going out into uncharted or remote territory is one exciting aspect of this pursuit. And while most...

A selection of Society events taking place in March.(In Society: a round-up of news, views and recent and forthcoming events at the RGS-IBG)(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... For details, please contact the Events Office on 020 7591 3100 3 March, 7.30pm Learning from Ladakh (LECTURE, LEICESTER) An account of a Loughborough Grammar School expedition that raised funds for Tibetan refugees before...

Join the society=get the magazine.(In Society: a round-up of news, views and recent and forthcoming events at the RGS-IBG)(Royal Geographical Society (with IBG))(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) is a world centre for geographers and geographical learning dedicated to the development and promotion of knowledge, together with its application to the challenges facing society and the environment....

Recent grant winners.(British Airways Travel Bursary)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Late last year, the RGS-IBG awarded the British Airways Travel Bursary to two students from British universities. The biannual award comprises a return flight on BA and is given for fiend research into tourism. The latest winners were Rachel...

Forthcoming grant deadlines.(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... 18 March The Peter Fleming Award: 9,000 [pounds sterling] for senior researchers planning to conduct a project that advances geographical science. 31 March The John Radford Award for Geographical Photography: a single annual award of 700...

Using photography to focus attention on the plight of Lithuania's pine forests.(Grants news)
March 1, 2005... At the end of March this year, the Society will begin the process of picking a geographical photographer to be awarded the John Radford Award for Geographical Photography. The award supports aspiring young geographical photojournalists who wish...

Royal Geographical Society with IBG: advancing geography and geographical learning.(Map Of The Month)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Patron Her Majesty The Queen Honorary President HRH The Duke of Kent The Council President Sir Neil Cossons OBE Vice Presidents Elspeth Insch OBE, Professor Keith Richards, Professor David Thomas Honorary Treasurer...

The exceeding small apple: map of New Amsterdam, New Netherlands (1660).(Map Of The Month)
March 1, 2005... Founded in 1624 by Dutch settlers, New Amsterdam was the capital of the larger colony of New Netherlands, located on an island off the northeast coast of North America. The frontier town was a pretty wild place, plagued by confrontations with...

Geographical young geographer of the year 2005.
March 1, 2005... Is the UK in 2005 overpopulated? Every year, we ask young geographers from schools across the UK to research and write about a topic that affects them and their families. The winners receive a great selection of prizes, including books,...

Sahara.(Images Of The Sahara)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... A LAND BEYOND IMAGINATION To many of us, the Sahara Desert conjures up images of desolation and isolation, of seas of sand and parched empty landscapes. However, as Dutch photographer Frans Lemmens reveals in his new book, Sahara, it's a land...

The country that doesn't exist: Moldova's rebel province, the self-declared republic of Transdniestria, is a land that time forgot and a country the world refuses to recognise. But with illegal arms flowing across its borders, the race is on to break this political impasse.(Transdniestria)
March 1, 2005... Tucked away in a quiet corner of Eastern Europe is a country that has three names but doesn't exist. It's said that no man is an island and, legally speaking, the same might be said for a nation. Without the acceptance and recognition of its...

Global population.(Geographical dossier)
March 1, 2005... We are now in the middle of the key century of global demographic change, 1950-2050," writes esteemed demographer John Caldwell. Our economic, environmental and political futures have never seemed more dependent on the ebb and flow of world...

The fertile century: in 1900, there were 1.6 billion people on Earth, now there are 6.4 billion. So what were the combustible conditions that fuelled the population explosion?(Geographical dossier/Global population)
March 1, 2005... "It's a boy!" screamed the headlines celebrating the birth of China's 1.3 billionth person on 6 January this year. While China's latest star made the news, elsewhere that day, as on any other, 200,000 new arrivals went unnoticed by all but...

Apocalypse not: the media has recently been discussing a drop in birth rates around the world. So has the global population explosion finally come to an end?(Geographical dossier/Global population)
March 1, 2005... Apocalyptic visions of a near future crippled by over-population were part of the 1970s mindset. Unprecedented growth rates in the developing world and books such as Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb fuelled these fears--by the 21st century,...

Decline and fall? After years of frightening headlines about the runaway growth of the world's population, does the 'birth dearth' mean we face a population implosion?(Geographical dossier/Global population)
March 1, 2005... While the 20th century was dominated by paranoid predictions of an over-crowded world, fear of population decline isn't new. During the Depression of the 1930s, books such as Fnmce Faces Depopulation by Joseph Sphengler evoked the spectre of...

In search of the Muria code: in the heart of India lives a tribe whose unusual sexual customs caused a sensation when first introduced to the West by a renegade British missionary. More than 50 years on, the Muria's way of life is threatened as never before.(Hidden Tribes Of India)
March 1, 2005... The popular image of India is of a nation bursting at the seams, a teeming mass of humanity that's still growing. So it may come as a surprise to learn that in central India there's a remote region, Bastar, where some two thirds of the...

