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More news →Ice dam collapses at Argentine glacier
An ice dam at Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier collapsed early Sunday, creating an impressive spectacle not seen since July 2008, although few tourists were actually awake to experience the moment. Several tons of ice fell off the 60-meter (200 foot) ice dam into Lago Argentina at the national park in southern Santa Cruz province. Some 5,000 tourists had been in the park Saturday awaiting the ice show, park rangers said, but the slight movement of ice which began Wednesday turned into an avalanche at around 4:00 am (0700 GMT), leaving visitors disappointed. Only a group of rangers witnessed the collapse, which created a crash heard several kilometers away, accelerated by heavy rainfall overnight. "The noise was very great, it was coming down in buckets," said park ranger Carlos Corvalan. Perito Moreno, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Argentina, is one of the largest glaciers on the Patagonian ice cap. The glacier has a travel speed of 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) per day in its central part and periodically creates an ice dam which collapses from the pressure of the advancing glacier. The glacier was named after one of the first explorers in Argentine Patagonia.
Icebreakers racing to rescue ship trapped in ice near Antarctica
Three icebreaking ships are racing toward Antarctica to rescue a Russian vessel that became stranded in remote sea ice on Christmas morning. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it received a distress call Wednesday morning from the MK Akademik Shokalskiy, which has 48 passengers on board and 20 crew members, according to The Guardian. A spokeswoman from the agency said Wednesday that the icebreakers would take at least two days to reach the ship, but “the vessel isn’t in any immediate danger.” The Akademik Shokalskiy is currently near Stillwell Island, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania. The ship left New Zealand in early December on the Spirit of Mawson voyage, which is following in the footsteps of Douglas Mawson, the leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911. Half its passengers are tourists who are helping scientists on board with experiments, The Guardian reports. “We're making the best possible use of our unscheduled stop to take extra measurements in the area and build on our scientific work program,” said climate scientist Chris Turney of the University of New South Wales.
Icepice Launched
Rangayana Raghu who played the lead in 'Ramarama Raghurama' a couple of years back is back as a hero again. This time the acclaimed actor is donning the role of a hero in a film called 'Icepice'. The out and out comedy film which was recently has Rangayana Raghu playing a different role. Not only Raghu has a different role, but also has a different get up to look for in the film. Raghu looks ultra modern with goggles, goatie beard and cargo pants. Raghu has two heroines in the film which will be played by Neethoo and Sindhu Rao from Mysore. Shivasaikrishna apart from directing the film has written the story, screenplay and dialogues of the film. Suresh Muttappa is the producer. Media friend Manjunath who is fondly known as VCN Manju in media and film circles is working as an executive producer of the film.
Iceman Otzi's gut bug sheds light on human migration
He was brutally murdered over 5,300 years ago, but analysis of microbes from the gut of the "Iceman," a famous European glacial mummy, is now offering insights into historical human geography. The Iceman, also known as Otzi, is a mummified corpse that was discovered in 1991 by two German hikers in the Italian Alps, near the border of Austria. Otzi lived in the so-called Copper Age and died when he was around 40 to 50 years old. Scientists believe that he was exhumed by glaciers melting. "He seems to have been on the run, pursued across a high altitude alpine landscape when he was caught and brutally murdered," said Caroline Ash, senior editor at the journal Science, which published the new research. "Thanks to being buried in the ice for the intervening millennia, his well-preserved remains have provided some extraordinary hints of the life and times of ancient Europeans," added Ash. Scientists started to examine the Iceman's stomach several years ago and were able to detect what he ate for his last meal. Then they started to examine his guts for the presence of different pathogens and microorganisms. That's when they discovered that he was infected with a bacterium found only in humans called the Helicobacter pylori, which causes ulcers. Microbes and human migration Helicobacter pylori has resided within humans for so long, over 100,000 years, that different strains have evolved as humans migrated around the world and can be used as a way to track human distribution. The analysis of the Iceman's stomach showed the presence of Helicobacter pylori that's somewhat different from the strain found in modern Europeans. Modern Europeans harbor a strain that shares much more ancestry with North African strains. That suggests that in the last 5,000 years, since Otzi's death, population mixing with more recent waves of human migration into Europe have affected the Helicobacter pylori genomes in modern day Europeans. "We can say now that the waves of migration that brought these African Helicobacter pylori into Europe had not occurred, or at least not occurred in earnest, by the time the Iceman was around," said Yoshan Moodley, a senior author on the paper and professor at the University of Venda in South Africa, at a news conference organized by the journal. Extracting gut tissue from a frozen mummy Finding that out wasn't easy. "One of the first challenges was then to obtain samples from the stomach without doing any damage to the mummy," said Albert Zink, senior author on the study and head of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman. "We had to completely defrost the mummy and we finally could get access to the mummy by an opening by an incision that was already done by a previous study," added Zink. "We needed to make sure that we really have extracted the Iceman's bacteria and not any modern contamination," said Thomas Rattei, a senior author on the paper and the head of the division of computational systems biology at the University of Vienna. By examining the DNA, scientists were able to show through the type of DNA sequence present and the degradation of the DNA that the bacteria was from the Iceman and not some other form of contaminant. Nasty, brutish and short life The Iceman not only died in a brutal fashion, but he also lived a harsh life. Analysis shows that the Iceman had intestinal parasites and a lot of degenerative diseases. "He had several heel drop fractures, degenerative arthritis, vascular calcification and the presence of an arrowhead in his left shoulder was detected," said Zink. To boot the iceman was lactose-intolerant and had a genetic predisposition for an increased risk of coronary heart disease said Zink.
