The Wildclickers Trivia thread (# 70)

They have been discovered in cave-like niches set in a cliff in an area called Laguna de los Cóndores near Leimebamba.

Someoneelsemaysaytheactualplace.

Good one ul.

You and your 294 friends have supported 2,371,146.1 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 110,970.2 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 294 friends have supported: (110,970.2)

American Prairie habitat supported: 51,873.6 square feet.
You have supported: (12,547.9)
Your 294 friends have supported: (39,325.8)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,208,302.3 square feet.
You have supported: (170,510.1)
Your 294 friends have supported: (2,037,792.2)

click

Just click: http://rainforest.care2.com/welcome?w=856730509

Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire
Mirth and youth and warm desire!
Woods and groves are of thy dressing,
Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.
--John Milton (1608-1674)

While the Mother's Day we celebrate is a fairly recent development, in 16th-century England a celebration called "Mothering Sunday" was inaugurated -- a Sunday set aside for visiting your mother. The eldest son or daughter would bring a "mothering cake," which would be cut and shared by the entire family. Family reunions were the order of the day, with sons and daughters assuming all household duties and preparing a special dinner in honor of their mother.



Three Chilly Saints (May 11-13)
These three days, named for three early Christian martyrs, are traditionally the last cold spell before planting season begins.

In the middle of May comes the tail of winter.

Full Flower Moon (May 13)

Flowers spring forth in abundance this month. Some of the Algonquin tribes knew this as the Full Corn Moon.

St. Dunstan (May 19)
According to legend, St. Dunstan made a pact with the devil to spare apple and pear blossoms from late frosts nine years out of ten. In the tenth year, there was a frost on this day.


May 9, 1977 -- Boston got its first May snow in 107 years.
May 11, 1934 -- A strong, two-day dust storm removed massive amounts of topsoil from the Great Plains in one of the worst weather events of the Dust Bowl era.
May 11, 1945 -- Vermont received 15 inches of snow, and New Hampshire, 26 inches.
May 13, 1995 -- Grissom Air Force Base, near Peru, Indiana, reported wind gusts of 136 miles per hour in a heavy thunderstorm.
May 13, 1866 -- Sandstorm in New Jersey.
May 16, 1924 -- The temperature in Blitzen, Oregon, reached 108 degrees F, a record high for this date.
May 19, 1987 -- Heavy rain and golf ball-size hail destroyed 80 percent of the crops in northwestern Texas.
May 21, 1990 -- Sleet and snow fell in northern New England.
May 23, 1858 -- Folks were sleighing in Farmington, Maine.

I'm going to try this one more time.

THAT is the cast of a fire ant tunnel network.

Now, tell me everything that you know about archipelagoes.

It would take a lot of time..

So, tell me, which one you would like I talk about :

Dodecanese, Andaman, Comoro, Turku, or....?

Danon, you got it.

Right now these mummies are in Vienna- the Technical Museum is showing an interdisciplinary project:selection of analysing methods used to shed light on the Chachapoya-Inca culture.

Susan will know who will use mass spectrometry to gain insight into environmental conditions and the use of coca plants.

sumac, very interesting stuff re Mother's Day.......

ul, I just love to visit the Vienna Technical Museum - it is always soooo interesting. It's also very close to the Schonbrunn - and the first and oldest zoo in the world. Ahhhh, the beautiful memories of Vienna.



sumac, Francis is right..... There is apparently an archipelago - or several - for each letter of the alphabet.

So, Which state(s) of the USA is/has an archipelago???? Let's for fun throw in USA affiliated places......

One of the USA "affiliated" places is American Samoa.

Even though I know this story, the following is taken from a website, because its better wording than I could achieve.


"Most of what we know about the contact between the first European party of exploration to land on Tutuila and the Samoans comes from the published journals of the famed French explorer LaPérouse. Though his ill-fated expedition never made it back to France, he sent his journals back to France after a port-of-call in Botany Bay. This is the only record now that we have of the "A'asu massacre" (Dunmore 1994).

