Alexander Borodin composer and chemist 1833-1887

Perhaps better known as a composer, Borodin was in fact one of 19th century Russia's top people in the science of elements and compounds. Born and died in Saint Petersberg, Borodin became a member of "The Five" all composers whose aim was producing original rather than imitative music. In his teens Borodin could speak four languages and could play three instruments.

Borodin's music is full of romantic and enticing melody much of it also rings with the pageantry and landscape of onion-domed churches,richly decorated icons and the vastness of the land. Although Borodin wrote many works, he was most noted for his opera "Prince Igor".

http://youtu.be/t8C8frqCKKg

The opera takes place in twelfth-century Russia. Prince Igor heads a campaign against the Polovtsi a war-like tribe of central Russia who are causing raiding problems. However,he is defeated and taken prisoner. The head of Polovtsi,surprisingly,treats Igor as an honoured guest and entertains him on a lavish scale with feasting and dancing in the Polovtsian manner.

Polar Bears

Satiated,Polar Bears rarely attack humans unless severely provoked,whereas starving bears are extremely unpredictable and are known to kill, and sometimes eat humans. Due to warming air temperatures,ice-flow breakup is currently occurring three weeks earlier than thirty years ago,reducing dramatically the duration of the Polar bears feeding season.
Polar bears hunt seals from a platform of sea-ice. Rising temperatures cause the sea-ice to melt earlier in the year, driving the bears to shore before they have built sufficient fat reserves to survive the period of scarce food,in the late summer and early autumn. Reduction in sea-ice cover also forces bears to swim longer distances which further depletes their energy stores and occasionally leads to drowning.

       The greed and overpopulation of humans is causing this global warming change, so, bearing in mind the recent sad news,let us not be too hard on the starving polar bears.