67 times around - and once there was a world's fair

aktbird57 - You and your 289 friends have supported 2,228,300.4 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 97,624.5 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 289 friends have supported: (97,624.5)

American Prairie habitat supported: 47,729.5 square feet.
You have supported: (11,541.1)
Your 289 friends have supported: (36,188.3)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,082,946.4 square feet.
You have supported: (168,613.6)
Your 289 friends have supported: (1,914,332.8)

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289? gotta check out who's new

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<welcome notes sent from inside the aktbird account - so if you get email from andy thomson - mmmmmmm, that's me today>

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1 Aktbird57 .. 1367 51.151 acres

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hooray for the wildclickers!

hooray for the rainforest!

hooray hooray hooray !!!

Hey there cyphercat!

Glad you came and checked us out.

The wildclickers, the gang of folks that clicks together as part of the aktbirds, often has interesting things to say on a wide range of topics.

<I think I mighta spotted yer boyfriend as one of our new team-mates as well>

WELCOME CYPHERCAT!!! Glad to have you aboard. Yep, this is an interesting thread.

Stradee,
I lost a hubcap on my auto recently - it's an old Chrysler 'Le Baron' convertible - I bought it because I really loved the body styling when it first came out. I went to the local Chrysler dealer and just for fun priced a replacement for the plastic hubcap. They quote me $125.00. I said thank you and waited until I got outside the building before I laughed. Then I went to a reputable wrecking dealer - went through his lot - picked up two hubcaps and paid him $5.00. Go figure. It's outlandish what some dealers do.

sumac,
During the last presidential elections a friend whom I trust implicitly suggested I Google two things - first = John Kerry, and the second was = George W. Bush. I did and was stunned and amazed. The Kerry Google resulted in one page saying that he had been involved in some action in Vietnam and was written by some men who did not see the action. The Bush Google resulted in so many pages that I could not see them all in my lifetime. They were virtually all negative. I wonder about our control of the news and exactly who owns the news media?? It would be very surprising to some if they knew. For example, during the 2000 election we thought Gore had won because he had over a half million more votes than Bush - then the Fox News network went to work - as it turns out the General Manager of the Fox News network was G Bush's first cousin. Who knew??

Scary.

oops, forgot my manners.

Welcome Cyphercat! Welcome to the rainforest threads!

Danon, I didn't mind paying the price for the new radiator. The mechanics terrific, takes very good care of the Chevy. A good guy.
Plus, the garage is about 10 minutes from my house. Thats saying something being I live in a small town in the foothills. How lucky is that!

A few years ago, i'd have probably taken out the old radiator, visited the radiator store, etc. Now though, working five days each week....well, i'd rather sit in the sunshine and tend the herd.

sumac, dan and wildclickers - check out the alert at aimoo <Defenders Thread!> The USDA ignored the Congressional mandate, and the majority of Americans, and made a deal with the foreign owned horse slaughterhouses. The Congressional mandate stated without USDA inspections, horses could not be slaughtered for human consumption <from March 10 through Sept 30 - 2006> So, the slaughterhouses are PAYING the USDA for inspections. Didn't hear much of that in the media, either. Why, because the USDA is acting illegally FOR foreign owned slaughterhouses, and receiving private money from the companies - Americas horses pay the ultimate price.

Government agencies do pretty much what they choose, against the wishes of the majority of Americans and Congress.

You're in a good place here Cypher, you'll like the people!!

Anon

Got it Sumac..........

Beautiful Picture.

Wonderful Magginkat. Now please tell me how you did it and what was wrong with my address, lifted directly from properties on the picture. My email address should be known by you, but is listed in my info on this site in any event.

I am sick and tired of not being able to post half the images. I know that I should go to the original source, but National Geographic was that source.

ehBeth,

Please add my email address to your list. My nose is out of joint at never getting emails from you. <sob>

I hope Ul had a chance to check out that picture of the wildmen of Austria that you linked us to above.

Here is a real good one about the rain forest:

"ECOLOGY/EVOLUTION: Making Space for All Types and Sizes
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Andrew
M. Sugden

Tree species in tropical rain forests vary widely in their maximum
height
at adulthood and thus occupy many levels in the forest. In contrast,
trees
in temperate forests tend to concentrate in the upper canopy, and there
is
a relative scarcity of understory or subcanopy species.

