From Cleveland Plain Dealer: Buckeye Lake's island bog shrinking into extinction
By Wendy Pramik Special to The Plain Dealer
The youngest of the group was the bravest. Twenty-one-year-old Amber Scimone rolled up a pink shirtsleeve to her elbow and plunged her finely manicured fingernails into the dead vegetation.
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The hole was deep, reaching more than 30 feet below the surface of Cranberry Bog in Buckeye Lake. Botanists drilled it years earlier to measure the depth of Ohio's only floating island. Removing the top layer of lush plants revealed the spongy bog mat made of decaying moss.
"It was really cold and creepy," said Scimone, of West Farmington, in Trumbull County. "It felt like I stuck my hand into something 13,000 years old."
Her estimate isn't far off: Plants in the bog are relics of the last Ice Age, with roots that extend back more than 10,000 years ago.
You, too, can stick your hand into this soggy, historically significant ecosystem. But hurry -- it won't be around forever.
Containing many species of rare ferns, delicate orchids and carnivorous pitcher plants, Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve is a small, squishy island that floats in 3,100-acre Buckeye Lake, 35 miles east of Columbus.
The bog has floated on the lake's surface for about 180 years, formed by a combination of natural and man-made occurrences. One day, in the not-too-distant future, it will vanish as completely as it appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
"It's an anomaly in nature," said Greg Seymour, who has managed the preserve for more than two decades for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. "You can't build a wall around it or isolate it. It was going to die eventually, and that's what's happening."
Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve
Getting there:The nature preserve is located within Buckeye Lake State Park in Millersport, about 30 miles east of Columbus. The easiest route from Cleveland is via I-71 south, I-270 east and I-70 east, exiting at Exit 129.
Acquiring a permit: Visitors to the Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve in Buckeye Lake must first acquire a free permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. Applications are available on the department’s website. Permits require up to two weeks to process.
Gaining access: The Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society offers boat transportation to the bog and on-site tours from May through October. The tour costs $12 per person; free, children 5 and younger. It’s a suggested donation and pays for a six-minute boat ride to the island and back, as well as a 30-minute narrated tour while on the bog. Information: 740-929-1998.
Museum at the Lake: The Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society operates the Museum at the Lake at 4729 Walnut Road in the village of Buckeye Lake. The museum contains an assortment of items commemorating the rich history of the area, including a car from the Rocket Ship ride that soared over of the old Buckeye Lake amusement park.
The museum offers tours of Buckeye Lake aboard a 40-person pontoon boat at 2 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday from May through October. Cost is a suggested donation of $10; free, children 5 and younger. Information: 740-929-1998. In the meantime, the state helps guide tourists and other inquisitive folk through the preserve. Each year, the department holds an "open house" to showcase the preserve's unique ecosystem. This year's event occurred on June 19, when hundreds of nature enthusiasts and curiosity seekers traversed the bog on a protective boardwalk.
It's a tough ticket. Visitors must gain entry through a lottery. The natural resources department annually receives more requests than the number of people it can accommodate, which is about 400.
The lottery isn't the only way to visit Cranberry Bog, however. From May through October, the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society, located in the village of Buckeye Lake, works with the state to offer guided tours. Earlier this month, I joined a group of women from the Cleveland area on the historical society tour.
Why all the fuss?
Most natural bogs exist around the edges of lakes, but not Cranberry Bog -- making it one of the most unique and fascinating natural areas in the United States.
J-me Braig, director of the historical society, led our bog tour. The suggested donation of $12 helps fuel the society's pontoon boat as well as operate the 5,400-square-foot Museum at the Lake, which contains photos of the rare plants and flowers that grow on the island.
The ride took six minutes from the ramp at Buckeye Lake State Park to the dock at the bog, 100 yards off the north shore of the lake. As Braig steered the 47-foot Queen of the Lake 2, she told us about picking cranberries on the bog with her grandmother.
"There's only one of its kind in the world, and this is it," Braig said. "It's very cool that you're going to see it today."
The creation of Cranberry Bog began thousands of years ago when glaciers moved into Ohio, pushing trees and a host of plants from the north. As the glaciers retreated, lakes, ponds and swamps formed in their wake.
American Indians, residing in what are now Licking, Fairfield and Perry counties, called the marshy land the "Big Swamp."
In the 1820s, a canal system was constructed through the mushy land. Engineers flooded the valley to create a reservoir to supply water to the canal. That buried the marshland, and only a 50-acre portion survived. It rose to the surface and formed the spongelike island made of buoyant sphagnum moss.
"If we were to shred it up and sell it in a store, it would be just like peat moss," Seymour said.
In 1894, the entire area became a public park, and the reservoir was renamed Buckeye Lake.
For a long time, the floating island was referred to as Cranberry Marsh because of the red berries that prospered there. While humans no longer pick them, the cranberries still nourish visiting birds.
