Louis Tomlinson on One Direction Hiatus

Louis Tomlinson finds it "weird" being away from One Direction.

Credit: AFP

Louis Tomlinson of One Direction performs on ABC's 'Good Morning America' at Rumsey Playfield, Central Park on August 4, 2015 in New York City. Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images/AFP

The 23-year-old singer and his bandmates are preparing to go on hiatus following the completion of their world tour next year, and the 'Little Things' hitmaker thinks his behaviour will change once he's on his own.

He said: "It's weird doing things without the boys. When I'm with them, I can be as cheeky as I want, but it's a very different dynamic when you're on your own."

Though Louis is proud of how "genuine" he and his bandmates have always tried to be, he worries they should have censored themselves a bit more.

He said: "Me and the boys always made sure we were ourselves and as genuine as possible. Maybe sometimes we are too much ourselves - but it's quite refreshing for people to see that we're not all polished."

Louis - who recently joined Simon Cowell to select his 'X Factor' finalists - is now looking to the future and plans to work more on the business side of things with the mogul.

He told Closer magazine: "I was really s****ing myself [on 'The X Factor']. I had to give a speech in front of all the contestants. I was thinking of the right thing to say but just started waffling. Once I sat down next to Simon, I felt OK and he reassured me I had good instincts with picking talent. I make my mind up on people pretty quickly.

"Simon is still the boss but it's great to work with him and know he values my opinions and what I have to say."

Female First

CD REVIEW: skindred

Skindred
Kill The Power
****
KILL the Power is Skindred’s fifth album.

KILL the Power is Skindred’s fifth album. If it were cuisine, it would be a sumptuous 12-course meal. Exotically tasty and utterly satisfying.

This ska-reggae-metal-dubstep-dancehall-rock-and-everything-in-between Welsh band pulls no punches and is musically multi-layered and ridiculously tight.

It’s hard to pick a favourite – each track is put together with such precision that whether it’s mainly hardcore, or mainly ska, or mainly reggae, or mainly metal, jungle, or dancehall, it’s a treat.

Kill the Power starts the album with a bang, and keeps the pace right up to the fifth and hugely energetic Ninja. Then it’s time for Benji Webbe to truly shine as a vocalist – his voice on We Live is like molasses. I put it on repeat just for the vocals.

World’s on Fire truly is ablaze and the guitar work is masterful. Each phrase musically is precise, composed, deliberate.

One of my favourites is The Kids Are Right Now – about music being a saviour, a salvation.

The band’s hop from style to style is so effortless and really shows their enormous talent.

Perhaps an album like this – which one could spend days taking apart and admiring piece for piece, bar for bar, phrase for phrase, note for note, style for style, lyric for lyric – you should not over-analyse. Perhaps one should just enjoy it for what it is – a magnificent mash-up of sound, just delicious, an absolute feast that reaches deep beyond the ears.

If you like interesting, and you like heavy, and you like skilful, buy it. – Andrea Bryce

Nadine Coyle lands new record deal

Nadine Coyle has landed a new record deal.

Credit: Jonathan Short/Invision/AP

Girls Aloud from left, Sarah Harding, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts, Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh, arrive for the Jingle Bell Ball in London. (Photo by Jonathan Short/Invision/AP)

The former Girls Aloud singer, who currently lives in Los Angeles but is hoping to relocate to the UK in the near future, has reportedly taken pen to paper and inked a contract with record label Warner Music in a bid to make a big comeback next year.

A source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "Nadine is incredibly focused. She's selling her LA restaurant and laying roots in the UK. She's still a household name and wants to cash in on her singing abilities rather than turn to reality TV."

The 30-year-old star, who has 22-month-old daughter Anaíya with her fiancé Jason Bell, has already set the ball rolling after she recently teamed up with former Westlife hunk Shane Filan, 36, for their newly released single 'I Could Be'.

And it seems Nadine is on a mission to make a permanent mark on the music scene this time around after her debut album 'Insatiable', which she released five years ago, only managed to crawl into number 47 in the UK charts.