King et al. tested a recent forest dynamics model indicating that
greater
diversity in adult stature in tropical forests as compared to temperate
forests reflects the reduced exclusion of smaller species by canopy
species. Measurements of the relative abundances of adult subcanopy
species
and saplings of canopy species in temperate, subtropical, and tropical
forests indicate that there are greater rates of recruitment and
establishment of subcanopy species in low-latitude habitats. The
underlying
mechanism that allows the greater diversity in tree stature in tropical
forests may be a combination of varying crown geometries, the length of
the
growing season, and the extent of light penetration to lower levels in
the
forest through gaps in the upper canopy. -- AMS"

J. Trop. Ecol. 22, 11 (2006).

sumac - I promise I promise I promise I'll figger out how to get you into those group emails.

Welcome Cypercat.

Thanks wayfarer.
Last night I read this in a book ( holiday rest your mind book) and had to smile.

" .. my glaze fell on the snow-misted outline of Habitat'67. Built for the World Expo, the complex is a pile of geometric cubes that challenges the delicate art of balance. Born more of imagination than architectural pragmastism, Habitat's walkways and patios are a delight in summer, an invitatation to hypothermia in winter".

Polar Bears Being Considered for U.S. Endangered List
John Roach
for National Geographic News

February 10, 2006
The Bush Administration yesterday kicked off a process to determine whether polar bears should be added to the United States endangered species list because their habitat is melting.

The action is "a significant acknowledgement of what global warming is doing to the Arctic ice," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in Joshua Tree, California.


In December the conservation group, along with Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council, sued the U.S. government to protect the world's polar bears from extinction.

According to the conservationists, Earth's steadily rising temperature is causing the polar bear's habitat to melt. Many scientists say the warming is due, in part, to human activities such as driving cars and burning coal, which release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere,

If the bears are given federal protection, they would be the first U.S. mammals officially deemed to be in danger of extinction because of global warming, the conservation groups said.

Rosa Meehan, the chief of marine-mammal protection at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, Alaska, said the conservation groups presented sufficient information to merit a close look at the status of polar bears.

"It doesn't mean that we are going to list them or that we're not," she said. "We know things are changing. We know a lot more about polar bears than we did a few years ago. We need to review their status."

The Fish and Wildlife Service will spend the next 12 months examining scientific evidence about the changing Arctic environment and how it is affecting polar bears.

Life on the Ice

Polar bears live only in the Arctic, the northernmost region of Earth (see Arctic photos).

The bears, which can grow to about 8 feet (2.5 meters) long, depend on sea ice for their survival. They hunt their primary prey, the ringed seal, from the ice. They also travel, mate, and sometimes give birth on the ice.

But the ice is melting.


Continued - Next Page...http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0210_060210_polar_bears_2.html

Can't wait to see Bush's solution. What will he do? Furnish a few ice cubes?

aktbird57 - You and your 289 friends have supported 2,229,588.1 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 97,811.8 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 289 friends have supported: (97,811.8)

American Prairie habitat supported: 47,752.9 square feet.
You have supported: (11,541.1)
Your 289 friends have supported: (36,211.8)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,084,023.4 square feet.
You have supported: (168,613.6)
Your 289 friends have supported: (1,915,409.9)

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sumac - I've just sent you a couple of emails at 2 eddresses I have for you. Let me know if you don't get either. My contact info is in the emails, so just email me with the results if you get the emails.

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1 Aktbird57 .. 1368 51.183 acres

Lot's of good reading folks.

ehBeth, you are right about the rise in our clickers - it appears that we have about seven additional clickers each day this past week.

clicked

Good job wildclickers!

ehBeth, Union of Concerned Scientists has a new feature that you might be interested reading regarding climate changes affecting Ontario, and the Great Lakes region.

Migrating Climates...

Over the next century the climate of the Great Lakes region will grow warmer and overall drier. Nighttime temperatures are expected to warm more than daytime temperatures and extreme heat will be more common. Average precipitation levels are unlikely to change, but the seasonal patterns of precipitation will vary greatly increasing in winter, and decreasing in the summer. Overall the region may grow drier as a result of increased evaporation and transpiration that is not compensated for by precipitation.

These changes in temperature and precipitation will strongly alter how the climate feels to us.

The Migrating Climates feature provides a dramatic way of visualizing the effects of climate projections by estimating where Ontario and selected Great Lakes states will have "moved" climatically over the next century. These analyses are based on projections of seasonal average temperature and precipitation and do not consider the extremes or variability in projected climate changes. They also do not reflect the effect that major topographical features may have upon local climate. To learn more about the emission scenarios and calculations this feature is based on see the technical appendices.


http://www.ucsusa.org/greatlakes/glimpactmigrating.html

There's also a survey map on the page for each region.

Thanks for great article and link, Stradee. It also served to remind me that I needed to sign up for the newsletters from the Union. They do great reporting and putting out of position statements.

ehBeth

No emails at the address that I use, which is listed here on a2k under my profile.