In 1973, the island was dedicated as a state nature preserve. Today, it's one of Ohio's 134 state nature preserves, where conservation of fragile landscapes trumps recreation.
The bog is deteriorating for a number of reasons due to nature and man. Being in a lake is causing it to erode, as is the yearly freezing and thawing process.
Waves from passing boats cause erosion as well, despite the no-wake zone in effect around the island. Studies have been performed to attempt to reduce this decay, but nothing is feasible, Seymour said.
"In the last 40 years, the island shrank, from around 20 acres to less than 10 acres today," said Seymour. "If this rate were to continue, it will not exist in another 40 years.
"I've been responsible for it for 20 years, and I'll be sad when it's gone," he added.
The Cleveland-area tour group I joined spent half an hour on the island, walking on the zigzagging boardwalk. Engraved in the wood are the names of those who've helped pay for the protective path.
"If you were to step off, it would feel like you're walking on a water bed," Braig said. Once the path reaches a dead end, you turn around and walk back to the dock.
"Don't touch the plants," said Braig, as a reminder to protect the rare species as well as a precaution against touching the blister-inducing poison sumac that's abundant on the island.
We passed magenta orchids and white-flowering cranberries that bloom through August. The popular purple pitcher plant blooms through July. As its name suggests, its leaves form the shape of a pitcher, enabling it to hold water and capture insects, which it digests as nutrients.
Though guests are discouraged from touching plants, Braig asked if any in the group wanted to feel the muck. Scimone was the only volunteer. She carefully knelt on the boardwalk and stuck her arm over the side, into the heart of the protected island.
Upon extricating her arm, Scimone noted it was covered in brown slime up to her elbow. "It smelled fresh," she said.
Brook Park resident Becky Burdorff, who organized the trip for her friends, at first thought Cranberry Bog was a hoax when she read about it.
"Then when I started learning more about it, I thought this place is really cool and my girls are going to love this," she said. "And that's how we ended up here."
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Boater chases mysterious periscope off Hollywood beach
Boater chases mysterious periscope off Hollywood beach
He may have been imagining things, or he's just trying for publicity...but if it were true?
He may have been imagining things, or he's just trying for publicity...but if it were true?
Talk about the big one that got away.
Ryan Danoff was fishing with two friends about four miles off Hollywood beach Sunday when he spied what appeared to be a mast on the horizon.
Funny thing: There was no boat underneath it.
Danoff, a Fort Lauderdale fish farmer who's on the water at least three days a week, aimed his 31-foot center console Fishy Business at the mysterious upright and found himself eye to eye with a periscope.
"It was crazy," he said. "If it was just myself out there I wouldn't believe what I saw."
Danoff moved closer. "It took off," he said. Very fast, about 20 knots. The periscope sank beneath the waves, and whatever was below the surface blew its ballast, sending aloft a mighty hiccup of bubbles. After five minutes the sea lay once again undisturbed.
Danoff, 30, reported the episode to the Coast Guard. They said they'd get back to him, but never did.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena said Danoff's information went to the proper authorities. "As of right now, they're still looking into it," he said.
So could it have been a Navy sub taking a peek at the beach? "It's kind of uncommon," Bena said. "But it's a definite possibility."
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Judge sides with state in legal tug of war over shipwreck in Lake Erie
From Buffalo News: Judge sides with state in legal tug of war over shipwreck in Lake Erie
A federal judge has sided with attorneys for the state in a dispute over the ownership of a 19th century sailing ship sunk in Lake Erie near Dunkirk.
In a recent decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio said he agreed with the state’s position that it owns the ship under the U.S. Abandoned Shipwreck Act.
The two-masted wooden sailing ship may have been used by the British during the War of 1812 and later may have had a role in the Underground Railroad, transporting escaped slaves from the United States to Canada, Foschio said in court papers.
Since 2004, officials of Northeast Research, a private company that specializes in searching for shipwrecks, have been seeking ownership of the vessel, which they want to raise from the lake’s depths and put on display on Buffalo’s waterfront.
But historic preservation officials in state government contend that the ship is better off where it is, in a deep pocket of the lake about 20 miles from Dunkirk.
State officials also contend that divers working for Northeast Research damaged the ship and mishandled human remains on the ship during a dive to examine the vessel in 2004.
Efforts to reach the owners and the attorneys for Northeast Research were unsuccessful late Wednesday.
Foschio’s 30-page decision is considered a “report and recommendation” in federal court and is subject to review by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
A federal judge has sided with attorneys for the state in a dispute over the ownership of a 19th century sailing ship sunk in Lake Erie near Dunkirk.
In a recent decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio said he agreed with the state’s position that it owns the ship under the U.S. Abandoned Shipwreck Act.
The two-masted wooden sailing ship may have been used by the British during the War of 1812 and later may have had a role in the Underground Railroad, transporting escaped slaves from the United States to Canada, Foschio said in court papers.
