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4058_20e950107194be4b810e555919b6147d_2.jpg (JPEG Image, 650×433 pixels) Lake-anna-quarter.jpg (JPEG Image, 3789×1748 pixels) - Scaled (33%) Iceland-waterfall.jpg (JPEG Image, 960×640 pixels) - Scaled (97%) Mini castle in a pond - Pena's Pond Portugal. The Pena Park is a vast forested area completely surrounding the Pena Palace, spreading for over 200 hectares of uneven terrain.

Mini castle in a pond - Pena's Pond Portugal

The park was created at the same time as the palace by King Ferdinand II, who was assisted in the task by the Baron von Eschwege and the Baron von Kessler. The exotic taste of the Romanticism was applied to the park as it was to the palace. The king ordered trees from diverse, distant lands to be planted there. Those included North American Sequoia, Lawson’s Cypress, Magnolia and Western Redcedar, Chinese Ginkgo, Japanese Cryptomeria, and a wide variety of ferns and tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand, concentrated in the Queen’s Fern Garden (Feteira da Rainha). The park has a labyrinthic system of paths and narrow roads, connecting the palace to the many points of interest throughout the park, as well as to its two gated exits. The Pena National Palace is a Romanticist palace in São Pedro de Penaferrim, municipality of Sintra, Portugal. Ss-cathedral-peak.jpg (JPEG Image, 1050×700 pixels) - Scaled (86%)

3797977.jpg (JPEG Image, 900×584 pixels) 'Solar bullet' to hit Earth. Gallery | click on thumbnail to view larger image Solar flare A solar flare was captured by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

'Solar bullet' to hit Earth

See a selection of these fascinating pictures. Cape Town - Charged particles from the sun will strike the Earth on Tuesday after a huge solar flare erupted on Monday. The M9-class solar flare was observed by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory and erupted from a sunspot on Monday at 05:59, SpaceWeather.com reported. The coronal mass ejection or CME is travelling to Earth at 2 200km/s which means that it could potentially cause communications disruptions to networks on the planet that could include disabling satellites in its path.

In the polar regions people could observe spectacular auroras, that may even be visible at lower latitudes. The CME may have a particular impact in South Africa because of the South Atlantic Anomaly where the Earth's magnetic field is weakest. p367500361-5.jpg (JPEG Image, 1100 × 696 pixels) - Scaled (83%) STOP RHINO POACHING NOW! Please support our electronic rhino campaign by attaching this banner to your email signature.

STOP RHINO POACHING NOW!

Welcome to StopRhinoPoaching.com South Africa's rhinos are in crisis, and we're doing everything we can to help by channeling public support to selected key reserves and rhino security projects. You will have heard that there is no 'silver bullet' to end rhino poaching and that it's an incredibly complex battle. Never have truer words been spoken. While there are numerous organisations addressing various focus areas, we concentrate on the very basics - keeping rhinos alive and buying them time while diplomatic solutions are found.

Since the start of the poaching epidemic in 2008 South Africa has lost over 2600 rhinos - a figure that, despite so much effort, increases daily. There has been a large proliferation of level 1 poaching gangs, with new gangs becoming involved all the time. The figures are soaring despite so much effort by so many good people. R6 000.00 from Epoch Resources.