The Islands of American Samoa had actually been noted in 1768 by another French explorer, DeBouganville, who made contact with the easternmost islands in the archipelago. However, LaPérouse lead the first expedition to set foot on Tutuila. LaPérouse first arrived in the Samoan archipelago, then called the Navigator Islands, in December of 1787. LaPérouse actually came with two ships, Boussole, which he captained, and L'Astrolabe, captained by the second in command, Paul-Antoine-Marie Fleuriot DeLangle. As LaPérouse was landing at Fagasa, De Longle attempted to land at A'asu in order to get a supply of fresh water. De Longle must have passed by the several intervening embayments before settling on A'asu as a potential source. On his first landing the Samoans greeted him warmly. There, they traded and filled some water casks at the spring fed A'asu stream.

Plaque on A'asu Monument

Most of what we know about the contact between the first European party of exploration to land on Tutuila and the Samoans comes from the published journals of the famed French explorer LaPérouse. Though his ill-fated expedition never made it back to France, he sent his journals back to France after a port-of-call in Botany Bay. This is the only record now that we have of the "A'asu massacre" (Dunmore 1994).

However, on the morning of December 11th, De Longle and a small landing party returned to fill more water casks. Reportedly, at this time they were greeted by a large host of Samoans - far more than lived at A'asu. De Longle, unable to effectively communicate with them, passed out some trinkets in an attempt to placate a crowd that he sensed was unsettled.

In 1882 the remains of the victims were discovered and a small monument was erected at the site. French warships are reported to have visited occasionally. In 1887 the remains of De Longle were reportedly presented to Captain Bénier, commanding the Fabert, and return to France in 1889, where they were interred in the church of St. Louis in Brest. This church was destroyed during the Second World War, and today his remains are located in the chapel of the Ecole Navale near Brest (Dunmore 1994).

Virtually nothing is known of the prehistory of A'asu itself. However, investigations at several other key sites in American Samoa reveal the possibilities for coastal habitation sites like A'asu. The best estimate is that the first inhabitants of American Samoa settled sometime just before 3000 B.P. The earliest site on Tutuila, the main island in the American Samoa group, is ?'Aoa, with a radiocarbon dates of 2,890±140 B.P., and 2,460 ±110 (Clark 1993b). Both are dates on charcoal with d13C corrections. The oldest sample was collected from above (stratigraphically) the deepest pottery finds. It is clear, then, that no later than 2,750 B.P. (at 2 s) there is a human presence on the island. The ?'Aoa site is by far the oldest on Tutuila. Other well-known sites are found to have a temporal context within the last 1,000 years, including the basalt quarries at Leone (Clark 1993b; Leach and Witter 1990; Leach and Witter 1987), and Alega (Clark 1993a, 1993b). Comparatively few sites in American Samoa have been thoroughly dated, thus the paucity of ages from what would amount to the middle prehistoric period in Samoa (1,000-2,000 B.P.) is undoubtedly an artifact of sample size.

One other early site is known, this from the island of Ofu. The site of To'aga (AS-13-1) was found to be as old as 3,820±70 B.P. by Kirch, Hunt, and Tyler (1989). They excavated a series of test units and found a deeply stratified sequence of pottery, though no Lapita-ware (Kirch 1990; Kirch et al. 1989). Radiocarbon ages were obtained from samples of marine shell discovered in the same stratigraphic context as thin-ware ceramics. Taken at face value this site predates the ?'Aoa site on Tutuila by over a millennium. However, as marine shells obtain their carbon from the ocean, and not the atmosphere, radiocarbon dates on them tend to be older -- on the order of 400 years on average (Stuiver and Braziunas 1993). Even so, the site's early ceramic component could be in excess of 3,000 years old, making it the oldest site in American Samoa. Again, the absence of distinctive Lapita pottery is significant.