Female First

CD review: Ciara

CIARA
Jackie
Another R&B upset.

Starting an album with the chant: I am a bad mother-f***er is probably a prelude to how bad things will get on Jackie. .

That’s How I’m Feeling is a happy clap-along song that features Pitbull and Missy Elliot. It’s one of the main attractions on this rather directionless album.

If you know your R&B then you will realise that Lullaby is a mix of songs like Mariah Carey’s We Belong Together and Nelly and Kelly’s Dilemma. The execution leaves the song sounding so familiar, you wonder where you have heard it before.

Most Ciara fans are going to be disappointed when they get to I Bet because it is obvious how good the singer can be. Three things that we know about Ciara are missing on this album: the break-up with her child’s father Future, life as a mother and a proper tribute to her own mother since this album is named after her. – Munya Vomo

West Side’ is an SA success story

‘West Side’ is an SA success story
West Side Story
DIRECTOR: Matthew Wild
CAST: Jonathan Romouth, Lynelle Kenned, Christopher Jaftha, BIance le Grange, Stephen Jubber, Michele la Trobe, Daniel Richards, Adrian Galley, Nicky Rebelo
VENUE: Artscape Theatre
UNTIL: August 23
RATING: ****
The Fugard Theatre production team have realised a spectacular version of West Side Story at Artscape.

Credit: Willem Law

The last full rehearsal of West Side Story before the first performance tonight at the Artscape in Cape Town. Pictured: Lead actors Jonathan Roxmouth (as Tony) and Lynelle Kenned (as Maria) on stage. Picture: Willem Law

Using every aspect Artscape’s stage is capable of, they have taken Johan Engels’s design ideas and made them sparkle. A car rides onto the stage, three-storey high stairwells move on and off, an entire basement is revealed, starry lights fill up the heavens.

The entire huge stage is a wide open pit at the beginning, and when they open the back, you see it is even bigger than you realised and your jaw drops just a little more.

West Side Story being a 1950s Romeo & Juliet story set in Lower East Side New York, everyone (credibly) speaks in American accents and the beautiful costuming greatly adds to the creation of the time period.

Jonathan Roxmouth is Tony, the erstwhile member of the Jets gang who is drawn back into violence when he falls for Maria (Kenned), the sister of the leader of the Sharks.

Roxmouth’s voice is as always utterly beguiling – compared to the rest of the cast, probably because he is older, his Tony comes across as world-weary.

Kenned creates a sweet Maria and her voice is a match for that of Roxmouth.

Charl-Johan Lingenfelder’s musical direction has freshened up the musical cues (though the score is still original) and Kenned unexpectedly dropping into her rendition of I Feel Pretty is a highlight.

Other than Maria, (almost unrecognisable) Bianca le Grange’s Anita is the other most strongly realised female character with her actions precipitating the last final violent scene. She also totally nails her solos..

While the leads have the space to create strong characters – helped along a lot by our assumptions from having watched the film – the rest of the cast are not as individual, but work most strongly when they are acting as their respective gangs, which is perhaps the point. They not only find strength and safety in the gangs, but also expression and identity, which is expressed in their movement.

This is a musical about people, and specifically violent people, so the staging is a wonderfully big enough space to get the full gangs fighting through dance.

Louisa Talbot’s choreography makes of the sinuous Jets and the suspicious Sharks two distinct groups of people. The race-inspired sparring between the Puerto Rican Sharks and white Jets makes for what we may now interpret as twee and unnecessary comments, but is biting and hurtful to the people on the stage. A scene in which the Jets lampoon officer Krupke (Richard Lothian) takes on a very macabre and dark tone in this version.

This is a wonderfully realised, really huge production that dazzles on a visual level and reminds us that wholly South African productions can be even more wonderful that international imports.

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Everest Expeditions in Question After Nepal Quake

REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar/Corbis
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A massive earthquake killed more than 3,700 people Saturday as it tore through large parts of Nepal, toppling office blocks and towers in Kathmandu and triggering a deadly avalanche at Everest base camp.