Since 2004, officials of Northeast Research, a private company that specializes in searching for shipwrecks, have been seeking ownership of the vessel, which they want to raise from the lake’s depths and put on display on Buffalo’s waterfront.
But historic preservation officials in state government contend that the ship is better off where it is, in a deep pocket of the lake about 20 miles from Dunkirk.
State officials also contend that divers working for Northeast Research damaged the ship and mishandled human remains on the ship during a dive to examine the vessel in 2004.
Efforts to reach the owners and the attorneys for Northeast Research were unsuccessful late Wednesday.
Foschio’s 30-page decision is considered a “report and recommendation” in federal court and is subject to review by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
France: can 15th-century politics save a 21st-century French town?
From the Guardian: France: can 15th-century politics save a 21st-century French town?
Guardian Weekly editor Natalie Bennett has been in the small Burgundy town of Etang-sur-Arroux, checking out some newly uncovered history, and the hopes that some locals have for it
Etang-sur-Arroux is, most observers would agree, a nice little town, set at the confluence of two rivers, and the junction of several small, locally significant roads, surrounded by attractive, often hedged, fields of the deep graziers'-delight-green this part of Burgundy specialises in. It's an entry point for the Morvan national park, which does a steady trade these days in "nature" tourists – walkers, mountain cyclists and birdlovers, and most drivers on their way to the spectacular Gallo-Roman site of Bibracte will pass through it.
Etang-sur-Arroux even boasts, with multiple signs, of its clog museum, in which sits, in a special hut all of its own, "the world's largest clog".
Local second-home owners, of whom there are many, the Dutch predominant among them, know the town for its extensive Emmaus charity store – which does a roaring trade in the practical, the antique, and the frankly peculiar. (Fifties Teletext machine anyone?)
And now Etang-sur-Arroux has a new claim to fame, a rediscovered – or at least newly uncovered – major chateau dating back to the 12th century, Chateau de la Perriere. Cue much excitement (well a dozen or so local volunteers to help with the excavation), and a major article in the local daily newspaper announcing an evening at which the archaeologists will be presenting their findings about their ancestors' goings-on to the people of modern-day Etang-sur-Arroux.
The turnout is impressive – about 60 people might not quite fill the salle des fetes, but they do a good impression of it. Pretty well all of the life of the town is here.
Outside, the main street is closed, the two bars dark and silent. The only other sign of life is at the single remaining functioning hotel (cheap room rates and special offers available – and a justly famous Sunday lunch with cold buffet ). Two other hotels are out of business, one hopefully sporting a "to lease" sign, the other apparently rotting into the dust.
Like small towns the developed world over, Etang-sur-Arroux has a problem of economics, of existence. Earlier, waiting for the talk, I'd stopped down by the river, in the station car park, and here it was that the male youth (well youngish males) had gathered. Unlike I probably would in Britain, I didn't feel a sense of menace, but the "nothing for the youth to do" problem has clearly reached Etang-sur-Arroux.
The talk was, if you had an interest in archaeology, fascinating – the remaining ruined stones telling, if not a detailed tale, certainly enough to pique the interest. One claim to fame for the site is that it had, in two 15th-century constructions, octagonal defensive towers sat on circular foundations. Quite a challenge for the stonemason, and he's used fine, solid granite for the task, which has kept its shape with steadfast ease.
The experts have concluded that this later extension to a 13th-century original was almost certainly built by Nicholas Rolin – a man to get excited about for a lover of tales, as one of the chief architects of the 40-year reign of Burgundy's standout ruler Philip the Good.
But still, when I go to the open day at the site (pictured below) a few days later, I have to confess that while as an archaeological enthusiast I have a lovely time, a visitor with only an ordinary interest in history would just find a pile of old stones, with nothing romantic to colour their walls and complete their towers in the air: no "Marie Antoinette slept here (preferably with a paramour not the king)", no knights riding out to deadly battle. (Well they may have done; we just don't know about it.)
Yet still, I understood the passionate plea made at the end of the talk in the salle des fetes by Robert Chevrot, president of the Association of the La Tour du Bost, a nearby historic site. He pleaded for a local benefactor to come forward to help complete the excavation – ended before the complete circumference was cleared by a combination of weather and lack of funds – and for the town to embrace and promote the ruined chateau as a tourist attraction.
Could not Nicholas Rolin, who ensured with his hospital that Beaune was firmly on the tourist route, ride to Etang's rescue 600 years after his death?
The chateau can be visited at any time, although it isn't yet signposted. Coming from Le Creusot, just after the entrance to Etang follow the signs for "La Grotte", an uninteresting collection of religious statues that is, however, handily marking the chateau site, on the opposite side of the road. It is on an outcrop overlooking the modern village, and there is an information board setting out the main facts.