Clark (1993a) gave two suggestions to account for this fact: 1) The Malifanua site on Upolu Island, Samoa was not actually occupied by "Lapita people," but rather, that those living there acquired Lapita style pottery through trade; or, 2) the earliest Lapita peoples to colonize Samoa abandoned the distinctive pottery style quickly and uniformly throughout the archipelago, instead adopting an unpainted, undecorated, yet functional variant. The early dates from To'aga strongly suggest the former option, for at that time Lapita populations in Tonga, Fiji, and elsewhere in the Pacific are firmly established. As Clark (1993b) points out, this would imply that a contemporary non-Lapita population inhabited Samoa at that time. If true, this would present new problems in terms of determining their source population, or rather, in explaining why individuals from a source population that used exclusively Lapita ware would emigrate to Samoa and a priori abandon the style. The second suggestion seems more tenable, as stylistic change can occur rapidly. The thin-walled Polynesian plainware is undoubtedly as equally functional as its red-rimmed dentate-stamped counterpart. The symbolic and social significance of such a change would require an explanation that at this time is lacking.

Another possibility is that Lapita sites are rare but remained hidden. With each deep excavation that is attempted without finding Lapita pottery this possibility diminishes. It is indeed surprising that only one site in the entire Samoan archipelago has been found with Lapita wares. The excavation of A'asu will provide yet one more test of the hypothesis that makers (or traders) of Lapita pottery had reached greater Samoa.

Fascinating, Francis! Please stick around.

Ran across this today, which is very interesting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/po/20060509/co_po/studylesbiansbrainsreactdifferently

Study: Lesbians' brains react differently

Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press
Tue May 9, 7:54 PM ET



SUMMARY: Swedish scientists say lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than straight women's, corroborating a recent study of men.

WASHINGTON -- Lesbians' brains react differently to sex hormones than those of heterosexual women, new research indicates. That's in line with an earlier study that had indicated gay men's brain responses were different from straight men -- though the difference for men was more pronounced than has now been found in women.

Lesbians' brains reacted somewhat, though not completely, like those of heterosexual men, a team of Swedish researchers said in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A year ago, the same group reported findings for gay men that showed their brain response to hormones was similar to that of heterosexual women.

In both cases, the findings add weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behavior.

"It shows sexual orientation may very well have a different basis between men and women . . . this is not just a mirror-image situation," said Sandra Witelson, an expert on brain anatomy and sexual orientation at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

"The important thing is to be open to the likely situation that there are biological factors that contribute to sexual orientation," added Witelson, who was not part of the research team.

The research team, led by Ivanka Savic at the Stockholm Brain Institute, had volunteers sniff chemicals derived from male and female sex hormones. These chemicals are thought to be pheromones -- molecules known to trigger responses such as defense and sex in many animals.

Whether humans respond to pheromones has been debated, although in 2000 American researchers reported finding a gene that they believe directs a human pheromone receptor in the nose.

The same team reported last year on a comparison of the response of gay men to that of heterosexual men and women. They found that the brains of gay men reacted more like those of women than of straight men.

The new study shows a similar, but weaker, relationship between the response of lesbians and that of straight men.

Heterosexual women found the male and female pheromones about equally pleasant, while straight men and lesbians liked the female pheromone more than the male one. Men and lesbians also found the male hormone more irritating than the female one, while straight women were more likely to be irritated by the female hormone than the male one.

All three groups rated the male hormone more familiar than the female one. Straight women found both hormones about equal in intensity, while lesbians and straight men found the male hormone more intense than the female one.

The brains of all three groups were scanned when sniffing male and female hormones and a set of four ordinary odors. Ordinary odors were processed in the brain circuits associated with smell in all the volunteers.

In heterosexual males, the male hormone was processed in the scent area but the female hormone was processed in the hypothalamus, which is related to sexual stimulation. In straight women the sexual area of the brain responded to the male hormone while the female hormone was perceived by the scent area.