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Gallery

Deadly Nepal Quake Devastates Vast Region: Photos

A massive earthquake killed more than 3,700 people Saturday as it tore through large parts of Nepal, toppling office blocks and towers in Kathmandu and triggering a deadly avalanche at Everest base camp. Photo: Members of the China International Search and Rescue Team arrive at Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 26.

Sunil Sharma/Xinhua Press/Corbis

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Officials said the quake was the Himalayan nation's worst disaster in more than 80 years. But the final toll from the 7.8 magnitude quake could be much higher, and dozens more people were reported killed in neighboring India and China. Above, a temple lies in ruins at the Durbar Square in Patan, Nepal.

Pratap Thapa/Xinhua Press/Corbis

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Tibetan kids eat breakfast supplied by rescue teams in Jilung County of Xigaze City, southwest of Tibet on Sunday.

Chen Tianhu/Xinhua Press/Corbis

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Photo: Indian bystanders int he city of Siliguri look at a collapsed house following the Nepal earthquake.

Corbis

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Emergency workers fanned out across the Himalayan nation to rescue those trapped under collapsed homes, buildings and other debris. Offers of help poured in from governments around the world, with the United States and the European Union announcing they were sending in disaster response teams. "Deaths have been reported from all regions except the far west. All our security personnel have been deployed to rescue and assist those in need," Bam told AFP. The Red Cross (IFRC) said it was concerned about the fate of rural villages close to the epicenter of the quake northwest of the capital Kathmandu. Photo: Rescuers recover injured from rubble in Nepal's devastated capital city, Kathmandu.

Corbis

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"Roads have been damaged or blocked by landslides and communication lines are down preventing us from reaching local Red Cross branches to get accurate information," said IFRC Asia/Pacific director Jagan Chapagain in a statement. Officials said 10 people were killed when an avalanche buried parts of Mount Everest's base camp in Nepal where hundreds of mountaineers have gathered at the start of the annual climbing season. "We don't have the details yet, but 10 have been reported dead so far, including foreign climbers," Gyanendra Kumar Shrestha, an official in Nepal's tourism department, told AFP. "We are trying to assess how many are injured. There might be over 1,000 people there right now, including foreign climbers and Nepalese supporting staff." Photo: Many neighboring countries felt the earthquake's impact, including India.

Corbis

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AFP Nepal bureau chief Ammu Kannampilly, on an assignment to Everest together with a colleague, was among those caught up in the chaos. "We are both ok... snowing here so no choppers coming," she said in an SMS on an approach to base camp. "I hurt my hand - got it bandaged and told to keep it upright to stop the bleeding." Experienced mountaineers said panic erupted at base camp which had been "severely damaged", while one described the avalanche as "huge". Photo: People work to clear up earthquake damage in Siliguri, India.

Corbis

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"Huge disaster. Helped searched and rescued victims through huge debris area. Many dead. Much more badly injured. More to die if not heli asap," tweeted Romanian climber Alex Gavan from base camp. Kathmandu was severely damaged, and the historic nine-storey Dharahara tower, a major tourist attraction, was among buildings brought down. At least a dozen bodies were taken away from the ruins of the 19th-century tower, according to an AFP photographer who saw similar scenes of multiple casualties throughout the city. "It was difficult to breathe, but I slowly moved the debris. Someone then pulled me out. I don't know where my friends are," Dharmu Subedi, 36, who was standing outside the tower when it collapsed, said from a hospital bed. Photo: A road blocked by a landslide in Gyirong County of Xigaze Prefecture, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region in the wake of the massive Nepal quake.