Guardian Weekly editor Natalie Bennett has been in the small Burgundy town of Etang-sur-Arroux, checking out some newly uncovered history, and the hopes that some locals have for it
Etang-sur-Arroux is, most observers would agree, a nice little town, set at the confluence of two rivers, and the junction of several small, locally significant roads, surrounded by attractive, often hedged, fields of the deep graziers'-delight-green this part of Burgundy specialises in. It's an entry point for the Morvan national park, which does a steady trade these days in "nature" tourists – walkers, mountain cyclists and birdlovers, and most drivers on their way to the spectacular Gallo-Roman site of Bibracte will pass through it.
Etang-sur-Arroux even boasts, with multiple signs, of its clog museum, in which sits, in a special hut all of its own, "the world's largest clog".
Local second-home owners, of whom there are many, the Dutch predominant among them, know the town for its extensive Emmaus charity store – which does a roaring trade in the practical, the antique, and the frankly peculiar. (Fifties Teletext machine anyone?)
And now Etang-sur-Arroux has a new claim to fame, a rediscovered – or at least newly uncovered – major chateau dating back to the 12th century, Chateau de la Perriere. Cue much excitement (well a dozen or so local volunteers to help with the excavation), and a major article in the local daily newspaper announcing an evening at which the archaeologists will be presenting their findings about their ancestors' goings-on to the people of modern-day Etang-sur-Arroux.
The turnout is impressive – about 60 people might not quite fill the salle des fetes, but they do a good impression of it. Pretty well all of the life of the town is here.
Outside, the main street is closed, the two bars dark and silent. The only other sign of life is at the single remaining functioning hotel (cheap room rates and special offers available – and a justly famous Sunday lunch with cold buffet ). Two other hotels are out of business, one hopefully sporting a "to lease" sign, the other apparently rotting into the dust.
Like small towns the developed world over, Etang-sur-Arroux has a problem of economics, of existence. Earlier, waiting for the talk, I'd stopped down by the river, in the station car park, and here it was that the male youth (well youngish males) had gathered. Unlike I probably would in Britain, I didn't feel a sense of menace, but the "nothing for the youth to do" problem has clearly reached Etang-sur-Arroux.
The talk was, if you had an interest in archaeology, fascinating – the remaining ruined stones telling, if not a detailed tale, certainly enough to pique the interest. One claim to fame for the site is that it had, in two 15th-century constructions, octagonal defensive towers sat on circular foundations. Quite a challenge for the stonemason, and he's used fine, solid granite for the task, which has kept its shape with steadfast ease.
The experts have concluded that this later extension to a 13th-century original was almost certainly built by Nicholas Rolin – a man to get excited about for a lover of tales, as one of the chief architects of the 40-year reign of Burgundy's standout ruler Philip the Good.
But still, when I go to the open day at the site (pictured below) a few days later, I have to confess that while as an archaeological enthusiast I have a lovely time, a visitor with only an ordinary interest in history would just find a pile of old stones, with nothing romantic to colour their walls and complete their towers in the air: no "Marie Antoinette slept here (preferably with a paramour not the king)", no knights riding out to deadly battle. (Well they may have done; we just don't know about it.)
Yet still, I understood the passionate plea made at the end of the talk in the salle des fetes by Robert Chevrot, president of the Association of the La Tour du Bost, a nearby historic site. He pleaded for a local benefactor to come forward to help complete the excavation – ended before the complete circumference was cleared by a combination of weather and lack of funds – and for the town to embrace and promote the ruined chateau as a tourist attraction.
Could not Nicholas Rolin, who ensured with his hospital that Beaune was firmly on the tourist route, ride to Etang's rescue 600 years after his death?
The chateau can be visited at any time, although it isn't yet signposted. Coming from Le Creusot, just after the entrance to Etang follow the signs for "La Grotte", an uninteresting collection of religious statues that is, however, handily marking the chateau site, on the opposite side of the road. It is on an outcrop overlooking the modern village, and there is an information board setting out the main facts.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
NC Underwater team attempts to recover 2002 shipwreck
Underwater team attempts to recover shipwreck
By: Kira Mathis
EDEN, N.C. -- Underneath these waters along the Dan River in Eden sits a historic replica of a batteau.
"It's 40 feet long, eight feet wide, dry weighs probably about a ton and a half and wet probably twice that, at least twice that," Dr. Lindley Butler from the Dan River Basin Association said.
But Butler, along with the N.C. Underwater Archaeology team, plan to pull the three-ton shipwreck out of the muddy waters.
They began the feat Wednesday afternoon.
"It's in the mud and sand partly, so the idea is to dredge the sand off and then use some type of buoyant, " said Butler. "We're talking about lift bags or fire house, to raise it and then get it turned over, it's on its side, get it turned upright. And then if we can get it out, we'll take it down the river and take it out down at the boat landing which is about a mile and a half below here."
The batteau was built in 2002. It was used for historic tours along the river until high waters from a storm brought it down in 2008.
