Panas Atis: December 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

January 1st was not always the New year....

Ahh!! . . . here we are. January 1st, 2012…... A brand new month……. A brand new year.

January, the month of new beginnings and is a time to cherish memories. It is the month in which winter weaves her magically festive spell about us with it's cool and crisp days.

This is the month where the temperatures plummet and we gladly look forward to log bonfires and with thick wisps of fog descending around us . And then the New Year descends on us.

Happy New Year! That is the greeting that we will often hear for the first few weeks of 2012. But do you know that January 1st was not always celebrated as New Year's Day?

In the earliest times the celebration of the New Year was one of the oldest recorded holidays.

It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago.

Babylon

In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon …..That is the first visible crescent after the Vernal Equinox; this was the first day of spring. The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year, after all, it is the season of rebirth, a season of regeneration you could say. It was the time for planting of new crops and of blossoming.

Vernal Equinox

The present day January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical or agricultural connotation. It is purely capricious.

The Babylonian New Year celebration was a real carnival true sense. They were a pageant of festivities that lasted for eleven days; each day had its own specific and definitive style and reason of celebration. In comparison New Year's Eve of present day festivities pale into insignificance.

Babylon Feast celebrations

Now if we looked at the Romans, they continued to observe the New Year in March, but their calendar was frequently messed about by the various Roman Emperors, the result was that the calendar soon became out of sync with the solar shifts. The early Roman calendar chose March 1 as the New Year and their calendar had just ten months, beginning with March. ….the New Year began with the month of March…Look carefully and will notice it in the names of the designated months septem is Latin for "seven," octo is "eight," novem is "nine," and decem is "ten."

Now let us see as to when January joins the Calendar…

In fact, the month of January did not even exist until around 700 B.C. The second king of Rome,Numa Pontilius, added the months of January and February.

The first time the New Year was declared to be on January 1st by the Roman Senate was in Rome in 153 B.C. The new year was moved from March to January because that was the beginning of the civil administration year. It was the month that the two newly elected Roman consuls—the highest officials in the Roman republic—began their one-year tenure.

Julian Calendar

But tampering continued with Julius Caesar as well, in 46 BC, he established what has come to be known as the Julian calendar. He introduced a new, solar-based calendar that was a vast improvement on the ancient Roman calendar, which was based on the lunar system that had become wildly inaccurate over the years. Now January 1 was back again as the New Year, but in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.

After this aberration the year was 365 days long, with an additional day added every four years.

In the medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the New Year were considered pagan and were considered not Christian, and they abolished January 1st as the beginning of the year.

At various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the New Year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus.

However, the Julian calendar was not perfect, and was, in turn, replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. This calendar was accepted throughout Europe and eventually the New World.

Pope Gregory XI11

Thus in1582 Gregorian calendar restored January 1 as the New Years day.

While most Catholic countries accepted the Gregorian calendar just about straight away, The Protestant countries took time.

The British, for example, did not adopt this calendar until 1752.

From this you can see that The NEW YEAR has had quite a colourful travel through history.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my friends

Black Eyed Peas: Recipe With Fergie is Rockin' New Year (Video)

A good black eyed peas recipe can be a start to a great new year, especially if you are looking to start New Year's Eve 2011 off with a bang. But here, we are talking about Fergie on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2011 from Times Square in NYC.

Tonight, Fergie will join Dick Clark, Ryan Seacrest, and Jenny McCarthy in New York City for one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations on record, as part of a growing tradition.

In place of the fatback, bacon, cabbage, rice, and chicken stock will be a huge lineup of celebrities who will help usher in 2011 with singing, dancing, and comedy. Here's just a small sample of the biggest names in entertainment who will join Clark, Seacrest, McCarthy, and the Black Eyed Peas star for a recipe of fun and excitement:

Willow Smith
Ne-Yo
Drake
New Kids on the Block and Back Street Boys (Imagine that?)

But, if you're really in search of a great black eyed peas recipe, check out this site, especially if you want to lose some pounds and inches for the New Year. For more about Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2011, check out the official website.

Check out the promo video below, and have a wonderful New Year!

Former Irish Premier Bertie Ahern Retires Amid Economic Devastation

Like a B-29 pilot gazing down at the smoking ruins of Hiroshima, Bertie Ahern, with grim satisfaction, says "my work here is done," and heads for home.

Bertie has had a major impact on this small island, but his war is over. On his flight back to the safety of speaking tours, book royalties, and retirement with a generous pension, what does he think of his handiwork?