Corbis

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At least 42 people were known to have died in India, including 30 in the eastern state of Bihar, while buildings in the capital New Delhi had to be evacuated. The United States Geological Survey said the shallow quake struck 77 kilometers (48 miles) northwest of Kathmandu at 0611 GMT, with walls crumbling and families racing outside their homes. The quake tore through the middle of highways in the capital and also caused damage to the country's only international airport which was briefly closed. Kari Cuelenaere, an official at the Dutch embassy, said the impact had swept the water out of a swimming pool at a Kathmandu hotel where Dutch national day was being celebrated. "It was horrible, all of a sudden all the water came up out of the pool and drenched everyone, the children started screaming," Cuelenaere told AFP. "Some parts of the city fell down, there was dust rising... There were many (rescue) helicopters." Photos: Pedestrians walk past collapsed buildings in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Corbis

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Aftershock tremors could be felt more than two hours after the initial quake. USGS initially measured the quake at 7.5 magnitude and later adjusted it to 7.8, with a depth of 15 kilometers. Nepal and the rest of the Himalayas are particularly prone to earthquakes because of the collision of the Indian and Eurasia plates. The thrust of the India plate beneath Eurasia generates a large amount of seismic activity, the USGS says on its website. Photo: Pedestrians walk past collapsed buildings in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Corbis

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A spokesman for Nepal's home ministry said the government had released around $500 million as emergency funds for rescue operations. India dispatched two military transport planes to help with the rescue and relief efforts and there were similar offers from around the region, including Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said a disaster response was being flown to Nepal and that the Obama administration had authorized an initial $1 million "to address immediate needs." In Europe, Britain, Germany, Norway and Spain also pledged support and assistance. Photo: People gather around a collapsed building after an earthquake in Durbar square in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal.

Corbis

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Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolences to his Nepalese counterpart Ram Baran Yadav and offered to provide assistance. China's official Xinhua news agency said that 13 people, including an 83-year-old woman, were killed in the Tibet region. The area has a history of earthquakes, with a 6.8 magnitude quake that hit eastern Nepal in August 1988 killing 721 people. A magnitude 8.1 quake killed 10,700 people in Nepal and eastern India in 1934. Photo: A collapsed building is seen after an earthquake in Durbar square in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal. MORE: Hundreds Dead After Massive Earthquake Hits Nepal

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Related Links

More than a week since an earthquake shook Nepal, with the death toll over 7,000 and still rising, rescue efforts are still focused on basic needs for survival.

But one small slice of the devastation looms large to adventurers around the world: Mt. Everest. For the second year in a row, an avalanche has left many climbers dead, and many questions swirling around the future of climbing the mountain.

“This is probably going to change the way people climb,” said climber Ellen Miller, who has summited Mt. Everest.

With no muscles in our fingers or toes, how come humans are able to climb every mountain? Or, climb some of them anyway!

DCI

Tulsi Prasad Gautam, chief of the mountaineering department at Nepal's tourism ministry announced last Thursday that climbing could resume this week. In a controversial move, the government requested a team of Sherpas to fix the route through the treacherous icefall above Base Camp so climbing can resume. But on Sunday news reports said Sherpas in Nepal refused to rebuild a climbing route.

The avalanche swept away fixed ropes and ladders placed in the icefall, making it currently impossible for climbing teams to reach Camp One.

That, plus the fear of further aftershocks, is forcing mountaineering companies to call off their spring expeditions.

The window for reaching the summit of Everest closes at the end of May because of the start of the monsoon season. Most climbers stand to lose $70,000 or more if the mountain remains closed.

Gordon Janow, Director of Programs for Alpine Ascents International, based in Seattle is wondering about the state of the route through the icefall. “Did the avalanche make it more difficult, the same, or more stable? Maybe the route will be more difficult and not for everyone. There’s also the north side of the mountain. Maybe the commercial teams go more to the north side.”

Although climbers didn’t hesitate to return to Everest after last year’s avalanche killed 16, the back-to-back tragedies may prompt Sherpas -- local guides who are critical to most Western climbing expeditions -- to reevaluate their role.

“Climbers are stronger and more resilient than most -- their adventures were interrupted. For the most part, life is going to go on,” Miller said, referring to Western climbers on expeditions.

Climbers Attempt Dangerous Off-Season Himalayan Summit

A view of Mount Everest on the left, Lhotse in the center and Nuptse on right as seen from Pumo Ri mountain on the Nepal-Tibet border.