"And they ran it for several years, in fact as far as we know it was the only commercial batteau operating in the nation in that time," Butler said.
He also said the boat is an important reminder of a key part of North Carolina's history. "It gave us a global connection," said Butler. "It sounds very modern but in fact it did give this region a global connection and was an economic of that time so it's very important because it tells that story and it really is the key to the development of this river valley," he said.
The Underwater Archaeology team traveled all the way from Wilmington to help recover the boat and are excited to take part.
"It's history, it's navigation, it's exploration, it's boat building, it's design, it's meeting people in their culture, it's really important," Julep Gillman-Brown with NC Underwater Archaeology said.
They hope to have the batteau out of the water by Friday.
By: Kira Mathis
EDEN, N.C. -- Underneath these waters along the Dan River in Eden sits a historic replica of a batteau.
"It's 40 feet long, eight feet wide, dry weighs probably about a ton and a half and wet probably twice that, at least twice that," Dr. Lindley Butler from the Dan River Basin Association said.
But Butler, along with the N.C. Underwater Archaeology team, plan to pull the three-ton shipwreck out of the muddy waters.
They began the feat Wednesday afternoon.
"It's in the mud and sand partly, so the idea is to dredge the sand off and then use some type of buoyant, " said Butler. "We're talking about lift bags or fire house, to raise it and then get it turned over, it's on its side, get it turned upright. And then if we can get it out, we'll take it down the river and take it out down at the boat landing which is about a mile and a half below here."
The batteau was built in 2002. It was used for historic tours along the river until high waters from a storm brought it down in 2008.
"And they ran it for several years, in fact as far as we know it was the only commercial batteau operating in the nation in that time," Butler said.
He also said the boat is an important reminder of a key part of North Carolina's history. "It gave us a global connection," said Butler. "It sounds very modern but in fact it did give this region a global connection and was an economic of that time so it's very important because it tells that story and it really is the key to the development of this river valley," he said.
The Underwater Archaeology team traveled all the way from Wilmington to help recover the boat and are excited to take part.
"It's history, it's navigation, it's exploration, it's boat building, it's design, it's meeting people in their culture, it's really important," Julep Gillman-Brown with NC Underwater Archaeology said.
They hope to have the batteau out of the water by Friday.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Money, not ambition, prompted Abby Sutherland's journey
I confess it, I hadn't done my research properly on this one. I'd assumed Abby Sutherland wanted to sail around the world because she was an adventurous girl, aided and abetted by wealthy parents.
Not so. Her father - who has homeschooled his 7 kids - is bankrupt and has sold his life and family as a reality series.
Here's a dose of reality.
The father of teen sailor Abby Sunderland told The Post yesterday that he's broke and had signed a contract to do a reality show, "Adventures in Sunderland," about his family of daredevil kids weeks after she set off on her doomed and dangerous solo sail around the globe.
Laurence Sunderland, a sailing instructor who lives in the middle-class Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks with his pregnant wife and seven kids, opened their home to film crews four months ago.
"The show might be about family, it might be about Abigail's trip. It's something that was shopped around," he said.
JOHN CHAPPLE
CUT OF HIS JIB: Laurence Sunderland with kids (from l.) Lydia, Katherine, Toby, Zac and Jessie yesterday. Daughter Abby is aboard the ship that retrieved her from her battered sailboat.
Photos: Solo-sail girl Abby Sunderland
see more videos PHOTOS: SOLO-SAIL GIRL ABBY SUNDERLAND
Abby, 16, set sail last January, but got stranded in the Indian Ocean last week after storms smashed the mast of her sailboat, Wild Eyes, knocking out satellite-phone reception. The near-disaster triggered a frantic international rescue effort.
The solo voyage ran into heavy criticism for its high risk and the allegedly poor planning that put Abby in the treacherous Indian Ocean right in the middle of storm season.
Yesterday, she remained aboard the French vessel that rescued her, according to the ship's captain, and was making her slow voyage home.
The boat, Ile de la Reunion, is scheduled to transfer the teen to another ship tonight. It will take her about a week to get to land, the captain said.
Standing in the driveway outside his home, Sunderland explained the theme he envisioned for the show.
"We thought it might be a good idea if it was encouraging to kids to get out there and do things," he said. Sunderland said he didn't initially get many bites.
But Magnetic Entertainment of Studio City, Calif., is already promoting "Adventures in Sunderland" and "Abby's Journey," a documentary, on its Web site.
The studio didn't reply to e-mails and calls for comment yesterday.
Sunderland insists Abby's trip wasn't just a stunt.
The reality show was, he said, "the last thing on my mind.
"The wheels in motion for this trip had actually started when Abigail was 13 years old," he added.
Sunderland also defended his decision to let his daughter take the risky journey.
"I love my daughter dearly," he said. "I love the passion of sailing dearly, and this was about Abigail following her dream. She followed the criteria that I had set out, and met all the requirements to embark on this trip."
