Get The Thrill Of A Safari Without Ever Leaving Home

More than 8,000 miles from New York City, a team of a few dozen goes on safari every day, films everything they encounter and broadcasts the results live on the internet. The three-hour show starts at 5 a.m. local time near South Africa's Kruger National Park -- 10 p.m. eastern -- and is repeated again in the afternoon.

One morning, viewers may spot a leopard sleeping in a marula tree, paws dangling over either side of a branch. A few minutes later, that same leopard may chow on an early breakfast, gulping down the ribcage of an impala she hoisted up to keep away from hyenas.

For the evening drive, that leopard may be gone, replaced by a herd of elephants, a termite mound or a southern masked weaver building its nest. Whatever the team at WildEarthstumble on that day, viewers see in realtime alongside commentary from experienced safari guides.

The team, led by married couple Graham and Emily Wallington, has filmed from the Djuma Game Reserve, about 300 miles northeast of Johannesburg, for years. The reserve shares a border with Kruger -- South Africa's most famous national park -- and nearly all of the animals associated with a safari are there, including the Big Five.

The plan to broadcast live content began with a camera screwed into a tree above a watering hole in 1998 that would take a still image every 30 seconds or so. That camera, now in full video, still operates nearly two decades later -- albeit in a different tree after one was downed by a storm, another an elephant. The first live safari was broadcast in 2007 and has been running ever since.

Two guides venture out twice daily in Land Rovers outfitted with a camera rig on the back. Another is out often on foot for a bush walk. Antennas strapped to the back of the vehicles (or a cameraman, if it's a walk) transmit the signal back to a control room on site or in Johannesburg, where it's fed directly online with no more than a few seconds' delay.

Scientists Unlock Mysteries Of World's Most Massive Volcano

Two years after confirming that the world's largest single volcano was lurking more than a mile beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean, scientists have begun mapping the massive underwater mountain.

What they've discovered about it thus far is as unique as it is amazing.

New magnetic data suggests Tamu Massif isn't just an ordinary volcano, but is a kind of volcanic hybrid built by two separate processes.

“We’re looking at something that’s in between a mid-ocean ridge and a simple conical volcano,” William Sager, a marine geophysicist at the University of Houston, told Scientific American.

Located approximately 1,000 miles east of Japan and 6,500 feet below the ocean's surface, Tamu Massif is about the size of New Mexico and nearly as big as the largest volcanoes on Mars. It covers an area of about 120,000 square miles -- 60 times that of Hawaii's Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on Earth.

“This volcano is a beast,” Jörg Geldmacher, a marine geophysicist at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, told Scientific American.

While not particularly tall -- about 2.5 miles from base to summit -- Tamu Massif is enormously wide, with very gradual slopes. 

"If you were standing on this thing, you would have a difficult time telling which way was downhill," Sager told Scientific American.

In an effort to better understand how the mysterious volcano formed, Sager and his team set out on a 36-day expedition in early October to collect magnetic data, mapping nearly 400,000 square miles of the ocean floor. 

THE WEEKEND TO FORGET

THE WEEKEND TO FORGET Robyn McKelvy Mom Since 1989 It was about a year and a half after we married, and Ray came bouncing through the door of our home so excited about signing us up for this “marriage encounter” weekend he had heard about on the radio. With a new marriage and a new honeymoon baby, I felt going away for the weekend, right then, was wrong timing. There was so much to do, so much to be done. With reluctance and great hesitation, we left our young baby girl with my sister and went to this thing called, “A Weekend to Remember.” We had great premarital counseling and I felt as if there was nothing wrong with our marriage. So why waste funds on this unnecessary marriage event? And why a whole weekend? I needed that time to get ahead of the game because Monday was coming and clothes did not clean themselves. So when we arrived at the getaway, I wanted to sit in the back of the auditorium and sulk, but Ray headed down front as usual for him. And since this was a marriage thingie, I felt like I should sit by him, so close to the front we went. Everything was fine, at first, because there was no time for public questions and answers. But there were these big exclusive one-on-one interludes called, “projects.” Each couple (and there were many of us), would find a quiet place in the hotel and go over some personal questions together. What?!! Yes, this conference made us talk to one another about stuff we were too busy to take the time to talk about throughout the course of our daily lives. Some of the couples had it all together and talked, laughed and enjoyed each other. Ray and I, on the other hand, had a rather hard time. I cried and he pouted. Our conversations that weekend were long overdue and much needed. We didn’t even realize that in the midst of our living life, we forgot to care about the things that were important to the other one. I do not believe we would have forged these essential topics without the direction given to us in the projects. We would have continued our lives, missing each other. That “Weekend to Remember” turned out to be a “Weekend we will never forget.” We were able to purge the bad things attacking our marriage and gather much needed tools to continually eliminate them. It was a really hard but desperately needed time. God has such a sense of humor. The day Ray walked into our small apartment announcing he was signing us up for this thing called a “Weekend to Remember” about 24 years ago, we could have never imagined that God would use us to facilitate them today. We have a fond place in our hearts for these absolutely vital events. God not only used this in our marriage to give us tools for a connected relationship throughout our years of marriage, but He has also allowed us to be able to see how this ministry has effectively enhanced the marriages of many other couples. We are seeing miracles in marriages through FamilyLife’s Weekend to Remember getaways. I appeal to you, don’t wait, find a Weekend to Remember in your area and make an investment in your marriage. It will be a weekend you will never forget. He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. – Proverbs 18:22

A Door Standing Open

A Door Standing Open JULY 27, 2015 by BARBARA RAINEY Leave a Comment door.7 Is this door that songs of old have called the “pearly gates”? Is it a massive door flanked by pillars covered in gold? Or is it a simple and narrow opening, perhaps of rough wood, that fits this description, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life…” (Matthew 7:13) Only John the apostle knows for he alone saw this door when he was given the vision of the end of days. Once we open the door of our hearts and lives to welcome Jesus, and we walk forward through Him, the door, by faith, then the last door for each of us will be the one open in heaven. Walking in that entrance will be the grand finale of our days on earth. We may fear death but I love C.S. Lewis’s description that it’s really like waking up and finding all is well and right. May you be eager for that open door and grow in your anticipation of that new beginning that awaits us all.