"I am proud" he says, "of what I have achieved in politics." His retirement from politics comes in the very month Ireland was taken over by the IMF and the EU, an event his 11 year premiership led to.

"Years of apparently great success then" says Bertie, "are apparently tainted by great failures now. But the truth is more complex and in time it will be viewed more dispassionately. The raw emotion of real shock means it is too soon to take stock."

However, leading Irish economist Mr McCarthy says that the EU-IMF bailout is, very directly, Bertie's legacy: "That '[he bailout] should have happened to Ireland, after a decade of self-congratulation when a genuine base of economic achievement was there to be built upon, is the real legacy of the Ahern era." He also points out that economic reality was not faced until Ahern "departed the scene".

But Bertie says, "If there must be recognition of where we went wrong, there has to be clarity about what we got right." In short, let's not bicker and moan about the current economic blahdey blah. Let's talk about peace in Northern Ireland!

Ahern continues, "The cause of peace on this island is the single cause that more than any other I devoted my time, my capacity and my political commitment to. For much of my adult life, violence in Northern Ireland defined global perceptions of the island of Ireland.

"Peace is our generation's greatest achievement. Continuing conflict would have been our greatest failure. And not to have had the courage to risk failure again and again would have been cowardice. I have stood successfully in 12 elections. Now at the end of this long journey of learning and of leading I want to thank those who helped me along the way and whose friendship means more to me than these words can say.

"Now it is time to stand aside, to pass on the baton and allow others to continue the race."

Bertie's retirement remarks only just stop short of his predecessor Charlie Haughey's retirement speech in which used the words of Shakespeare's Othello:

"I have done the state some service, and they know't."

In Bertie's case, we know't, alright: The 400,000 people on the dole; the young families emigrating, the graduates who can't find work, the children facing education cuts, the fathers leaving their families to work in Dubai this Christmas, bricklayers with no hope of ever finding work again, those whose welfare is being taxed, the sick in our decimated hospitals and all who mourn for the loss of our proud nation's sovereignty.

We all know't: We all know the sort of service that Bertie has provided this state.

But Bertie says, "And the next generation will build on our success and they will learn from our mistakes."

Indeed, Bertie, it has been educational.

Georgia Must Enact Anti-Profiling Laws

When I testified this month before the Special Joint Committee on Immigration Reform, a committee of 14 Republicans convened to draft legislative proposals for the upcoming legislative session, I reminded them about the continued obligation of Georgia under international human rights law to protect and preserve the human dignity of all people regardless of immigration status.

As documented by the ACLU of Georgia, racial profiling and other human rights violations against immigrants or those perceived to be noncitizens continue in Georgia. In Gwinnett County, many Latinos have been stopped without reasonable suspicion or probable cause by the police in their cars or on the street.

Juan Vasquez, a legal permanent resident who lives in Sugar Hill, reports having been stopped and harassed by police on multiple occasions for no apparent reason. On one occasion, rather than tell Vasquez why he was pulled over, the officers screamed at him for asking questions before releasing him without any citation. Vasquez now avoids certain areas of Sugar Hill where he has come to expect harassment by the police.

Prompt action by the state is necessary to combat racial and ethnic profiling in Gwinnett and Georgia. The Legislature should pass anti-racial profiling legislation to give law enforcement agencies, policymakers and the public the tools necessary to identify and address the problem of racial profiling in the state. Data collection about traffic stops is an important supervisory tool. You can't manage what you don't measure. Annual training for law enforcement regarding racial profiling will also help ensure that stops and arrests are undertaken in a fair manner.

The Georgia Legislature should also carefully consider all the proposed bills in the upcoming session to ensure that they are consistent with the Constitution and our international human rights obligations, as reaffirmed by both Republican and Democratic administrations. In February 2008, the Bush administration told the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that "United States is in profound agreement with the committee that every state must be vigilant in protecting the rights that noncitizens in its territory enjoy, regardless of their immigration status, as a matter of applicable domestic and international law."

Last month, the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) issued a set of recommendations for the U.S. to bring its policies and practices in line with international standards. The recommendations are the result of the first-ever participation by the U.S. in the Universal Periodic Review process, which involves a thorough assessment of a nation's human rights record. State and local laws, such as Arizona's SB 1070, that aim to regulate immigration and lead to racial profiling were examined and decried by the Human Rights Council.

One of the recommendations issued by HRC was for the United States to end racial and ethnic profiling by law enforcement, especially with respect to immigration. Harold Koh, the U.S. State Department legal adviser, stated in response to this recommendation that "we will leave no stone unturned in our effort to eliminate racial profiling in law enforcement."

