Morning photo: Oceans

India Ink: India Arrives at the Arctic May 20, 2013

Why does India’s inclusion as a permanent observer in the Arctic Council matter.

IHT Rendezvous: ‘Cadmium Rice’ Is China’s Latest Food Scandal May 20, 2013

As China absorbs the news that quite a bit of its rice contains too much of the toxic metal cadmium, the state-run media are advising people to diversify the geographical sources of their food, to reduce risk.

IHT Rendezvous: France Fights Racism by Outlawing ‘Race’ May 20, 2013

Parliament has voted to scrap the use of the word “race” in the country’s laws. Critics have condemned the move as an empty gesture that will do nothing to combat racism.

IHT Rendezvous: Deciding the Future of the Arctic May 20, 2013

The region holds an estimated 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves and 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered gas. What should happen to it and who should say?

Morning photo: Oceans

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

From sea to shining sea …

Teaching my son to swim at the Silverthorne Rec Center here in landlocked Colorado paid off when we visited Jamaica, where he swam with confidence in the surf at the edge of the sea.

SUMMIT COUNTY — I live in a place that’s about as landlocked as you can get, at least 1,000 miles from an ocean in any direction, yet I’m drawn to the seaside and visit every chance I get. There’s something incredibly meditative about sitting on a beach and watching waves roll in and crash ashore, and hardly anything is as invigorating as an ocean swim. I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t live in the mountains close to good skiing, I’d live by an ocean, but in the meantime, I can always visit and revisit some of my favorite spots vicariously, through the many photos I’ve taken. And in honor of World Oceans Day and National Oceans Week here in the U.S. the #FriFotos twitter chat this week is all about oceans — here’s my take.

Ocean!

The Southern Ocean is interesting because it’s not bounded by geographical boundaries defined by land masses, but by latitude (everything south of 60 degrees) and by a cold circumpolar current that, despite absence of a defining land mass, differentiates the water as sharply, or perhaps even more sharply, than any peninsula or isthmus.

While most of us only visit the ocean for a short time, there is a whole class of pelagic birds who spend most of their life at sea, sometimes ranging for thousands of miles of open water, like this petrel in the Southern Ocean between Patagonia and Antarctica.