Rocks of ages: we all know geology has shaped the Earth's surface. But, as a new BBC TV series reveals, around the Mediterranean it has also changed the course of human history.
March 1, 2005... Perched atop a hill overlooking the azure waters of the Gulf of Corinth, geologist Dr lain Stewart was armed only with a Mars bar and two books. He was explaining how the ancient Greek city of Heliki, thought by some to have inspired Plato's...

The Swedish ice man of Siberia: he's completed expeditions in the Americas, East Africa and across Asia. He's been honoured by the Explorer's Club and is a household name in his native Sweden, but few in the UK have heard of explorer Mikael Strandberg. Chloe-Scott Moncrieff caught up with him on the eve of his attempt to walk across Siberia in the dark.(Geopeople--Mikael Strandberg)
March 1, 2005... Mikael Strandberg is feeling disappointed. For the past four months, the Swedish explorer and his wife Titti have been living in a tent behind their house in the empty mountainous landscape of northern Sweden. But it hasn't been cold enough: a...

The legacy of empire.(Geographical Archive)(India)
March 1, 2005... India took its place at the heart of the British Empire in 1858 when the East India Company handed control of the subcontinent to the British government. Over the next 90 years, its soldiers protected British interests from Abyssinia to Hong...

Under Antarctic Ice: the Photographs of Norbert Wu.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Under Antarctic Ice: The Photographs of Norbert Wu text by Jim Mastro University of California Press, hb, pp178, 26.95 [pounds sterling] "What is it about Antarctica that draws people like a magnet and refuses to let them go?" asks Jim...

Mad about the Mekong.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Mad about the Mekong by John Keay HarperCollins, hb, pp320, 20 [pounds sterling] During the mid 1860s, as audiences at the Royal Geographical Society in London were delighting to Button's and Livingstone's tales of African adventure, six...

The Fall of Baghdad.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Fall of Baghdad by Jon Lee Anderson Penguin, hb, pp400, 20 [pounds sterling] When the international press corps poured into Baghdad in March 2003, New Yorker correspondent Jon Lee Anderson was already in place. Or, more accurately, in...

Storm Warning: the Origins of the Weather Forecast.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Storm Warning: The Origins of the Weather Forecast by Pauline Halford Sutton Publishing, hb, pp288, 14.99 [pounds sterling] Early in 2002, I received an email alerting me to a change in the Shipping Forecast. The Finisterre area off...

Mary Seacole: the charismatic black nurse who became a heroine of the Crimea.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Mary Seacole: The charismatic black nurse who became a heroine of the Crimea by Jane Robinson, Constable, hb, pp233, 12.99 [pound sterling] Anyone who thinks Florence Nightingale was the only 'Lady of the Lamp' to make her name in the...

The Arctic Fox: Francis Leopold McClintock.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Arctic Fox: Francis Leopold McClintock by David Murphy, Collins Press, hb, pp200, 20 [pounds sterling] Francis Leopold McClintock entered the British Navy weighing just two pounds (900 grams) more than his first lieutenant's...

The Story of San Michele.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe First published in 1929. Most recent edition published by John Murray, pb, pp368, 7.99 [pounds sterling] Axel Munthe's book is a beautifully written series of episodes recounting the author's early...

On the Road: the Art of the Journey.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... On the Road: The Art of the Journey Reuters, hb, pp192, 29.99 [pounds sterling] Pulling together a collection of images from the Reuters photographic library, On The Road is an absolute treat. Gathered from across the globe, the pictures...

The Hall of a Thousand Columns.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Hall of a Thousand Columns by Tim Mackintosh-Smith John Murray, hb, pp320, 20 [pounds sterling] There's a refreshingly robust attitude towards authenticity in Tim Mackintosh-Smith's retracing of Ibn-Battutah's 14 century travels....

Barbed Wire and Babushkas: a River Odyssey across Siberia.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Barbed Wire and Babushkas: A River Odyssey across Siberia by Paul Grogan, Virgin Books, pb, pp272, 7.99 [pounds sterling] When Paul Grogan and his university friend Richard Boddington were looking for a river to canoe from source to mouth,...

The Outlaw Sea: Chaos and Crime on the World's Oceans.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Outlaw Sea: Chaos and Crime on the World's Oceans by William Langewiesche Granta, pb, pp256, 12 [pounds sterling] If there's one place where the rule of law breaks down it's out on the open ocean. As described by William Langewiesche,...

The Colosseum.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Colosseum by Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard Profile, hb, pp224, 15.99 [pounds sterling] When the Roman Empire was at its height, you could walk from northern England, across the top of Africa and into Asia without crossing a national...

Pole Dance.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Pole Dance by Tom Avery Orion, hb, pp256, 17.99 [pounds sterling] Pole Dance charts Tom Avery's journey to the South Pole, from the struggle for sponsorship to his triumphant return as the youngest and fastest Briton ever to reach the pole....