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Thinkstock and Korean Lhotse South Face Team, via Desnivel.com

Gallery

The World's 'Eight-Thousander' Mountains: Photos

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The world's 14 "eight-thousanders" -- mountains taller than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) -- are all located in Asia. On one hand, they really beautify a horizon, but on the other they present a fierce, at times fatal, challenge to mountain climbers. Beauty can, indeed, be deadly. Here's the "baby" of the bunch, Shishapangma in Tibet, peaking at 8,027 meters (26,335 feet).

Keren Su/Corbis

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This is Gasherbrum II (we'll have another Gasherbrum coming up shortly), on the border of Pakistan and China. It's 8,035 meters up in the sky (26,361 feet) and is sometimes known as K4. These mountaineers are near the summit.

Hubert Ayasse/Sygma/Corbis

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On the left side of this picture we see the sheer mass of Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain on the planet at 8,047 meters or 26,394 feet above sea level.

Ed Darack/Science Faction/Corbis

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As promised, here's another Gasherbrum: Gasherbrum I. (Gasherbrum, translated from the Tibetan language Balti, means "beautiful mountain.") It also goes by the name of K5, lives along the China-Pakistan border and is 8,080 meters (26,444 ft) high.

Galen Rowell/Corbis

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The Himalayan mountain range Annapurna, in Nepal, is seen here from Pkhara, about 124 miles (200 kilometers) west of Kathmandu. Annapurna is considered one of the most dangerous for climbers; first crested in 1950, it has since been climbed by more than 100 people but taken 53 lives along the way.

Didier Marti

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This somewhat unsettling photo was taken in 1931 by mountaineers at a base camp on Pakistan's Nanga Parbat, the ninth-tallest eight-thousander at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet). The area captured in the picture is known as the Nanga Wall.

Getty Images

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Eighth-tallest of the eight-thousanders is Nepal's Manaslu, at 8,163 meters (26,781 feet).

Association Chantal Mauduit Namaste/Corbis/Sygma

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The Dhaulagiri mountain range in the Himalayas sports a rather volcanic look in this picture, with the sun brushing its top. But Nepal's 8,167-meter (26,795-foot) monster is of course quite chilly on top. Dhaulagiri's south face is considered by mountaineers to be a next-to-impossible climb, and no one has ever topped the mountain from that side.

AFP/Getty Images

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Clouds hover over snow-covered Cho Oyu mountain in Tibet. The sixth-tallest mountain stands 8,201 meters tall (26,906 feet), and the "Mountain Goddess" (in Tibetan translation) is considered one of less-challenging climbs among the eight-thousanders (if you don't consider climbing ANY mountain a challenge, that is!).

Galen Rowell/Corbis

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Next in the eight-thousander club is Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world, looming on the border between Nepal and China. It's 8,463 meters (27,766 feet) tall and is another tough climb, with 22 deaths tallied against its 206 successful climbs.

WildCountry/CORBIS

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Standing 8,516 meters tall (27,940 feet), Lhotse, fourth-tallest, rests on the border of Nepal and Tibet. It was first climbed in 1956.

Pal Teravagimov Photography

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Kangchenjunga, in Nepal, is the world's third-tallest mountain, edging Lhotse by just 71 meters, standing 8,587 meters tall (28,169 feet). It's a prominent mark on the horizon in Darjeeling, the tea-growing region.

Jochen Schlenker

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K2, the second-tallest mountain on the planet, is 8,611 meters up in the clouds (28,251 feet) along the China-Pakistan border. Climbers know it for its incredibly difficult ascent routes; in 2008, an ice fall on the treacherous slopes took the lives of 11 climbers.

Brad Jackson

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And now we reach the Big Daddy in the worldwide mountains club. That, of course, would be Mount Everest. Its name alone is synonymous with challenging feats, as climbing it continues to this day to be a dicey endeavor, though it draws people year after year to attempt the ascent. And what a climb: Mount Everest stands 8,848 meters tall (29,029 feet). It was famously crested for the first time in 1953 by New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay.

Grant Dixon

Extreme mountain climbers flock to Mount Everest every May for a chance to climb the world’s tallest peak.

