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Category Archives: Islands

Watch 'Road Dawgs,' A Mini-Documentary About Future Islands

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December 17, 2014 8:03 AM ET

This was Future Islands' year. After touring hard for eight years and recording four albums, they finally broke through. The latest album, Singles, came out in March. It is a well-loved and grand look at the dramatic and synthy side of this Baltimore band, though it may have been Sam Herring's rubbery and thrusting dance on TV that got people listening.

Now they're touring the world with massive crowds hearing these heartfelt tunes and trying to stay true to their humble selves. This short film, Road Dawgs, directed by Jay Buim, who also did the "Seasons (Waiting On You)" video, is a glimpse at a band who now knows things have changed but is trying to keep it real.

You can watch Future Islands' 2011 Tiny Desk Concert here.

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Watch 'Road Dawgs,' A Mini-Documentary About Future Islands

Nansha shipping exchange with HK mooted

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Updated: 2014-12-17 06:56 By Chai Hua in Shenzhen(HK Edition)

Guangzhou's Nansha Islands will be included in the proposed Guangdong Free Trade Zone (FTZ), which experts believe will create tremendous business opportunities for the shipping industry of Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

The Guangzhou government said on Monday it hopes to cooperate with Hong Kong to strengthen its existing Guangzhou Shipping Exchange.

The Guangzhou Shipping Exchange, established in 2011 and moved to Nansha Islands in 2012, is the first legal ship transaction service institute in the Pearl River Delta region, providing services for ship owners, port enterprises, industry investors and shipping finance organizations.

So far, the Hong Kong-based philanthropic organization Fok Ying Tung Foundation has built about 300 yacht berths, while another two companies have shown interest in investing in berths, according to industry sources.

"Before the FTZ came on, Guangzhou was not attractive enough for Hong Kong to build such a shipping exchange," said Zheng Tianxiang, a professor at the Center for Studies of Hong Kong, Macao and the Pearl River Delta at Sun Yat-sen University. "Now, the opportunity has come."

Zheng speculated that mutual free travel of yachts and cruise ships between Nansha Islands and the HKSAR will be allowed, bringing more exchanges and trading between the two sides.

On Monday, the State Council approved 15 innovative financial policies for the Nansha Islands to further cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao in financial services, especially the shipping finance industry.

"Nansha has the foundation for shipbuilding and shipping with a large cargo throughput. Hong Kong's advantages are its container industry, international experience in legal matters and an international shipping network."

Last year's cargo throughput at Nansha Port exceeded 10 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) with 10 deep-water container berths. The port is expanding another four berths, which may add another 5.7 million TEUs each year.

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Nansha shipping exchange with HK mooted

SE Valley county islands come with pros, cons

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Cheryl Webb stands outside her home in a county island surrounded by Queen Creek. Her road is unpaved because the town of Queen Creek doesnt develop roads outside its jurisdiction.(Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic)

Southeast Valley municipalities are like Swiss cheese.

Within city and town boundaries are holes, pieces of land that are governed by Maricopa County and known as county islands, or unincorporated areas.

Debra Stark, director of Maricopa County Planning and Development, said that county islands were created when some property owners asked to be annexed to their surrounding city while others didn't.

"Cities worked around the ones that didn't want to come into the city or town," she said. "So, county islands were formed."

The county has no say in whether a county island annexes into a city, Stark said.

EXPLORE: See the county islands in your town or city

"It's really up to the city and the property owner," she said. State laws dictate that annexation can only occur if 51 percent of property owners consent, representing at least 51 percent of the assessed value of the property.

"Most cities would try to annex in before the property is developed, so you still have one singular owner as opposed to several," Stark said.

The concept of county islands and the governance that comes with them is unfamiliar to many transplants from the Midwest and the East Coast.

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SE Valley county islands come with pros, cons

Puerto Rico tops list of 25 best islands

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Puerto Rico has taken top spot on the list of 25 best Caribbean islands published by Business Insider magazine.

The selection of destinations took into account the island's accessibility from New York, the average cost of hotel rooms, the number of attractions and something called the beach density index, a ratio of the length of the coast to total area.

Puerto Rico was selected as the best island because it is only two hours and 40 minutes from New York by air and the average cost of a hotel room is $US187 ($A202), according to Business Insider.

The Bahamas, St Barts, St Martin and Cura'ao also made the list's top five, while Grenada, Turks and Caicos, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Haiti filled the last five slots.

The study also evaluated the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Montserrat, Cuba, Martinique, Aruba, Trinidad and Tobago, the US Virgin Islands, St Lucia, Antigua and Anguilla.

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Puerto Rico tops list of 25 best islands

Tourism Poses A Threat To Dolphins In The Balearic Islands

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December 15, 2014

Image Caption: Conflicts with fishers cause 30 to 60 dolphin deaths a year in the area. Credit: Joan Gonzalvo

Provided by SINC Team, FECYT Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology

The rise in tourism, fishing and sea transport between the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands is compromising the wellbeing of a small population of common bottlenose dolphins living in coastal waters off the Pityusic Islands. This is the conclusion of a study led by the University of Barcelona (Spain), which has, for the first time, counted these mammals in summer and spring, which are crucial seasons for them.

Despite being one of the most common cetaceans in the Mediterranean Ocean, the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates) resides in areas close to human beings, and is thus subject to continual conflicts so much so that in 2006, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the subpopulation of this species in the Mediterranean vulnerable after it had decreased by 30% in the preceding 60 years.

As Joan Gonzalvo, a scientist at the University of Barcelonas (UB) Institute for Research on Biodiversity, explains to SINC: Anthropogenic activities such as fishing, coastal development, tourism and maritime transport, especially in summer, are some of the threats faced by dolphins in the Balearic Islands.

Gonzalvo is the main author of a study that evaluated the abundance of these cetaceans over three years, as well as movement patterns between the islands and their group dynamic. The results, published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, estimates that there are 517 dolphins inhabiting this area of the Mediterranean.

The Pityusic Islands are considered a refuge for marine species, especially this population of bottlenose dolphins probably one of the largest in Spain. However, the study demonstrates that the total number of these sea mammals is smaller than previously thought. It may not be more than a few hundred, the researcher says.

The team drew up a series of dolphin distribution maps based on sightings between 2002 and 2004. Most sightings were in summer and spring, when the dolphins could have been avoiding coastal waters due to the growing number of boats and ships and greater human presence, Gonzalvo reasons.

Danger point

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Tourism Poses A Threat To Dolphins In The Balearic Islands

‘FORESTS ON ISLANDS?’ – Day 13 – The Forest – 2014 Squad B Advent – Video

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#39;FORESTS ON ISLANDS? #39; - Day 13 - The Forest - 2014 Squad B Advent
Subscribe to SQUADB!: http://bit.ly/1u0sJWe Today is forests on islands as we crash land and take on the might of the local trive wearing only loincloths. -----------------------------------------...

By: Squadb CEO Pyrex and Trouble

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'FORESTS ON ISLANDS?' - Day 13 - The Forest - 2014 Squad B Advent - Video


  1. Islands