Georgia legislators should be wary of any measure similar to Arizona's racial profiling law that would encourage law enforcement to stop people on the street based on how they look, rather than based on individualized suspicion or evidence of criminal activity.

Laws that promise to turn the state into "show me your papers" territory would violate the Constitution and human rights commitments and tarnish Georgia's reputation as a state welcoming to new immigrants.

Throwing Biotech Lies at Tomatoes - Part 1: Killer Tomatoes

Remember the pictures of the fish tomatoes? For years they were an unofficial emblem of the anti-GMO movement. They depicted how anti-freeze genes from an Arctic fish were forced into tomato DNA, allowing the plants to survive frost. Scientists really did create those Frankentomatoes, but they were never put on the market. (Breyers low-fat ice cream, however, does contain anti-freeze proteins from Arctic fish genes, but that's another story.)

The tomato that did make it to market was called the Flavr Savr, engineered for longer shelf life. Fortunately, it was removed from the shelves soon after it was introduced.

Although there are no longer any genetically modified (GM) tomatoes being sold today, the FDA's shady approval process of the Flavr Savr provides a lesson in food safety—or rather, the lack of it—as far as gene-spliced foods are concerned. We know what really went on during the FDA's voluntary review process of the Flavr Savr in 1993, because a lawsuit forced the release of 44,000 agency memos.

(Those same memos, by the way, also showed that FDA scientists had repeatedly warned their superiors about the serious health risks of genetically modified organisms [GMOs]. They were ignored by the political appointees in charge, who allow GMOs onto the market without any required safety studies.)

Bleeding stomachs

Calgene, the tomatoes' creator-in-chief (now a part of Monsanto), voluntarily conducted three 28-day rat feeding studies. Before I share the gory details, I must commend the Calgene scientists who were committed to transparency and full disclosure with the FDA. Unlike all other subsequent voluntary submissions from biotech firms to the agency, Calgene provided detailed feeding study data and full reports. Dr. Belinda Martineau, one of Calgene's tomato makers, writes in First Fruit about their commitment to an open process while they attempted to introduce the world's first GM food crop.

Calgene tested two separate Flavr Savr tomato lines. Both had the same gene inserted into the same type of tomato. The process of insertion and the subsequent cloning of the cells into GM plants can cause lots of unique and unpredicted consequences. The two lines, therefore, were not considered identical.

The rats that ate one of these Flavr Savr varieties probably wished they were in a different test group. Out of 20 female rats, 7 developed stomach lesions—bleeding stomachs. The rats eating the other Flavr Savr, or the natural tomatoes, or no tomatoes at all, had no lesions.

If we humans had such effects in our stomachs, according to Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a top GMO safety and animal feeding expert, it "could lead to life-endangering hemorrhage, particularly in the elderly who use aspirin to prevent thrombosis."

The lab that performed the study for Calgene acknowledged that the results "did suggest a possible treatment related" problem. FDA scientists repeatedly asked Calgene to provide additional data in order to resolve what they regarded as outstanding safety questions. The director of FDA's Office of Special Research Skills wrote that the tomatoes did not demonstrate a "reasonable certainty of no harm," which is the normal standard of safety. The Additives Evaluation Branch agreed that "unresolved questions still remain," and the staff pathologist stated, "In the absence of adequate explanations by Calgene, the issues raised by the Pathology Branch ... remain and leave doubts as to the validity of any scientific conclusion(s) which may be drawn from the studies' findings."

Oh yeah, some rats died

The team that had obtained the formerly secret FDA documents sent the full Flavr Savr studies to Dr. Pusztai for review and comment. While reading them, he happened across an endnote that apparently the FDA scientists either did not see or chose to ignore. The text nonchalantly indicated that 7 of the 40 rats fed the Flavr Savr tomato died within two weeks. The dead rats had eaten the same tomato line as those that developed lesions. In the other groups, fed the other Flavr Savr line, a natural tomato control, or a water control, only one rat had died.

But the endnote summarily dismissed the cause of death as husbandry error, and no additional data or explanation was provided. The dead rats were simply replaced with new ones.

When I discussed this finding with Dr. Pusztai over the phone, he was beside himself. He told me emphatically that in proper studies, you never just dismiss the cause of death with an unsupported footnote. He said that the details of the post mortem analysis must be included in order to rule out possible causes or to raise questions for additional research. Furthermore, you simply never replace test animals once the research begins.

