International taxes on aircraft emissions will come into effect soon and Gulf airlines are now partnering with academic institutions and industry in order to reduce their carbon footprint. Under the EU emissions trading scheme, all airlines will probably have to pay emissions tax for flights to Europe from 2012. Airlines are required to submit emission monitoring plans to EU authorities by September this year.
Gulf Air is developing a program to offer passengers the option of offsetting carbon emissions from their flight by supporting a hydroelectric project in Brazil. Etihad Airways and Masdar in Abu Dhabi are researching alternative biofuels. In a few months Qatar airways will flight test a new fuel that will burn substantially cleaner than conventional jet fuel.
By the end of the eighteenth century, Paris had a serious problem: what to do with all the dead bodies? The city’s poor were often buried in mass graves at the Saint Innocents Cemetery, near the center of the city. Eventually, it was filled way past capacity and the decaying corpses were polluting Paris’ groundwater. Finally, at the start of the nineteenth century, new graveyards aroun...
Purposely built on the western edge of an ancient Roman civilian settlement, this museum offers extensive exhibits on Roman life in Budapest. There is a vast collection of Roman coins and wall paintings, a replica of a 3rd century organ called a ‘hydra’ and stone sarcophagi. Across the road is the Roman Civilian Amphitheatre which, while smaller than the original thing, leaves much to the imaginat...
To the right of the Ho Chi Minh Museum, near Ba Dinh Square, is the unique One-Pillar Pagoda - also known as Lien Phai Pagoda, or the Pagoda of the Lotus Sect - a wooden structure built in 1049 that sits on stilts over a lake. The pagoda is a miniature reproduction of the original temple, which was said to represent a lotus emerging from the water. Prayers offered here are said to bring fertility ...
The Museum of Military History is a small museum dedicated to the military history of South Africa and showcases items like the South African built G-6 artillery piece, to small arms, aircraft, and even a submarine! Address: 22 Erlswold Way, Saxonwold Telephone: +27 (0)11 646 5513 Website: http://www.militarymuseum.co.za/ Opening hours: Daily 0900-1630 Admission charge &nb...