Shōchū is a traditional Japanese beverage containing roughly 25% alcohol by volume. Shōchū is today produced all over the country, but its traditional home is Kyūshū, the third-largest island of Japan.

Shōchū is usually made from barley, rice or sweet potato. Shōchū is made from Barley is generally considered “easier” to drink than Shōchū made from rice. Barley Shōchū is sometimes left to age in casks which makes it develop a sharper taste and become fairly similar to single-malt whiskey.

Shōchū is made from rice has a “thicker” taste and is typically produced in regions that also makes Nihonshu, such as Akita and Niigata. The region Hitoyoshi-bonchi produces a famous rice shōchū known as Kuma shōchū.

Sweet potato Shōchū was earlier produced chiefly in the prefectures of Kagoshima and Miyazaki, but is today produced all over the country. Sweet potato Shōchū tastes a bit similar to almonds.

The exact origin of Shōchū remains shielded in mystery, but Japanese historical records indicate that it has been produced since at least the 1500s. Throughout the Tokugawa period (1603-1868), Shōchū was produced using a single round of distillation. During the Meiji period (1868-1912), machines capable of carrying out repeated distillation were imported from Great Britain. To distinguish between single distilled Shōchū and Shōchū that had undergone repeated distillations, the two drinks were referred to as old-style shōchū and new-style shōchū.

The Maldives is an island nation consisting of a group of 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean. The nation is found roughly seven hundred kilometres (435 miles) south-west of Sri Lanka. The Maldives includes almost 1200 small islets but only 250 of them are inhabited.

The Maldives is a popular tourist destination, especially among scuba divers. Today, tourism and fisheries are the two pillars of the nation’s economy. In addition to scuba diving, holiday makers flock to enjoy swimming, snorkelling, windsurfing and water-skiing. The beaches features white sand and the surrounding ocean is of characteristic blue shade.

The official language in the Maldives is Dhivehi, but English is commonly spoken among those working in the tourism sector and it is also increasingly used by teachers in government schools.

To protect this sensitive island country, more and more tourist facilities on the islands promote ecotourism. Eco-tourism facilities emphasize habits such as recycling heat and taking proper care of waste.

The Maldives is the flattest country in the world and is protected from storms and high waves by barrier reefs. Sadly enough, the barrier reefs where not enough to protect the country from the devastating tsunami that followed the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The impact of the waves was however decreased by the fact that there is no continental shelf or land mass near the Maldives upon which the waves could gain height. The tallest wave that hit the Maldives was approximately 14 feet (4.3 meters) high.

The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) feeds almost exclusively on krill, but it can also ingest copepods. Krill is a type of shrimp-like invertebrates that makes up a significant part of the zooplankton group in the oceans of the world. These tiny crustaceans are not only appreciated by the Blue Whale, they are eaten by animals such as Whale Sharks, Baleen Whales, Manta Rays and Crabeater Seals as well.

Looking for something to cheer you up on a boring afternoon? Devote a few minute to this great little video about urban wizards. Being a wizard is a tough job, but someone has to do it. And after all, motherfucking wizards never die. They just get disenchanted.

The town of Alchevsk is located in the Luhansk Oblast in south-eastern Ukraine. It has a population of roughly 120,000 and is one of the major industrial centres in the Donets Basin. It is a fairly young town, founded in 1895 as town focused on iron works. The town is still heavily dependent on Alchevsk Iron & Steel Works (OJSC) and Alchevsk Coke-Chemical Plant. Between 1931 and 1961, the town was named Voroshilovsk. It was then renamed Kommunarsk and this name was kept until 1992.

In January 2006, unusually cold winter weather caused an underground heat pipe to crack and this lead to a collapse of the district heating system. About 60,000 residents found themselves without heating and was force to relay on electric heaters. Within a few days, the sewage system froze since it no longer held any warm tap water. The accident occurred on January 22 and by February 11 dozens of buildings where still without any heat, despite the efforts of the engineering teams sent to Alchevsk by the Ukrainian government. Children had to be evacuated to warmer parts of Ukraine. An investigation showed that the heating system suffered from long-time neglect and it was also especially vulnerable to this type of accident since it depended on no more than two boilers and a few main pipelines.

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