Questionable follow-up study

Calgene repeated the rat study. This time, one male rat from the non-GM group of 20, and two females from the GM-fed group of 15, showed stomach lesions. Calgene claimed success. They said that the necrosis (dead tissue) and erosions (inflammation and bleeding) were "incidental" and not tomato-related. The FDA staff pathologist, however, was not convinced. He responded that "the criteria for qualifying a lesion as incidental were not provided." Further, he said that the disparity between the studies "has not been adequately addressed or explained."

In reality, the new study was not actually a "repeat." They used tomatoes from a different batch and used a freeze-dried concentrate rather then the frozen concentrate used in the previous trial. Dr. Martineau explained to me that by freeze-drying, it allowed them to put more of the concentrated tomato into each rat. But Dr. Pusztai said that altering the preparation of the food can lead to different results. He also pointed out that humans were more likely to consume frozen concentrate compared with freeze-dried.

In spite of the outstanding issues, the political appointees at the FDA concluded that the lesions were not related to the GM tomatoes. To be on the safe side, however, Calgene on its own chose not to commercialize the tomato line that was associated with the high rate of stomach lesions and deaths. The other line went onto supermarket shelves in 1994.

Faulty science rules the day

This was the very first GM food crop to be consumed in the US. It was arguably the most radical change in our food in all of human history. It was the product of an infant science that was prone to side-effects. Yet it was placed on the market without required labels, warnings, or post-marketing surveillance. One hopes that the FDA would have been exhaustive in their approval process, holding back approvals until all doubts were extinguished. But the agency was officially mandated with promoting biotechnology and bent over backwards to push GMOs onto the market. As a result, their evaluation was woefully inadequate.

Having discovered problems in the stomach, for example, Dr. Pusztai said they should have looked further down the digestive system at the intestines as well, but they didn't. They should have increased the number of animals in the experiment to strengthen the findings, but they didn't. And they should have used young (e.g. month-old) and pregnant animals as is done with pharmaceutical studies, but they didn't.

They did, however, use rats with vast differences in starting weights. This invalidates any conclusions that there were no significant differences in weight gain, feed intake, or organ weights between GM- and non-GM-fed groups. The starting weights in the Flavr Savr experiment ranged from 130 to 258 grams for males, and 114 to 175 grams for females. Contrast that with the hundreds of rat feeding trials conducted by Dr. Pusztai, where the starting weights were within a range of 1 or 2 grams.

Dr. Pusztai also pointed out that the experimental tomatoes were grown at different locations and harvested at different times, which further increases the variability of results.

The FDA's defense that the bleeding stomachs did not come from the Flavr Savr diet was also an exercise in faulty science. They blamed the lesions on mucolytic agents in the tomato (i.e. components that dissolves thick mucus); but according to Dr. Pusztai, tomatoes are not known to contain mucolytic agents. The FDA also claimed that it might be the food restriction in the rats' diet—but the rats ate as much as they wanted. Or maybe it was the animal restraint—but the rats were not restrained.

The explanation that stuck to the wall was that the process of force-feeding the tomatoes through tubes was the reason for the stomach lesions. But as Dr. Pusztai and FDA scientists both observed, there was no adequate explanation as to why the rats fed GM tomatoes in the earlier study had the higher rate of lesions.

Dr. Pusztai said the "study was poorly designed and executed and, most importantly, led to flawed conclusions." He warned, "the claim that these GM tomatoes were as safe as conventional ones is at best premature and, at worst, faulty."

Fortunately, the Flavr Savr tomatoes lacked flavor. They also got mushy (unless they were handled in such a way that the company spent more money getting them to market than it could sell them for). They were taken off the market by the time Monsanto bought Calgene in 1997.

After the Flavr Savr's superficial review and controversial approval, no subsequent GMO producer has ever presented such detailed safety test data to the FDA.

Nigeria Army Barracks Bombing: At Least 30 Dead From Explosion At Beer Garden

ABUJA, Nigeria — A bomb blast tore through a beer garden at a Nigerian army barracks where revelers had gathered to celebrate New Year's Eve, witnesses said, and state-run television reported Friday that 30 people died, though police immediately disputed that.

A local police spokesman said the blast occurred at about 7:30 p.m. Friday in Abuja, the capital of Africa's most populous nation.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion in this oil-rich nation where citizens remain uneasy after bombings at other locations had killed dozens of people several days earlier.

