Enjoy this piece on Scienceray about the wonderful Giraffe-Necked Antelope of East Africa.  Just as their taller friends have evolved to get to the higher branches of green in a barren landscape, this unique species also took to the higher branches of smaller flora.

It’s also obvious, but worth pointing out ~ they’re as cute as all getout.

They will use their forelegs to pull down branches that are even higher than they are and can get to tender new leaves that other animals cannot.  As a plus, the GNA does not need to drink water at all – it gets all the moisture it needs from the plants they devour.

Link |Image by Flickr user nonisense.

Biologist Charles Anderson has uncovered what he believes to be the longest migration route of any insect in the world. He plotted the appearance of the dragonflies known as globe skimmers in the Maldives and deduced that they must fly from Africa!

In Uganda, they appear twice each year in March or April and again in September, while further south in Tanzania and Mozambique they appear in December and January.

That strongly suggest that the dragonflies take advantage of the moving weather systems and monsoon rains to complete an epic migration from southern India to east and southern Africa, and then likely back again, a round trip of 14,000 to 18,000km.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by healthylivinggal83.

In his art blog called Atlas, Spanish artist Fernando Vicente takes the distinct forms of landmasses and convert them into fantastic images. I particularly like the map of Africa turned into a skull (with Europe being the exploding head – lots of political imagery there).

Check out the entire series here: Link | Fernando’s other work: Anatomías (and for those of you who like politics, check out his work for Diario El País)

In 2007, photojournalist Brent Stirton went to the Omo River Valley in Ethiopia to document the life of people of remote tribal groups that continue to live as their ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Except that they have AK-47. Plenty of AK-47s:

In the sprawling, desolate Southern Omo River Valley region of Ethiopia are several tribes living as they have for centuries, in voluntary isolation from the modern world. Recently, however, the tribes — Dassanech, Mursi, Hamar, Karo, Bume, Beshadar and others — are under increasing pressure from the outside world. Most recent is the Omo River dam project to provide hydroelectric power to Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. This will reduce the river to one-fifth its size and eliminate the flood plain so valuable to Omo Valley tribal farmers. The geographically distant government in Addis Ababa appears to place little importance on the threat to these unique Omo Valley cultures, and the days of their existence as intact cultures are numbered. [...]

Outsiders are regarded as a source of money, AK47s are everywhere and people are aggressive in their pursuit of cash for photographs. It’s sad really, for the people of the region have a limited idea of what money can buy but already have a taste for it. As money acquires more value in their society, it will eat away all that makes their society unique.

Brent’s photo gallery make for a very interesting visit: Link (warning: some indigenous tribes nudity) – via CreativeRoots | Brent’s blog Photo Journeys at Discovery Channel

A glimpse of the amazing artistic heritage of the Edo people of Nigeria.  Their exquisite bronze sculptures showcase the rich and ancient culture of this part of the world.  With this art, you can get a true feeling of Africa before the arrival of the European.

Nigeria is one of the most art-oriented countries in Africa. It consists of many different tribes who possess different unique cultural artistic styles and tastes. One of those places is Edo state. Known as the heartbeat of the nation, Edo state is located in the south-eastern part of Nigeria. Benin City, its capital, is inhabited by the Bini people who, apart from other exciting forms of art they are involved in, specialise in a different but unique form of art-Bronze casting and sculpture-related artworks.

Link – via yourlewishamcollege

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.

Alfred Sirleaf is a blogger. Not just any blogger – no sir, Alfred is an analog blogger. He runs the "Daily News," a news hut in the middle of Monrovia, the capital of a Liberia, a country on the west coast of Africa. The lack of electricity doesn’t even faze him:

Alfred serves as a reminder to the rest of us, that simple is often better, just because it works. The lack of electricity never throws him off. The lack of funding means he’s creative in ways that he recruits people from around the city and country to report news to him. He uses his cell phone as the major point of connection between him and the 10,000 (he says) that read his blackboard daily.

Not all Liberians who read his news are literate, so he makes use of symbols. Whether it’s a UN or military helmet, a poster of a soccer player or a bottle of colored water to denote gas prices, he is determined to get the message out in any way that he can.

Link | A 2005 article on NYT on Alfred Sirleaf – via Onelargeprawn

French street artist JR has just completed an art project in the slums of Kibera, Kenya, where he covered the rooftops of homes with a material printed with the pictures of eyes of the women who live in them.

The art does have a practical purpose: the material help protect the houses from heavy rain:

Today, after more than a year of planning, 2000 square meters of rooftops have been covered with photos of the eyes and faces of the women of Kibera. The material used is water resistant so that the photo itself will protect the fragile houses in the heavy rain season. The train that passes on this line through Kibera at least twice a day has also been covered with eyes from the women that live below it. With the eyes on the train, the bottom half of the their faces have be pasted on corrugated sheets on the slope that leads down from the tracks to the rooftops. The idea being that for the split second the train passes, their eyes will match their smiles and their faces will be complete.

Link – via monk

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by The Monk.

The budding lovebirds, identified as Mika and Anna-Lena, packed bathing costumes, sunglasses and a lilo and headed for the airport. They even had the presence of mind to invite along an official witness – Anna-Lena’s seven-year-old sister. [...]

The following morning, as their parents slept, the intrepid trio walked 1km (0.6 miles) to the local tram station at Langenhagen, where they hopped aboard a tram for Hanover central station.

But the group aroused the suspicion of a guard as they waited for a train to the airport, and police were called in.

Officers persuaded the children they would not get far without tickets and money, but consoled them with a free tour of the police station, where they were shortly picked up by relieved parents.

Link – via Blue’s News