Yesterday, Abby blogged that she was undaunted by her misadventure, and was considering writing a book.
She called her wild ride on Wild Eyes "the best thing I have ever done or been through and I don't ever want to forget all the great times . . . or the bad ones for that matter."
The large family has long been a curiosity in the community, neighbors said. All seven children are home-schooled.
"They rarely leave their house, and they rarely talk to neighbors," local resident Brian Gonzales said.
Additional reporting by Ginger Adams Otis
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/sail_kid_parents_set_cour_for_tv_crGRuKCVBcBCM5v3s23ULK#ixzz0qrDJDeU4
Not so. Her father - who has homeschooled his 7 kids - is bankrupt and has sold his life and family as a reality series.
Here's a dose of reality.
The father of teen sailor Abby Sunderland told The Post yesterday that he's broke and had signed a contract to do a reality show, "Adventures in Sunderland," about his family of daredevil kids weeks after she set off on her doomed and dangerous solo sail around the globe.
Laurence Sunderland, a sailing instructor who lives in the middle-class Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks with his pregnant wife and seven kids, opened their home to film crews four months ago.
"The show might be about family, it might be about Abigail's trip. It's something that was shopped around," he said.
JOHN CHAPPLE
CUT OF HIS JIB: Laurence Sunderland with kids (from l.) Lydia, Katherine, Toby, Zac and Jessie yesterday. Daughter Abby is aboard the ship that retrieved her from her battered sailboat.
Photos: Solo-sail girl Abby Sunderland
see more videos PHOTOS: SOLO-SAIL GIRL ABBY SUNDERLAND
Abby, 16, set sail last January, but got stranded in the Indian Ocean last week after storms smashed the mast of her sailboat, Wild Eyes, knocking out satellite-phone reception. The near-disaster triggered a frantic international rescue effort.
The solo voyage ran into heavy criticism for its high risk and the allegedly poor planning that put Abby in the treacherous Indian Ocean right in the middle of storm season.
Yesterday, she remained aboard the French vessel that rescued her, according to the ship's captain, and was making her slow voyage home.
The boat, Ile de la Reunion, is scheduled to transfer the teen to another ship tonight. It will take her about a week to get to land, the captain said.
Standing in the driveway outside his home, Sunderland explained the theme he envisioned for the show.
"We thought it might be a good idea if it was encouraging to kids to get out there and do things," he said. Sunderland said he didn't initially get many bites.
But Magnetic Entertainment of Studio City, Calif., is already promoting "Adventures in Sunderland" and "Abby's Journey," a documentary, on its Web site.
The studio didn't reply to e-mails and calls for comment yesterday.
Sunderland insists Abby's trip wasn't just a stunt.
The reality show was, he said, "the last thing on my mind.
"The wheels in motion for this trip had actually started when Abigail was 13 years old," he added.
Sunderland also defended his decision to let his daughter take the risky journey.
"I love my daughter dearly," he said. "I love the passion of sailing dearly, and this was about Abigail following her dream. She followed the criteria that I had set out, and met all the requirements to embark on this trip."
Yesterday, Abby blogged that she was undaunted by her misadventure, and was considering writing a book.
She called her wild ride on Wild Eyes "the best thing I have ever done or been through and I don't ever want to forget all the great times . . . or the bad ones for that matter."
The large family has long been a curiosity in the community, neighbors said. All seven children are home-schooled.
"They rarely leave their house, and they rarely talk to neighbors," local resident Brian Gonzales said.
Additional reporting by Ginger Adams Otis
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/sail_kid_parents_set_cour_for_tv_crGRuKCVBcBCM5v3s23ULK#ixzz0qrDJDeU4
U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan
The story of this find will I'm sure soon make it into the pages of a technothriller.
Afghanistan, that's a place where drug warlords are allowed to flourish by the CIA becase the warlords are helping them fight the Taliban...meantime Afghanistan women are treated as less than dirt....
But now a trillion dollars worth of metals has been found - who will get the mining concessions - the US, who has propped up this country for so long, or the Arab states who doubtless will wish to move in and remove such a windfall for the US/Afghanistan?
U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
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The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.
American and Afghan officials agreed to discuss the mineral discoveries at a difficult moment in the war in Afghanistan. The American-led offensive in Marja in southern Afghanistan has achieved only limited gains. Meanwhile, charges of corruption and favoritism continue to plague the Karzai government, and Mr. Karzai seems increasingly embittered toward the White House.
So the Obama administration is hungry for some positive news to come out of Afghanistan. Yet the American officials also recognize that the mineral discoveries will almost certainly have a double-edged impact.
Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.
The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources. Just last year, Afghanistan’s minister of mines was accused by American officials of accepting a $30 million bribe to award China the rights to develop its copper mine. The minister has since been replaced.
Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts. Afghanistan has a national mining law, written with the help of advisers from the World Bank, but it has never faced a serious challenge.