"It's unfortunate that some people planted (a) bomb where people are relaxing because of the new year," Air Marshal Oluseyi Petirin told journalists. "Nobody has been able to give accurate figures (of casualties), but we have rescued some people."

An anchor on the state-run Nigerian Television Authority gave a death toll of 30 to viewers Friday night. The channel did not give an estimate on the number of injured.

Local police spokesman Jimoh Moshood immediately disputed the figure, saying only four people had died and 13 were wounded. Death tolls remain contentious in Nigeria, as politicians often inflate or shrink tolls to suit their aspirations.

Witnesses said the market appeared full at the time of the blast. A local journalist at the scene told The Associated Press that soldiers carried injured people away, with one officer saying he feared there were fatalities.

In the minutes after the explosion, police and soldiers swarmed the area, blocking onlookers from entering the area. Later, an AP journalist saw police carrying out covered bodies and putting them in the back of police vehicles. Officers shouted at each other to keep the bodies covered and hidden from onlookers.

The base, called the Mogadishu Cantonment, includes an area of market stalls and beer parlors referred to locally as a "mammy market." There, civilians and soldiers regularly gather for drinks and its famous barbecued fish.

Dick Clarks Rockin New Years Eve 2011: Ball Drop Details

It's a yearly tradition, and has been for decades, and this year is no exception as Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve 2011 is in full swing. At least it is on the East Coast and will hit the television stations on the West Coast in a couple of hours.

The highlights for this years edition of the famous Ball Drop 2011 edition included performances from pop sensation Ke$ha and Taio Cruz.

The broadcast features Ryan Seacrest and Dick Clark in New York Times Square along with Jenny McCarthy. While Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas takes care the West Coast countdown broadcast.

Já é Ano Novo no Funchal!

(©) Images and Text Copyrights; Imagens e Texto com direitos: Sergio Ferreira , Funchal

.....and hello 2011 - Happy New Year!

So here we are on the other side!

Happy New Year to all my friends and family!

This will be the loudest year ever (as it goes up to 11 *grin*)

- Posted using BlogPress on my iPhone

Goodbye 2010.....

Time flies when you are having fun and in the blink of an eye 2010 was gone!

So the sun sets on 2010 which just happened to be a pretty awesome year! Gigs galore, trips aplenty (including a very memorable Wacken excursion with SPiT LiKE THiS and a Halloween Whitby Goth Weekend), the removal of my gallstones and gallbladder, life, love and laughter. There were dodgy bits (with City Financials being bought out) but even that turned put OK in the end, sort of LOL

Not going to name names in case I miss people but a big THANK YOU to all my friends for being there for me in 2010.

Special love to my gorgeous girlfriend Toni :o)

A big highlight was with Hollywood Doll as we started gigging and recording which was a total blast and led to some great nights and meeting some great bands. More for 2011 please!

Sadly the plans to party hardy tonight fell through as childcare arrangements went wrong due to illness and despite mum stepping into the breach Toni also succumbed to the lurgs so it will be a quiet one at home tonight.

See you all on the other side, I hear it goes up to 11! *grin*

- Posted using BlogPress on my iPhone

It's A Trap!

Just watched the final instalment of the Family Guy Star Wars trilogy. Whilst Return Of The Jedi might not have been the strongest is the Star Wars films, It's A Trap was certainly the weakest of the Family Guy versions. The jokes were a little thin this time round which was a bit disappointing. PIE Fighters did raise a guffaw though!

Overall it closed thing off nicely and was worth adding to the collection but I'd recommend Blue Harvest and Something, Something, Something, Dark Side over It's A Trap.

- Posted using BlogPress on my iPhone

Well less the 24 hours left until next year! and less the 24 for hours from now I will be watching as Cunard's "Grand Celebration at Sea" sails down Colorado Boulevard here in Pasadena!! It is a pretty exciting time to be a shipgeek and more specifically a Cunard-geek, in Pasadena! I will be posting tomorrow with pictures from the Parade and most of all with pictures of Cunard's float!