In lesbians, both male and female hormones were processed the same, in the basic odor-processing circuits, Savic and her team reported.

Each of the three groups of subjects included 12 healthy, unmedicated, right-handed and HIV-negative individuals.

The research was funded by the Swedish Medical Research Council, Karolinska Institute and the Wallenberg Foundation.

There still is controversy about this, and some of both arguments are discussed here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060510/sc_space/climatechangenothumanskilledlargebeasts

Climate Change, Not Humans, Killed Large Beasts

Bjorn Carey
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Wed May 10, 2:00 PM ET



Failure to adapt to a drastically changing climate, and not overkill by humans or disease, most likely lead to the extinction of mammoths, wild horses, and other large mammals after the last Ice Age, a new study suggests.

But this fresh take on an old argument might not be the final word.

Dale Guthrie of the University of Alaska has added 600 radiocarbon-dated fossils to the established collection, and his examination reveals that mammoths and wild horses were in serious decline before humans arrived on the scene in Alaska and the Yukon Territory.

Like the end of the dinosaurs, the topic of large mammal extinctions is a hot one. While the new results might be true of the far North, some researchers still believe over-hunting contributed to the demise of the beasts across the rest of the continent.

The study, which also analyzed the fossil record of bison, elk, moose, and humans in the far North between 18,000 and 9,000 years ago, is published in the May 11th issue of the journal Nature.

Pushed to the brink

It's generally accepted that humans first entered North America from Siberia around 12,000 years ago. Since mammoths and wild horses became extinct roughly 11,500 and 12,500 years ago, some scientists have figured that hungry humans might have hunted them into oblivion.

"The old idea, that I once had, was that these animals were killed off and then the modern large mammals expanded and took their place," Guthrie said.

According to Guthrie's new data, however, bison and elk populations were doing well during this period, and those species had expanded dramatically long before other species went extinct. So why weren't bison and elk over-hunted to extinction as well? Interestingly, the fossil record shows the two beasts were hunted more vigorously, yet they endured.

"I imagine humans were hunting anything they could get," Guthrie said. "Horse meat is probably just as tasty as bison. But their campsites don't show many mammoth and horse remains?-they're full of bison and elk."

Guthrie's interpretation of the fossil record is that something else pushed mammoths and horses to the brink, and if humans did play a role in the extinctions, it was limited to just killing stragglers.

The fossil record also casts doubt on the possibility of a mega-disease that wiped out animals across the board, Guthrie said. A deadly disease would create a distinct end for each species, which isn't reflected in the fossils. Also, diseases that infect and kill multiple species are extremely rare, and unlikely in this case since bison, elk, and moose weren't affected.

So what happened up North?

The period between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago was a great transitional time for the far North. Although scientists don't know exactly what happened during this period, they can tell certain things from the geologic and fossil record.

"We know that animals' body size changed, there was a mass extinction, temperature changes, and humans came in," Guthrie said. "A lot of animals, such as bison, didn't do real well before that time. Then they really prospered for a while and didn't do real well after that."

Before 13,000 years ago, the food available in the region was mostly short, dry grass of little nutritional value, Guthrie said. Then, as the Alaska and the Yukon warmed up, and water returned to the land, the dry grass was replaced with tall lush grass and bush?-the type of plants grazers like elk and bison prosper on.

"Long before horses and mammoths became extinct, bison and elk began to expand," Guthrie said. "The only good way to account for that expansion would be the availability of a more abundant and nutritious food source."

But as the region continued to warm and received more rain, the plants kept growing. Boreal forest?-which includes inedible trees such as pine, spruce, and birch?-began sprouting and limited the amount of grassy areas for grazing. Bison and elk populations decreased with this transformation, but, Guthrie said, they adapted to the habitat change and out-competed mammoths and horses for the remaining food.

"Humans were probably hunting some of the animals that went extinct, but 1,000 years after humans came in, [bison and elk] were still doing fine," Guthrie said.

