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Whoops: Much-Mapped Island Doesn&#39;t Actually Exist
 Whoops: 
 Much-Mapped 
 Island Doesn't 
 Actually Exist 
in case you missed it

Whoops: Much-Mapped Island Doesn't Actually Exist

Scientists head to Sandy Island, find nothing

(Newser) - Planning an island vacation? A word to the wise: Don't visit Sandy Island, supposedly off Australia's northeast coast. It's simply not there. Scientists at the University of Sydney journeyed to the spot where the island is supposed to be according to many maps (including Google's). Between...

'Literary' Island Faces Bombing of Rat Poison

Italy plans to exterminate rats on Montecristo

(Newser) - Any buried treasure on the island of Montecristo will soon be covered in rat poison. Facing a massive rat infestation, Italian authorities plan to drop 26 tons of poison on the 4-square-mile island that inspired Alexandre Dumas' famous novel The Count of Monte Cristo, the Telegraph reports. Black rats may...

Underwater Lava May Create New Canary Island

The mass keeps growing and growing ...

(Newser) - An underwater volcano near the Canary Islands has been gushing lava for three weeks and might just form a brand-new island. The erupting magma has reached 330 feet above the sea floor, and it needs to reach up another 490 feet to break the surface of the Atlantic, reports Der ...

Going Rate for an NYC Island: $160K

Rat Island doesn't really have rats, says new owner

(Newser) - It's 2.5 acres of rock that's mostly submerged at times, has no electricity or power, was best known for housing typhoid victims (or so goes the legend), and bears the ungainly moniker of Rat Island—and for $160,000, it could have been your little island just...

What It's Like to Have Your Own Private Island

Apparently, it's quite a bit of work

(Newser) - The latest Rich Person Trend: Buying your own private island in the Exuma Cays, a little-known cluster of 365 small and mostly uninhabited islands in the Bahamas. Tyler Perry, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill are among the newer buyers, joining older purchasers including Johnny Depp and David Copperfield. But what...

My Shrinking Island Serves as Climate Warning

Strip of livable land is all that's left for Nauru islanders: President

(Newser) - To witness the devastation of climate change in real time, Westerners need only look to the island nation of Nauru, its president writes in the New York Times . The country is smaller than Manhattan—and after phosphate mining and deforestation, there remains “only a thin strip of coastline for...

Scientists Spot 657 New Islands
 Scientists Spot 657 New Islands 

Scientists Spot 657 New Islands

Study identifies hundreds of new barrier islands worldwide

(Newser) - Scientists poring over satellite images and topographical charts have discovered a flood of new islands. A study has identified 657 new barrier islands around the world, bringing the total number of islands in the world to 2,149, LiveScience reports. Such islands tend to occur in chains, forming a series...

Bankrupt Greece Selling Islands

Sell-off looms as Greece struggles with debt

(Newser) - What's a country with no money and thousands of islands to do? Greece is trying to pay off some of its massive debt by selling or offering long-term leases on some of its 6,000 islands, only 227 of which are inhabited, the Guardian reports. The country, which received a...

Disputed Island Disappears Beneath Waves
 Disputed 
 Island 
 Disappears 
 Beneath Waves 
in case you missed it

Disputed Island Disappears Beneath Waves

India and Bangladesh had both claimed uninhabited island

(Newser) - An island that both India and Bangladesh have claimed ownership of for years has vanished, Indian scientists say. Satellite photos indicate that the island, known as New Moore Island in India and South Talpatti Island in Bangladesh, has sunk beneath the rising sea. The tiny island has never had a...

Palau's Prez Makes Moral Call to Take in Detainees

'They're not monsters,' says island leader

(Newser) - That Palau's president was once a defense lawyer may explain why he risked upsetting his island's 20,000 residents and their peaceful isolation from the world to take in 13 former Guantanamo detainees. "They should be presumed innocent because no one has proven them guilty," newly elected Johnson...

Get Stranded on Johnny Depp's Private Island

Notoriously private actor comes out of hiding

(Newser) - Just about any female on the planet would have heart palpitations if, like Vanity Fair editor Douglas Brinkley, they were invited by Johnny Depp on a trip to his private Caribbean island—with no handlers tagging along—and told, “You’ve got all-access. Ask me about anything you want....

Castaway Pooch Survived 4 Months on Island

Sophie Tucker washed overboard on sailing trip

(Newser) - A family pet who was washed overboard during a November sailing trip has turned up on a remote Australian island, the BBC reports. Sophie Tucker, an Australian cattle dog, swam some 5 miles and survived on baby goats until she was found by rangers who patrol St. Bees Island. "...

NEA Official to Eat Book if Ohio Island Doesn't Read It

(Newser) - Though the National Endowment for the Arts is encouraging communities to get together and devour the same book, literature director David Kipen has gone a bit further with tiny Kelleys Island, Ohio, the Sandusky Register reports. If the island’s 128 inhabitants don’t all read To Kill a Mockingbird,...

Island Paradise Seeks New Home

Low-lying islands divert tourist funds to buy land

(Newser) - Under serious threat from rising sea levels, the government of the Maldives is saving funds from the islands' biggest industry—tourism—to finance the purchase of a new national home, the Guardian reports. Much of the country, near India, rises less than 5 feet above the water, and the UN...

Traces of the Real Crusoe Unearthed

Character was based on marooned Scotsman

(Newser) - A dig has unearthed remnants of the real-life Robinson Crusoe’s stay on an island west of Chile, the BBC reports. Daniel Defoe’s character is said to have been based on a sailor who was rescued from the island in 1709. Traces of his four-year presence include post-holes from...

Ike's Message: Don't Build on Sandbars
 Ike's Message: 
 Don't Build on Sandbars 
ANALYSIS

Ike's Message: Don't Build on Sandbars

The costs of living seaside on a barrier island can be huge

(Newser) - The barrier islands along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts entice inhabitants with their balmy beachfronts, but prove an equal draw for often devastating tropical storms. As Hurricane Ike's path of destruction across Galveston Island shows, building houses on what amounts to an oversized sandbar can be a critical mistake—though...

Lost Divers Fight Off Indonesian Dragon

Europeans pelt lizard with rocks during 36-hour ordeal

(Newser) - European divers battled a Komodo dragon while waiting 36 hours to be rescued from a deserted Indonesian island, CNN reports. The group, which scavenged for shellfish and pelted the giant lizard with rocks, is dehydrated but suffered minor cuts. Asked if the dragons are dangerous, one expert responded, “Of...

Dutch Float Plans for Island in North Sea

If Dubai can do it, why not the Netherlands? Tulip-shaped, of course.

(Newser) - The Dutch are seriously considering building a tulip-shaped island in the North Sea to expand the severely crowded nation and shield the coast from the rising ocean, Reuters reports.  "People live on top of each other in the Netherlands," said a politician.  "We are hungry...

11,000 People With No Place to Go... Yet

Global warming will put Polynesian island underwater in 50 years

(Newser) - Legal experts are debating what to do with the people of Tuvalu, a Polynesian island state which will be underwater in 50 years if the globe keeps warming. Many residents have found homes in New Zealand but others have met resistance in Australia, where immigration is an election issue. International...

As Ice Shrinks, Islands Emerge
As Ice Shrinks, Islands Emerge

As Ice Shrinks, Islands Emerge

New, unclaimed territories raise fears of accelerated global warming

(Newser) - The melting of ice in the Arctic Ocean has revealed previously undiscovered islands, one approximately the size of a basketball court. Reuters reports that the formerly submerged islands are unclaimed by any government but lie near Svalbard, the Norwegian territory north of the Arctic Circle. The discoveries raise fears that...

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