For those of you who do not know about or read Cunard's blog... here is a interesting and relevant article.

http://wearecunard.com/2010/12/a-new-year%e2%80%99s-day-grand-celebration/

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Oito navios participarão do Reveillon em Copacabana

CVC Zenith, um dos oito navios que irão participar do Reveillon em Copacabana

O Reveillon esta aí e com ele a famosa queima de fogos na praia de Copacabana no Rio de Janeiro. E o Reveillon em Copacabana tem sido uma das principais atrações turisticas para os passageiros de navios de cruzeiros que optam por passar a virada do ano em alto mar. Tanto é que este ano a praia de Copacabana, terá nada menos do que oito navios assistindo a sua famosa queima de fogos: CVC Soberano, CVC Horizon, CVC Imperatriz e CVC Zenith; MSC Orchestra, MSC Musica e MSC Lirica; e Vision of the Seas, da Royal Caribbean. Poder assistir a queima de fogos a bordo de um navio de cruzeiro fundeado ao longo da orla de Copacabana é, sem dúvida, um grande privilégio para os milhares de cruzeiristas que estarão a bordo de uma dessas embarcações. Assim, nem é preciso dizer que estes passageiros assistirão ao "espetáculo da virada" com todo conforto e em meio a muita festa e alegria.

Vision of the Seas: Outro navio que estará em Copacabana durante este Reveillon

Assim, os roteiros dos cruzeiros marítimos que passam pelo Reveillon em Copacabana no Rio de Janeiro, tem sido cada vez mais procurado pelos cruzeiristas. Ter um número tão grande de navios de cruzeiro em um evento como esse é sempre motivo de orgulho. Só nos resta desejar a esses passageiros de sorte uma exelente viagem. E um feliz 2011 pra todos nós!

Texto: Copyrighr Silvio F. Brandão

Fonte dos dados: http://www.jornaldeturismo.com.br/

Imagens: Copyright Silvio F. Brandão (imagens de arquivo)

Meeting dad & Stephanie

Toni, Gemima and I went to town today to meet dad and Stephanie to exchange Xmas presents. We met outside Asda and then retired to the comfort of Costa for coffee and catch ups.

Was good to see them again. It won't be so easy next year as they've now relocated from Wimbledon to Northumberland.

Farewell, 2010!

We're bidding a fond farewell to 2010 today after a year that had many highs (and a few lows) for the cruise industry - and a LOT to remember fondly.

For us at World of Cruising magazine, it was a year of Adventure - or adventure cruising, to be more precise.

We chose this year to highlight a growing and inspiring trend in expedition-style voyaging, with trips to awe-inspiring Chilean Patagonia (above) with Nomads of the Seas, the Norwegian Arctic with Hurtigruten, the islands of the Pacific North-West with Cruise West, the Brahmaputra River in India, offbeat Alaska with American Safari Cruises and the Canadian Arctic with Inuit Indian company Cruise North Expeditions.

Along we way, we have also highlighted the brilliant opportunities for adventure-cruise excursions with Lindblad Expeditions, Zegrahm Expeditions, Orion Expedition Cruises, Aqua Expeditions and Noble Caledonia.

It all adds up to an unequalled array of choice in this niche area of cruising, but one that is likely to grow still further in 2011.

We have also welcomed a superb line-up of new vessels, notably P&O's Azura, the grand Queen Elizabeth of Cunard, Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam, the amazing Allure of the Seas of Royal Caribbean, the chic Le Boreal of Ponant Lines, NCL's immense Norwegian Epic and the Celebrity Eclipse, the latest of Celebrity's Solstice-class vessels which are quickly establishing themselves as the gold standard in the large premium category.

From the personal point of view, it was hard to beat our trip to Chile with Nomads, where we discovered not only a peerless cruise experience, but a stunning part of the world and unfailingly friendly people.

And then, going from one extreme to the other (arguably the smallest ship in the world to the largest), our time aboard the new Allure of the Seas was also eye-opening, with the entertainment on this colossus of the seas raising the bar in this field yet again.

On the negative side, we were dismayed by the example of the Carnival Splendor, which suffered a fire and major power failure on the Mexican Riviera in November, requiring it to be towed back to port with some seriously disgruntled passengers. One subsequent report suggests Carnival have a problem with their safety procedures for dealing with fires at sea, and we sincerely hope that the right lessons are learned from this incident.

Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas then hit seriously rough weather in the Med earlier this month, with the ship suffering minor internal damage and a number of passengers being hurt, several with broken limbs. It was a salutary reminder that the sea still has power to make cruise ships distinctly wary about where, and when, they cruise.

Sadly, we also saw the demise of a long-time specialist operator, as Cruise West went bankrupt as they became a belated victim of the big recession that has affected large parts of the travel industry.

Happily, these remain exceedingly rare examples of the negative side of a business that continues to boom and attract new devotees on a daily basis. For the millions now cruising, it is still a source of almost endless fun and fascination; great value for money; and superb travelling style, with the vast array of ports of call now available.

Or, as we like to say at World of Cruising, it is just one more great adventure!

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