But just next door, another peak beckons -- Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world. Lhotse, which means “South Peak” in Tibetan, is connected to the Everest massif via the South Col. Like Everest, a number of climbers make it to the top, but few try so late in the year. And even fewer have made it up the south face. The last successful summit occured 25 years ago.

This year, one daring Korean expedition team tried four times — and failed. They’re lucky to have survived.

Experienced climber Hong Sung Taek led the expedition with Sherpas and young climbers. Their goal was to summit the mountain along the south face. This side only has two routes, and they’re so insanely difficult that the last time anyone summited was 25 years agoand it was achieved by a Soviet team.

The Korean Lhotse South Face team arrived at base camp in early October, and established three camps over the next few weeks, the Altitude Pakistan blog reported.

This is an odd time of year to try ascending any Himalayan peaks. Monsoons in the region typically leave mountain climbers with two small weather windows. May is the most popular, but a second one can open up in the fall, AccuWeather’s Brian Lada explained.

Except that second window was almost non-existent this year because the monsoon over eastern Nepal departed so late, Lada continued. On neighboring Everest, heavy snow and strong winds forced Japanese climber Nobukazu Kurikito abandon his autumn expedition. He would have been the first to summit the mountain since the deadly earthquake in April. Nobody stood on the top this year.

The Koreans kept at it. Their first attempt during the second week of November ended when a storm pushed them back. A second and third attempt brought them closer and closer to their goal, the Spanish mountaineering magazine Desnivel reported.

A final and fourth attempt took place this week. Barely arriving at their first camp, they discovered high winds with gusts more than 90 mph. Then, during the descent, they encountered rockfalls that sent one Sherpa to the hospital.

This was Hong Sung Taek’s third consecutive year on Lhotse’s south face. It was a rough season, but I have a feeling we’re going to see him back on this mountain again.

Antarctica As You've Never Seen It

Photo: Edmund Stump
Unbeknownst to most humans, Antarctica has one of the longest mountain ranges in the world.

has one of the longest mountain ranges in the world. The Transantarcticrange stretches for 2,200 miles and tops out at 14,700 feet. On 13 expeditions over 40 years, geologist Edmund Stump explored this range, taking 8,000 photos and tracing the routes of explorers from James Clark Ross to Ernest Shackleton. And while reports say that the largest glacier in Antarctica, Pine Island,is thinning at a rate of more than three feet per year, Stump’s book gives the most accurate facsimile of the terrain as seen from the great explorers’ eyes. Below, photographic excerpts from Stump’s new book, “The Roof at the Bottom of the World,” and the historical importance of each photo in his own words.

Beardmore Glacier

Photo: Edmund Stump

The upper reaches of Beardmore Glacier merge with the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Mill Glacier comes in at the left rear.  When Ernest Shackletonled his party up this glacier in December of 1908 in their failed attempt to reach the South Pole, he favored the right, less-crevassed portion of the glacier. Three years later Scott’s party followed Shackleton’s route in their own bid to reach the South Pole.  The attempt was successful; however, the British were beaten to the prize by Roald Amundsenand his team of Norwegians, and then perished on the inward march.

Scott Glacier

Photo: Edmund Stump

During the 1934-35 austral summer a ground party of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition made the first traverse of Scott Glacier. The party, led by geologist, Quin Blackburn, mushed dogs to the head of Scott Glacier, where they measured and collected a 1,000-foot section of sedimentary rocks at a peak named Mt. Weaver, and in the process discovered Mt. Howe, the southernmost outcrop of rock on the planet.

The Labyrinth

Photo: Edmund Stump

The Labyrinth, an enigmatic landform at the head of Wright Valley, emerges from the edge of the retreating Wright Upper Glacier, shown at the bottom of the image. Lake Vanda appears beneath the set of hanging glaciers in the distance. Wright Valley is one of the three Dry Valleys adjacent to McMurdo Sound. It was first glimpsed from the plateau side by a New Zealand party in December 1957, although it was not until 1958-59 that geologists entered Wright Valley and mapped it.