Possible ice volcano found on Saturn moon
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has spotted what could be an ice volcano on Saturn’s moon Titan, scientists said Tuesday. The images were analysed by the US Geological Society, which noted the similarity of an area of the moon known as Sotra Facula to volcanoes on Earth. The findings were presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Ice volcanoes, also called cryovolcanoes, have long been believed to exist in icy parts of the solar system, but the new evidence is the best yet that they exist. The images of two peaks more than 900 metres high are likely ice volcanoes, which spew water and icy particles to the surface instead of hot lava, scientists said. “This is the very best evidence, by far, for volcanic topography anywhere documented on an icy satellite,” scientist Jeffrey Kargel said. A previous feature discovered on the moon had initially been believed to be an ice volcano, but that theory was later discounted. The existence of ice volcanoes would explain other features of the Earth-like moon, such as the high levels of methane in its atmosphere.
Introducing - RED ICE FILMS' MP3
Robby Grewal of Red Ice Films, who earlier directed the National award-winning movie SAMAY-starring Sushmita Sen as a cop, is now ready with his second venture MP3 under the banner of RED ICE FILMS along with Percept Pictures. Shot extensively in France, it is dedicated totally to his high school days. Robby feels that whoever is in love will be able to easily associate themselves with the movie. It's about life at adolescence; the first crushes, the ups and downs, the fond memories of friends, fights and tender moments of first love. Robby re-lives these moments with MP3. MP3 deals with a young boy's journey from Delhi to Paris to find the person he really loves. Along with a fresh script the movie brings two fresh and very talented faces Ruslaan Mumtaaz and Hazel. The movie is written and directed by Robby Grewal. It is produced by Percept Pictures in association with Red Ice Films. The title-track is by Viren Mishra. Ashu and Dhruv, the ad film musicians have composed for the film. Aarif Shaikh does the editing. Arshad Ali Syed has written the dialogues. Rishi Oberoi has done the sound. Cinematographer is Amitabha Singh and choreography is by Remo. MP3 is a movie about falling in love for the first time and the excitements and nightmares associated with it. It's about Rohan (Ruslaan), an egoistic and lazy boy, seeing a pretty and caring girl, Ayesha (Hazel). Not able to find the love and attention that she seeks, Ayesha breaks up with Rohan and leaves for Paris. Rohan wants her back badly than ever and decides to go to Paris to meet the love of his life. Hence, Rohan sets off on his journey and dodges and fights whatever stands between him and Ayesha, finally making it up to her. Speaking about the youthful movie Robby says, 'School days are the most memorable days of every individual's life. I am sure everyone will be able to connect to the movie easily. It's got fresh faces and a fresh story that will make you flourish those tender moments for life.' MP3 is due for release on the 8th of June07. About Red Ice Films: Red Ice ventured into production of television commercial in 1999. In the last seven years, Red Ice poised its position as a holistic content provider to media and entertainment industry under the able shoulders of its three directors Shoojit Sirkar, Gary Grewal and Robby Grewal. Red Ice films has grown to become one of the largest and most progressive film production houses in India. Through this time they have produced more than 300 advertising films and 2 feature films, with 6 more features in the pipeline. From the critically acclaimed 'Yahaan' to the thriller 'Samay', Red Ice features explore new ground away from mainstream Indian cinema. Red Ice has an interesting mix of directors, sought for their stylized films in various genres. Shoojit Sirkar: With over 200 commercials and music videos behind him, award-winning director Shoojit Sarkar's directorial Yahaan starring Jimmy Shergill and Minisha Lamba was awarded the special jury award in the Ocian Film Festival. It was awarded the silver award in the Mumbai International Film Festival. Arjun Bali: A writer as well as a director; his advertising, documentaries and short films have been featured as finalists at international film festivals. He is currently in post-production on 'Ru Ba Ru', a full-length Hindi feature film directed by him starring Randeep Hooda and Shahana Goswami. Navdeep Singh: He is currently developing his first feature with Abhay Deol, Raima Sen and Gul Panag that is called 'Manorama Six Feet Under'. E-niwas: After winning the best debut director for his first film 'Shool', E-niwas went on to make 5 feature films, which include 'Dum', 'Bardasht', 'Love ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega' and a forthcoming film with Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies. He has also directed ad films for some top international brands like Kenstar, Videocon, Hyundai and Pepsi. Robby Grewal: He made his first film 'Samay ' When time strikes' with iDream Productions. It was a suspense thriller starring Sushmita Sen and Jackie Shroff. Samay won a National award for best editing done by Arif Sheikh. He has also been a part of award winning campaigns like Abby Awards for Cadbury (2005), Silver at Abby's for Add Gel and AAAI Gold for Dettol (2000). Red Ice Films has also been accolades for the advertisements; like the Silver Abby's for Maruti Alto, and national awards for Coca Cola and Saffola.