I’d never really done much RIB (rigid-hull inflatable boat) based diving before coming to Ireland. Back in South Australia, not including an inflatable hull boat I owned in my twenties, I could count my time diving from RIBs on one hand. Almost all of my boat diving was from off-shore equipped rigid fiberglass or aluminium […]
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What a strange sight among the graves of Cill Mhic Dhuach, a man in a hazmat suit power cleaning a tombstone with the precision of a dental hygienist. Perhaps the cleaning is required as part of some study where researchers need unrestricted access to the stone surface. Perhaps it is part of some tourist beautification […]
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You could be forgiven for being confused by such an exotically named plant presenting itself so devilishly. The true beauty of this intriguing Nigella damascena is yet to emerge. Very soon those green veined leaves will fold back, turn blue, and reveal themselves as the petals of a dramatic and exotic flower. The common name, […]
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Another beautiful jellyfish, the crystal jelly (Aequorea victoria), is normally almost perfectly clear but when disturbed it illuminates its outer bell in a blue-green glow using tiny light producing organs. The light producing substance harvested from these guys is aequorin, a calcium-activated photoprotein used in medical research. The crystal jelly is also the very same […]
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Ireland’s Burren National Park, or simply ‘The Burren’ is unlike anything you would have imaged to be Irish landscape. It is said that Oliver Cromwell, during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland circa 1650, when he first saw the Burren, said, “There isn’t a tree to hang a man, water to drown a man, nor soil […]
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