Taylor Valley

Photo: Edmund Stump

In the summer of 1903-04, the second year of Scott’s “Discovery” Expedition, he and his party were returning from a 150-mile trek onto the polar plateau (seen in the right rear), when they sidetracked down a glacier and discovered Taylor Valley, southernmost of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The party hiked along the southern shore of Lake Bonney skirting the groin of bedrock that constricts the lake to 17 feet.

Drygalski Ice Tongue

Photo: Edmund Stump

Fifteen-mile-long Drygalski Ice Tongue debouches directly from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Sea through a narrow cleft in the mountains. One-hundred-fifty-foot-tall cliffs at its forward edge meet a thin layer of nascent ice as seasonal ice separates to the south (left). Although three expeditions had previously sailed into the Ross Sea,it was not until Scott’s “Discovery” Expedition, 1901-04, that the massive ice tongue was discovered.

Eagle-Claw Drone Grabs Objects In Mid-Flight

Up for the task is Justin Thomas and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab .

Now that quadrotor drones have been programed to spy on us, play musicand land on wires like birds, it’s time to get down to a little fine tuning.

. Drawing inspiration from the way birds of prey swoop downand seize fish from water, they’ve developed a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a 3D-printed talon-like gripper that’ll leave you holding onto your hat.

The team improved upon their previous quadrotor designs that only plucked objects in mid-air while the UAV was hovering. By studying an eagle’s fishing technique, the team noticed how the bird would sweep its legs and claws backwards as its talons gripped its prey. This maneuver allowed the eagle to snatch a meal in one dive-bombing swoop without slowing down.

The team was able to copy the eagle’s technique by 3D-printing a three-fingered claw and attaching it to a four-inch motorized leg. By securing the appendage below the UAV’s center of mass, the drone could grasp stationary objects while flying by.

Obviously, the only thing left to do is for GRASP Lab to add a screaming eagle sound effectto the drone.

Credit: Justin Thomas, YouTube screen grab

Will Cancellations End Everest Climbing Season?

Nepalese rescue team members rescue a survivor of an avalanche on Mount Everest on April 18, 2014.

View Related Gallery »

Buddhabir RAI/AFP/Getty Images

Gallery

The World's 'Eight-Thousander' Mountains: Photos

View Caption +

The world's 14 "eight-thousanders" -- mountains taller than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) -- are all located in Asia. On one hand, they really beautify a horizon, but on the other they present a fierce, at times fatal, challenge to mountain climbers. Beauty can, indeed, be deadly. Here's the "baby" of the bunch, Shishapangma in Tibet, peaking at 8,027 meters (26,335 feet).

Keren Su/Corbis

View Caption +

This is Gasherbrum II (we'll have another Gasherbrum coming up shortly), on the border of Pakistan and China. It's 8,035 meters up in the sky (26,361 feet) and is sometimes known as K4. These mountaineers are near the summit.

Hubert Ayasse/Sygma/Corbis

View Caption +

On the left side of this picture we see the sheer mass of Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain on the planet at 8,047 meters or 26,394 feet above sea level.

Ed Darack/Science Faction/Corbis

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As promised, here's another Gasherbrum: Gasherbrum I. (Gasherbrum, translated from the Tibetan language Balti, means "beautiful mountain.") It also goes by the name of K5, lives along the China-Pakistan border and is 8,080 meters (26,444 ft) high.

Galen Rowell/Corbis

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The Himalayan mountain range Annapurna, in Nepal, is seen here from Pkhara, about 124 miles (200 kilometers) west of Kathmandu. Annapurna is considered one of the most dangerous for climbers; first crested in 1950, it has since been climbed by more than 100 people but taken 53 lives along the way.

Didier Marti

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This somewhat unsettling photo was taken in 1931 by mountaineers at a base camp on Pakistan's Nanga Parbat, the ninth-tallest eight-thousander at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet). The area captured in the picture is known as the Nanga Wall.

Getty Images

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Eighth-tallest of the eight-thousanders is Nepal's Manaslu, at 8,163 meters (26,781 feet).

