Touring Balochistan

     
Since there is not much development going on in Balochistan especially outside Quetta & Gwadar now, why not encourage & promote Balochistan as an unspoiled tourist destination to both Pakistanis & Foreigners. Proper exposing & marketing Balochistan Tours would also help reducing locals apprehensions & fears of "Foreign invaders", esp. after they bring much needed financial relief & jobs for the locals too.

     So I say Tourism must be developed for most of Balochistan & unsafe areas could be avoided for now.

      There is lot to see & experience outside Quetta in Balochistan too. Here are few pics of rural areas of Balochistan!

     This Mandir is located at Hingol in Balochistan. You can witness some worshippers  offering their worship. Hingol is also the home of Grand Canyons of Pakistan.

     This interested rock is a natural one, believe it. It looks like a lady standing on the top of a mountain and named as the 'Princess of Hope'. It can be seen when you are travelling on Coastal Highway near Buzi Pass in Balochistan. This area is also known as the Grand Canyons of Pakistan.

     The Aghore Tower is situated on the way to Nani Mandir near the Hingol River bank, some 3 to 4 KMs before the Aghore, Balochistan. It is around 14-15 KMs away from the Coastal Highway. You can imagine the height of Aghore Tower by witnessing the cars parked near Tower. 

     This beautiful place is located some 120 Km from zero point of Coastal Highway, which is about at 3.5 to 4 hours drive from Karachi. After reaching Aghore, you have to left the highway and make an off-road drive of about 18 to 20 Km towards Nani Mandir alongside Hingol River to reach this place. 

    This is the Hingol River bed in drought season. Normally in the period of rains, you cannot imagine to stand at this place, as a flood stream approximately 20 to 30 feet heigh passes through this route. Rocky areas of Pakistan's Balochistan province are full of adventures and thrill.

     A waterfall located at Pir Ghaib near Bolan in Balochistan.It is so blue and Beautiful that we cant even think that it is located inside the barren landscape. 

 A thirsty camel at Hingol River in Balochistan 

     Welcome to Hingol Valley in Balochistan. This is the entrance of Grand Canyons of Pakistan and on the way to Nani Mandir. This is a part of Hingol National Park and you can witness here a number of Ibex. 

    Taken during a storm near Uthal in Balochistan.

                    Near Bela in Balochistan.

Near Bela in Balochistan. Bela is about 250 km from Karachi.

                     Desolation of Balochistan

      Churna Island, off coast of Balochistan/Sindh

Tourists enjoying Jamil Baloch's performance on Balochistan coastal areas.

This rock features prominently in the work of several of the artists at Gadani

Earth at 7 billion People

     Earth crossed 7 billion in population on the October 31st, 2011, and growing quickly. We have had a massive impact on the environment. Here is an amazing info-graphic with amazing statistics on the same! 

     Estimates put the planet at 8 billion in another 14 years, which is an eye blink compared to the 123 years it took us to go from 1 billion to 2 billion. 

     India is set to surpass China as the world's most populous by 2030.

     That means a weighty impact on our planet. How weighty? Our friends at Masters Degree On-line did the mathematics and found that we humans account for just .00018% of the earth’s biomass, yet we use 20% of its resources. 

     And before you start arguing that our weight demands that kind of use, the data shows we humans collectively tip the scales at 350 million tons, while the lowly ants would crush us with their 3 billion collective tons.

     Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the world, the Blue Planet, or by its Latin name, Terra.

     Earth formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface within one billion years. Earth's biosphere then significantly altered the atmospheric and other basic physical conditions, which enabled the proliferation of organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer, which together with Earth's magnetic field blocked harmful solar radiation, and permitted formerly ocean-confined life to move safely to land. The physical properties of the Earth, as well as its geological history and orbit, have allowed life to persist. Estimates on how much longer the planet will be able to continue to support life range from 500 million years (myr), to as long as 2.3 billion years (byr)

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

700 Layers Of Human Brain in 47 Seconds --- Amazing

Perhaps not for everyone however this is a fascinating video. It's hard to imagine how the allure of anatomy served thinly sliced could ever cease to be enchanting somehow for myself. The clip, while brief, comprises 700 images of a cryosectioned human brain. Each snapshot corresponds to a single, horizontal brain slice, beginning at the top of the skull and moving downward in the direction of the neck, each slice progressing a mere .174-millimeters at a time. Taken individually, no one slice is particularly striking; but upon seeing the folds of brain matter contort, vanish, and materialize in such rapid succession, the compulsion to share it became too strong to resist.

For those of you who might like to see these sections as stills:

Brain Maps.org: http://brainmaps.org/index.php?action=viewslides&datid=81

It also reminded me of the project at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC. There are currently efforts to repeat this project with higher resolution images but only with parts of the body instead of an entire cadaver.

Visible Human Project:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_Human_Project

Posted by Zaffar Iqbal Durrani

Cinemagraphs

     There is a new trend in the photography which has really given life to still photography. The still photo is no more still. It is alive. This new trend or technology is called Cinemagraphs.

     Cinemagraphs are still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement occurs. Cinemagraphs, which are usually published in an animated GIF format, can give the illusion that the viewer is watching a video.

     They are commonly produced by taking a series of photographs or a video recording, and, using image editing software, composing the photographs or the video frames into a seamless loop of sequential frames, often using the animated GIF file format in such a manner that motion in part of the subject between exposures (for example, a person's dangling leg) is perceived as a repeating or continued motion, in contrast with the stillness of the rest of the image.

     The term "Cinemagraph" was coined by U.S. photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck, who used the technique to animate their fashion and news photographs beginning in early 2011.

Here are few example photographs in Cinemagraphs Technology. It is really heart warming to watch.