Earlier this year, shortly before the publicity machine for her new film Duplicity moved into gear, Julia Roberts inadvertently starred in a 43-second movie that made the rounds online. Though she's costumed in mom jeans and comfortable shoes, she's featured at her most thrilling, marching menacingly toward the camera and quickly exceeding the number of expletives allowed in a PG-13 movie. "I have had it with you," she tells the paparazzi. "F___ off. Aim higher. Get a life." There's ...

The seductive port of Havana is an unlikely accident of geography and history, a rum-tinged cocktail of Caribbean exotica, colonial Spanish elegance and Cold War-era politics. Through its years of post-revolution isolation it has evolved differently from the rest of the world, so that Havana feels like it belongs to some parallel universe. In a homogenized world of 'McCities' subject to the same trans-national fads and fashions, Havana is defiantly unglobalized and proud to play by its own rules. Parts ...

Most people have had dreams of flying. Graham Hawkes had dreams of flying -- underwater. Hawkes has been in the business of building underwater craft for more than a decade. In the early days, his company, Hawkes Ocean Technologies, built vehicles for researchers and moviemakers. But in the past few years, the ultrarich have increasingly looked for cool playthings for their ocean adventures. What better toy to have on the end of your 200-foot yacht than a submarine capable of ...

Until last December, no one had ever seen the bottom of the Tasman Fracture, a trench that drops more than four kilometers below the surface of the ocean. A group of Australian and American researchers recently spent a month hundreds of kilometers southwest of the Tasmanian coast, exploring the fracture's depths. Jess Adkins, a professor at Caltech and one of the project's lead scientists, remembers sitting in his control room and watching the underwater life on his monitors with a ...

A NASA satellite crashed back to Earth about three minutes after launch early Tuesday, officials said. "We could not make orbit," NASA program manager John Brunschwyler said. "Initial indications are the vehicle did not have enough [force] to reach orbit and landed just short of Antarctica in the ocean." "Certainly for the science community, it's a huge disappointment." The satellite, which would have monitored greenhouse gases to study how they affect the Earth's climate, was launched on ...

Glenn Wood and several other retirees lean on a wood rail on the second story balcony of the Golden Lion Café -- a beachside pub and restaurant in northern Florida. It's 8 a.m., so no one's here for French fries or beer-battered fish. As the group gazes out into the ocean sunrise, they're scanning for North Atlantic right whales. Wearing whale earrings, a flipper necklace and a blue windbreaker that says "Whale Watch Survey Team" on the back, Wood says ...

The owners of a cruise ship that ran aground in Marguerite Bay, Antarctica, are hoping high tide will dislodge the ship Wednesday, a company statement said. Connecticut-based Quark Expeditions said the M/V Ocean Nova became stranded Tuesday in the bay not far from an Argentine research base. Marguerite Bay is about 900 miles south of the tip of South America. The ship is carrying 65 passengers and 41 crew members, Quark Expeditions said. All those aboard the vessel "remain ...

Carole Dunham, 69, loved the ocean. Last July, she was diagnosed with cancer and had only a few months to live. Dunham knew her last footprint had to be a green one, and she started looking into eco-friendly alternatives to traditional burial. The concept of "going green" has taken new life in the death care industry as eco-minded companies tap into the needs of those like Dunham. From biodegradable caskets to natural burial sites, death is becoming less of ...