“No one has tested that law; no one knows how it will stand up in a fight between the central government and the provinces,” observed Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business and leader of the Pentagon team that discovered the deposits.
At the same time, American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region. After winning the bid for its Aynak copper mine in Logar Province, China clearly wants more, American officials said.
Another complication is that because Afghanistan has never had much heavy industry before, it has little or no history of environmental protection either. “The big question is, can this be developed in a responsible way, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible?” Mr. Brinkley said. “No one knows how this will work.”
With virtually no mining industry or infrastructure in place today, it will take decades for Afghanistan to exploit its mineral wealth fully. “This is a country that has no mining culture,” said Jack Medlin, a geologist in the United States Geological Survey’s international affairs program. “They’ve had some small artisanal mines, but now there could be some very, very large mines that will require more than just a gold pan.”
The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the American-led war against the Taliban insurgency.
The Pentagon task force has already started trying to help the Afghans set up a system to deal with mineral development. International accounting firms that have expertise in mining contracts have been hired to consult with the Afghan Ministry of Mines, and technical data is being prepared to turn over to multinational mining companies and other potential foreign investors. The Pentagon is helping Afghan officials arrange to start seeking bids on mineral rights by next fall, officials said.
Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era.
Go to the Blog »
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Minerals in AfghanistanReaders' Comments
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“The Ministry of Mines is not ready to handle this,” Mr. Brinkley said. “We are trying to help them get ready.”
Like much of the recent history of the country, the story of the discovery of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is one of missed opportunities and the distractions of war.
In 2004, American geologists, sent to Afghanistan as part of a broader reconstruction effort, stumbled across an intriguing series of old charts and data at the library of the Afghan Geological Survey in Kabul that hinted at major mineral deposits in the country. They soon learned that the data had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but cast aside when the Soviets withdrew in 1989.
During the chaos of the 1990s, when Afghanistan was mired in civil war and later ruled by the Taliban, a small group of Afghan geologists protected the charts by taking them home, and returned them to the Geological Survey’s library only after the American invasion and the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
“There were maps, but the development did not take place, because you had 30 to 35 years of war,” said Ahmad Hujabre, an Afghan engineer who worked for the Ministry of Mines in the 1970s.
Armed with the old Russian charts, the United States Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006, using advanced gravity and magnetic measuring equipment attached to an old Navy Orion P-3 aircraft that flew over about 70 percent of the country.
The data from those flights was so promising that in 2007, the geologists returned for an even more sophisticated study, using an old British bomber equipped with instruments that offered a three-dimensional profile of mineral deposits below the earth’s surface. It was the most comprehensive geologic survey of Afghanistan ever conducted.
The handful of American geologists who pored over the new data said the results were astonishing.
But the results gathered dust for two more years, ignored by officials in both the American and Afghan governments. In 2009, a Pentagon task force that had created business development programs in Iraq was transferred to Afghanistan, and came upon the geological data. Until then, no one besides the geologists had bothered to look at the information — and no one had sought to translate the technical data to measure the potential economic value of the mineral deposits.
Soon, the Pentagon business development task force brought in teams of American mining experts to validate the survey’s findings, and then briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mr. Karzai.
So far, the biggest mineral deposits discovered are of iron and copper, and the quantities are large enough to make Afghanistan a major world producer of both, United States officials said. Other finds include large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, rare earth elements and large gold deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan.
Just this month, American geologists working with the Pentagon team have been conducting ground surveys on dry salt lakes in western Afghanistan where they believe there are large deposits of lithium. Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni Province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large of those of Bolivia, which now has the world’s largest known lithium reserves.
For the geologists who are now scouring some of the most remote stretches of Afghanistan to complete the technical studies necessary before the international bidding process is begun, there is a growing sense that they are in the midst of one of the great discoveries of their careers.
“On the ground, it’s very, very, promising,” Mr. Medlin said. “Actually, it’s pretty amazing.”
Afghanistan, that's a place where drug warlords are allowed to flourish by the CIA becase the warlords are helping them fight the Taliban...meantime Afghanistan women are treated as less than dirt....
But now a trillion dollars worth of metals has been found - who will get the mining concessions - the US, who has propped up this country for so long, or the Arab states who doubtless will wish to move in and remove such a windfall for the US/Afghanistan?
U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era.
Go to the Blog »
Multimedia
Graphic
Minerals in AfghanistanReaders' Comments
Share your thoughts.
Post a Comment »
Read All Comments (416) »
The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.
American and Afghan officials agreed to discuss the mineral discoveries at a difficult moment in the war in Afghanistan. The American-led offensive in Marja in southern Afghanistan has achieved only limited gains. Meanwhile, charges of corruption and favoritism continue to plague the Karzai government, and Mr. Karzai seems increasingly embittered toward the White House.