Association Chantal Mauduit Namaste/Corbis/Sygma

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The Dhaulagiri mountain range in the Himalayas sports a rather volcanic look in this picture, with the sun brushing its top. But Nepal's 8,167-meter (26,795-foot) monster is of course quite chilly on top. Dhaulagiri's south face is considered by mountaineers to be a next-to-impossible climb, and no one has ever topped the mountain from that side.

AFP/Getty Images

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Clouds hover over snow-covered Cho Oyu mountain in Tibet. The sixth-tallest mountain stands 8,201 meters tall (26,906 feet), and the "Mountain Goddess" (in Tibetan translation) is considered one of less-challenging climbs among the eight-thousanders (if you don't consider climbing ANY mountain a challenge, that is!).

Galen Rowell/Corbis

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Next in the eight-thousander club is Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world, looming on the border between Nepal and China. It's 8,463 meters (27,766 feet) tall and is another tough climb, with 22 deaths tallied against its 206 successful climbs.

WildCountry/CORBIS

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Standing 8,516 meters tall (27,940 feet), Lhotse, fourth-tallest, rests on the border of Nepal and Tibet. It was first climbed in 1956.

Pal Teravagimov Photography

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Kangchenjunga, in Nepal, is the world's third-tallest mountain, edging Lhotse by just 71 meters, standing 8,587 meters tall (28,169 feet). It's a prominent mark on the horizon in Darjeeling, the tea-growing region.

Jochen Schlenker

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K2, the second-tallest mountain on the planet, is 8,611 meters up in the clouds (28,251 feet) along the China-Pakistan border. Climbers know it for its incredibly difficult ascent routes; in 2008, an ice fall on the treacherous slopes took the lives of 11 climbers.

Brad Jackson

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And now we reach the Big Daddy in the worldwide mountains club. That, of course, would be Mount Everest. Its name alone is synonymous with challenging feats, as climbing it continues to this day to be a dicey endeavor, though it draws people year after year to attempt the ascent. And what a climb: Mount Everest stands 8,848 meters tall (29,029 feet). It was famously crested for the first time in 1953 by New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay.

Grant Dixon

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Nepal's government strove Wednesday to save the Everest climbing season from an unprecedented walkout by sherpa guides as another major mountaineering company abandoned its expedition following a deadly avalanche last week.

New Zealand-based Adventure Consultants lost three people in Friday's avalanche, which struck a party of sherpas preparing routes for commercial climbers up the world's highest peak and killed 16.

For backcountry trekkers in Alaska, avalanches come with the territory. Here's how they learn to survive.

Pavel Novak

The company said in a statement that "after much discussion and consideration of all aspects, the tough decision has been made to cancel the 2014 expedition this season."

U.S.-based Alpine Ascents International and the Discovery Channel, which intended to broadcast the first winged jumpsuit flight off the summit, have also scrapped their plans on the 8,848-meter (29,029-foot) peak.

Guides and Western mountaineers told AFP Tuesday that the sherpas had held a meeting in the afternoon after an emotional remembrance ceremony at which they had agreed not to climb the peak this season to honor their colleagues.

Nepalese mountaineering officials, eager to avoid a shutdown that could lead to messy compensation claims and a huge loss of revenue for the impoverished country, denied any such move on Wednesday.

The Nepal Mountaineering Association, a national body representing tourism promoters, released a statement saying "we have not received any confirmation regarding the abandon(ment) of the expeditions on Everest."

A government delegation is set to fly to Everest base camp on Thursday to negotiate with the sherpas following talks with leading expedition organizers in Kathmandu.

The situation at base camp, described as tense by climbers there amid fears this year's season could be wrecked, remains fluid and unpredictable with accounts filtering out from climbers and guides.

The location is more than a week's hike from the nearest airport.

Local guide Pasang Sherpa, part of the International Mountain Guides expedition at base camp, insisted that sherpas wanted to sit out this season.

"We don't know what is happening in Kathmandu, but ... we don't want to go up the mountain this year," he said.