Petermann's Planet: Vol. I: the Great Handatlases.(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Petermann's Planet: Vol. I: The Great Handatlases by Jurgen Espenhorst, Pangaea Verlag, hb, pp684, 90 [euro] The cradle of Renaissance cartography may have been northern Italy, but it was German mathematicians who recognised that mapmaking...

Geographical travel: this month, we bring you the latest travel news and meet Ashley Leiman of the Orangutan Foundation.(Travel Photo)(Chobe National Park, Botswana)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Chobe National Park, Botswana Keeping a watchful eye on a menacing elephant, a pride of lions drink gingerly from a waterhole in the Savuti area of Chobe National Park in northern Botswana. Part of the Kalahari plain, which dominates the...

Controls imminent in Valley of the Kings.(Travel news)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Tourist access to Egypt's Valley of the Kings looks set to be restructured in response to recommendations by the Theban Mapping Project (TMP). The TMP was originally set up in 1978 to prepare a comprehensive archaeological database of...

Confronting child sex tourism.(Tourism Concern)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Child sex tourism is a deeply uncomfortable subject, and many travellers are unsure of how to react when they come across it. Tourism Concern first became involved in the issue during the late 1980s, when Ron O'Grady, a campaigner from New...

Tourism vital for tsunami recovery.(Travel news)
March 1, 2005... With many of the regions affected by December's tsunami heavily reliant on the income generated by tourism, Responsibletravel.com is urging people to consider them as potential travel destinations. To many, holidaymaking in the areas...

The Earthwatch Institute is setting up a new project aimed at improving the biodiversity of cocoa farms in Ghana.(Ghana)
March 1, 2005... The Earthwatch Institute is setting up a new project aimed at improving the biodiversity of cocoa farms in Ghana. International teams of volunteers will work with research staff, collecting data to measure the impact of new farming methods in...

If you're looking to make the step from adventure holidays to expeditions, you may want to attend the iNOMAD Gathering.(UK)
March 1, 2005... If you're looking to make the step from adventure holidays to expeditions, you may want to attend the iNOMAD Gathering, a networking event aimed at anyone interested or involved in exploration. * Contact:jamiebd@inomod.co.uk

RyanAir has introduced flights from Liverpool to Venice and Pisa.(Italy)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... RyanAir has introduced flights from Liverpool to Venice and Pisa, as well as a new route from Newcastle to Milan. * Info: www.ryanair.com

Ashley Leiman is the director of the Orangutan Foundation's UK branch. It's 20 years since the foundation began taking visitors to Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP), Kalimantan, Indonesia. Charlie Furniss talks to her about these study tours.(Travel For A Living)(Interview)
March 1, 2005... How did you come to set up the UK branch of the Orangutan Foundation? I lived in Hong Kong during the 1970s and was always interested in tropical Asian ecology. I was involved in conservation there with the Conservation Society and the...

Essential gear: in the first of a new series, Paul Deegan says to ignore colours and features when buying a new rucksack and instead concentrate on finding the perfect fit.(Rucksacks)
March 1, 2005... For more than a decade, I made ends meet between expeditions by working in outdoor stores. During that time, thousands of customers came into the shops to buy their first pieces of outdoor equipment. And it didn't matter whether they were...

Ten of the best.(Essential Gear)
March 1, 2005... [1] for price Wynnster Ecuador 70+ 50 [pounds sterling]/70 litres + 10-litre extension/2.4 kilos An excellent-value trekking backpack Also available in 60 litre and 80 litre versions [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [2] for women...

When is a rucksack not a rucksack?(children's jackets)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Sprayway have come up with a waterproof children's jacket that folds down conveniently into a rucksack. The Dragonfly jacket is made from Hydro/ Dry fabric, is fully lined and has a hood, Velcro-adjustable cuffs and a shockcord-adjustable hem....

Macro digital.
March 1, 2005... Researchers from Dutch company TNO recently created the world's largest digital panoramic 'photograph'. Boasting an incredible 2.5 billion pixels, the 7.5 gigabyte image of the town of Delft is 500 times more detailed than that of a good...

Leki for lecky.(Advertisement)
March 1, 2005... Ellis Brigham outdoor stores are offering 15 [pounds sterling] vouchers to any customer who switches their power supply to Ecotricity, which produces electricity via renewable sources, before the end of March. * For more information, visit...

Record breakers recreate famous moment.(Gear Essentials)
March 1, 2005... A team of adventurers has successfully completed the first coast to coast manhauling traverse of Antarctica, from the Ross Ice Shelf to the Ronne Ice Shelf via the Trans-Antarctic Mountains and the South Pole. The Invesco Perpetual...

The non-flat ski map.(Gear Essentials)(Advertisement)
March 1, 2005... Skiers can now gain an instant understanding of their location and the surrounding, topography thanks to a three-dimensional, pocket-sized map that physically displays key contours and features of the land. The world's first 3D ski maps,...