So the Obama administration is hungry for some positive news to come out of Afghanistan. Yet the American officials also recognize that the mineral discoveries will almost certainly have a double-edged impact.
Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.
The corruption that is already rampant in the Karzai government could also be amplified by the new wealth, particularly if a handful of well-connected oligarchs, some with personal ties to the president, gain control of the resources. Just last year, Afghanistan’s minister of mines was accused by American officials of accepting a $30 million bribe to award China the rights to develop its copper mine. The minister has since been replaced.
Endless fights could erupt between the central government in Kabul and provincial and tribal leaders in mineral-rich districts. Afghanistan has a national mining law, written with the help of advisers from the World Bank, but it has never faced a serious challenge.
“No one has tested that law; no one knows how it will stand up in a fight between the central government and the provinces,” observed Paul A. Brinkley, deputy undersecretary of defense for business and leader of the Pentagon team that discovered the deposits.
At the same time, American officials fear resource-hungry China will try to dominate the development of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, which could upset the United States, given its heavy investment in the region. After winning the bid for its Aynak copper mine in Logar Province, China clearly wants more, American officials said.
Another complication is that because Afghanistan has never had much heavy industry before, it has little or no history of environmental protection either. “The big question is, can this be developed in a responsible way, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible?” Mr. Brinkley said. “No one knows how this will work.”
With virtually no mining industry or infrastructure in place today, it will take decades for Afghanistan to exploit its mineral wealth fully. “This is a country that has no mining culture,” said Jack Medlin, a geologist in the United States Geological Survey’s international affairs program. “They’ve had some small artisanal mines, but now there could be some very, very large mines that will require more than just a gold pan.”
The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the American-led war against the Taliban insurgency.
The Pentagon task force has already started trying to help the Afghans set up a system to deal with mineral development. International accounting firms that have expertise in mining contracts have been hired to consult with the Afghan Ministry of Mines, and technical data is being prepared to turn over to multinational mining companies and other potential foreign investors. The Pentagon is helping Afghan officials arrange to start seeking bids on mineral rights by next fall, officials said.
Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era.
Go to the Blog »
Multimedia
Graphic
Minerals in AfghanistanReaders' Comments
Share your thoughts.
Post a Comment »
Read All Comments (427) »
“The Ministry of Mines is not ready to handle this,” Mr. Brinkley said. “We are trying to help them get ready.”
Like much of the recent history of the country, the story of the discovery of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is one of missed opportunities and the distractions of war.
In 2004, American geologists, sent to Afghanistan as part of a broader reconstruction effort, stumbled across an intriguing series of old charts and data at the library of the Afghan Geological Survey in Kabul that hinted at major mineral deposits in the country. They soon learned that the data had been collected by Soviet mining experts during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, but cast aside when the Soviets withdrew in 1989.
During the chaos of the 1990s, when Afghanistan was mired in civil war and later ruled by the Taliban, a small group of Afghan geologists protected the charts by taking them home, and returned them to the Geological Survey’s library only after the American invasion and the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.
“There were maps, but the development did not take place, because you had 30 to 35 years of war,” said Ahmad Hujabre, an Afghan engineer who worked for the Ministry of Mines in the 1970s.
Armed with the old Russian charts, the United States Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006, using advanced gravity and magnetic measuring equipment attached to an old Navy Orion P-3 aircraft that flew over about 70 percent of the country.
The data from those flights was so promising that in 2007, the geologists returned for an even more sophisticated study, using an old British bomber equipped with instruments that offered a three-dimensional profile of mineral deposits below the earth’s surface. It was the most comprehensive geologic survey of Afghanistan ever conducted.
The handful of American geologists who pored over the new data said the results were astonishing.
But the results gathered dust for two more years, ignored by officials in both the American and Afghan governments. In 2009, a Pentagon task force that had created business development programs in Iraq was transferred to Afghanistan, and came upon the geological data. Until then, no one besides the geologists had bothered to look at the information — and no one had sought to translate the technical data to measure the potential economic value of the mineral deposits.
Soon, the Pentagon business development task force brought in teams of American mining experts to validate the survey’s findings, and then briefed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Mr. Karzai.
So far, the biggest mineral deposits discovered are of iron and copper, and the quantities are large enough to make Afghanistan a major world producer of both, United States officials said. Other finds include large deposits of niobium, a soft metal used in producing superconducting steel, rare earth elements and large gold deposits in Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan.
Just this month, American geologists working with the Pentagon team have been conducting ground surveys on dry salt lakes in western Afghanistan where they believe there are large deposits of lithium. Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni Province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large of those of Bolivia, which now has the world’s largest known lithium reserves.
For the geologists who are now scouring some of the most remote stretches of Afghanistan to complete the technical studies necessary before the international bidding process is begun, there is a growing sense that they are in the midst of one of the great discoveries of their careers.
“On the ground, it’s very, very, promising,” Mr. Medlin said. “Actually, it’s pretty amazing.”
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