Eye Of Singapore

It seems that of late not a day goes by without some new financial catastrophe hitting the world markets. Not long ago we saw the crash of the Lehman Brothers, one of the chief investment banks in the United States.

Personally I think it’s karma since the CEO awarded himself a $22 million bonus in March this year. Like everything was rosy! Sort of ironic that they were fishing for a 22 million bailout just before they went bust!

Care to help out Mr Fuld? Thought not.

The snag is it affects everyone. The stock markets around the globe reacted in dismay to this latest breakdown and the economies of many countries have had a colossal cash injection to help try to get through this.

But this is only the start. Many were forecasting AIG to be the next disaster (now bailed out) and the massive Washington Mutual are not looking good. Even if these two giant institutions go down chances are it will not stop the freefall. The Dow Jones is in reality still quite close to its all-time highs meaning it has a lot further to fall!

All this helps to kill the confidence of the consumer affecting everything from the amount we outlay on groceries to how much we want to pay for a house. Speaking of the housing market, estate agents and all the businesses which feed off the housing market are experiencing very tough times indeed. One of the many reasons estate agents are in so much bother is because many people have appreciated that they can use the web to sell their abode privately dodging paying the agents their fees.

As it happens if you want to speedily sell your house in a general private property sale it is easier than ever. A quick goggle on google will uncover literally hundreds of websites where you can advertise your house privately. It’s a very cute thing to do which could salvage you many thousands. Something well worth doing these days!

Emperor penguins are no doubt one of the coolest of all the types of penguins. Not only are they the largest of all the penguins, in fact, they are five times larger than the smallest penguin species in the world.

Typically an Emperor will grow to be around 47 inches in height (almost 4 feet tall) and will weigh anywhere between 45 and 80 pounds! Both males and females usually grow to around the same size.

As far as their coloring goes, these penguins have extremely black feathers on their backs, head, neck and chin. The feathers on their bellies and below their wings are a very bright white.

Around the upper madible of their bill you’ll see that their feathers are also black while around the lower mandible they could be a variety of colors including lilac, orange and pink.

On the sides of their heads and on their breasts there are feathers that are orange with a yellow tinge.

When it comes time to hunt, or fish, for food it’s not uncommon to find that these large penguins can dive in the ocean to depths of around 160 feet (50m). Once that far below the ice, they are then able to look back up and easily see any fish in the area.

There have been reports of them diving as deep as 1467 feet (450m) in certain instances!

Another of the cool Emperor penguin facts is that in addition to being able dive deep into the ocean, they are also very capable of traveling long distances. Some hunting or fishing excursions have been noted as taking a penguin on a journey of more than 600 miles (1000km)!

For even more interesting information about these cool birds, head on over to Penguin Facts.