Continental overkill?

David Steadman, a researcher at the University of Florida who believes humans drove the giant sloth to extinction, agrees that encroaching boreal forest may have been the end for large mammals in the North. But what about across the rest of the continent?

"It's a great piece of evidence?-I don't doubt it; I trust his data," Steadman told LiveScience. "What happened in Alaska and the Yukon is swell, but why did these things die out in Texas and Mexico and Arizona and Florida?"

Like many researchers in the field, Steadman attributes a combination of factors to the extinction of these beasts. But he believes humans, and not climate, played the leading role throughout the New World.

"There are so many things going on, and to me it's illogical to think that warming up and getting rid of ice sheets at 40 degrees latitude is a bad thing for large mammals," Steadman said. "They went through 20 glacial cycles in the last million years, and got through every one except for the last one. It has a certain odor to it, and that odor is of humans."

Hey Francis, good one...... Am Samoa is one. I was there for a week during the mid 1980's. ((There was only one flight in and out per week in those days and guess what ??)) The local high school marching band was returning home and my baggage did not make the flight. I borrowed some things to wear and bought some local things like a complete lava lava outfit with fly swatter and big chief high walking high talking stick. I fit right in with the natives - except for the white skin...... grin.


The other ones I can come up with are:
Puerto Rico
Hawaiian Islands
Aleutian Islands of Alaska
Florida Keys
Channel Islands of California
and - of all things
New England and New York islands (Manhattan, City Island, Long Island, Rikers Island, Roosevelt Island, Staten Island, Block Island, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Liberty Island, Ellis Island, Governors Island, Long Beach Island, Elizabeth Islands)

Go figure!!! But, they are listed.......

:wink:

That was the point of my question. Exactly what defines an archipelago? Dictionary definitions aren't good enough.

aktbird57 - You and your 294 friends have supported 2,372,691.4 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 111,134.1 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 294 friends have supported: (111,134.1)

American Prairie habitat supported: 51,897.1 square feet.
You have supported: (12,547.9)
Your 294 friends have supported: (39,349.2)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,209,660.3 square feet.
You have supported: (170,580.3)
Your 294 friends have supported: (2,039,080.0)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2372691.4 square feet is equal to 54.47 acres

We're a bit overdue for a new thread.

Perhaps archipelagoes could be the theme?

It's certainly a wonderful word and world to explore.

Dibs on the new thread/theme anyone?

http://www.archipelago.nu/

Francis, thanks for the interesting post.
Archipelagoes -lots of water and islands- stuff to dream about.


Some nightmares right now- screen play is just around the corner

You can do it, Ul. Then it will be finished, and holiday around the corner!!!!!

Two views of a Stockholm archipelago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/world/americas/11colombia.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

With photos, maps, much more at source. They want to be self sufficient, to be taught to cultivate to grow things that they can exchange for money. They say that living in the wilderness of the jungle is hard, and that someone told them to leave. Who and why?

"May 11, 2006

Leaving the Wild, and Rather Liking the Change
By JUAN FORERO

SAN JOSÉ DEL GUAVIARE, Colombia ?- Since time immemorial the Nukak-Makú have lived a Stone Age life, roaming across hundreds of miles of isolated and pristine Amazon jungle, killing monkeys with blowguns and scouring the forest floor for berries.

But recently, and rather mysteriously, a group of nearly 80 wandered out of the wilderness, half-naked, a gaggle of children and pet monkeys in tow, and declared themselves ready to join the modern world.

"We do not want to go back," explained one man, who uses the sole name Ma-be, and who arrived with the others at this outpost in southern Colombia in March. "We want to stay near town. We can plant our own food. In the meantime the town can help us."

While it is not known for sure why they left the jungle, what is abundantly clear is that the Nukak's experience as nomads and hunter-gatherers has left them wholly unprepared for the world they have just entered."