Jeopardy - a Game of Life - RF #71

Clary,
Great photo of Turkish Saddle - Those guys developed some really good art styles and architecture - especially during their stay in Spain and that area.
Before you leave Vienna be sure and check with the Bratislava Airlines - they have GREAT prices for traveling to interesting places all around the Med. ie. for 150 bucks you can go to a Greek island for a week and back. Includes meals and room. Give them a call. They have offices in Wien and will bus you to Bratislava Airport. The above is a couple of years ago - hope they still have those flights.


ul,
I found that in Wien lunch is great anywhere. I don't mind at all reminding you of a chocolate desert - that sounds good to me.... Grin

:wink:

Danon, this will give you an
idea

where we have been.

Right, Bratislava airport is becoming a good "cheap" alternative to Vienna.(Shouldn't say so-)
The bus is 10€ and there are a lot of good deals.
Bus takes about an hour and runs hourly.
Going to Dublin from Bratislava was 39€.

Ah, that was the restaurant that was closed, the one with the cellar!?

Going to Bratislava tomorrow to take friend to airport; don't need to go to Greek Islands, though it is a really good deal; am happy to be planning more travel through Austria, Switzerland, and France.

World travelers may not have a world to travel in anymore if these creeps have their way:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060517/us_nm/environment_ads_dc

""Carbon dioxide... we call it life," TV ads say
By Deborah Zabarenko
Wed May 17, 6:58 PM ET



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A little girl blows away dandelion fluff as an announcer says, "Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution; we call it life," in an advertisement targeting global warming "alarmists," especially Al Gore.

The television ads, screened for the press on Wednesday and set to air in 14 U.S. cities starting on Thursday, are part of a campaign by the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute to counter a media spotlight on threats posed by worldwide climate change.

The spots are timed to precede next week's theatrical release of "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary film on global warming that features Gore, the former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate.

Against backdrops of a park, a beach and a forest, one celebrates the benefits of greenhouse gas-producing fuels.

"The fuels that produce CO2 (carbon dioxide) have freed us from a world of back-breaking labor, lighting up our lives, allowing us to create and move the things we need, the people we love," the ad runs. "Now some politicians want to label carbon dioxide a pollutant. Imagine if they succeed -- what would our lives be like then?"

The other ad questions media reports of the threat of climate change, especially a Time magazine issue devoted to the topic, and shows film of a glacier melting and then runs in reverse to show the glacier reconstituting itself.

"We had started work on this several months back, but we sort of changed course once the flood of glacier-melting stories began," said Sam Kazman, an institute lawyer who worked on the ads. "So we did want to get out there before the Al Gore film got into national opening."

'RUNNING FOR ARCH-DRUID'

Fred Smith, president of the institute, a lobbying group closely allied to the Bush administration that stresses limited government regulation and a free-market approach to environmental issues, said he had seen the film and found it "very alarmist," although well-produced.

"There's a lot of pictures of Al Gore pensively looking into the sunset," Smith said. "I don't think he's running for president, but he might be running for arch-druid."

The institute and environmental groups such as Washington-based Environmental Defense agree that average global temperatures have risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) in the last century.

But the institute questions the impact of global warming while a broad range of scientists and environmentalists, including Gore, have linked it to more severe storms, melting ice caps and rising sea levels.

"They fly in the face of most of the science," Charlie Miller of Environmental Defense said of the institute ads. "The good news is that there's not a trade-off here between prosperity, jobs, growth and protecting the Earth. We can do both."

Environmental Defense and the Ad Council released public service announcements in March featuring children as future victims of global warming, and these were mentioned critically at the briefing where the new ads were released.

The institute ads will run from May 18 through May 28 in Albany, New York; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Anchorage, Alaska; Austin, Texas; Charleston, West Virginia; Dallas; Dayton, Ohio; Denver; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Phoenix; Sacramento and Santa Barbara, California; Springfield, Illinois, and Washington. "

More fascinating stuff that shows that nothing is trivial.

[IMG]images.livescience.com/images/060519_heart_mountain_01.jpg[/IMG]

"Land Speed Record: Mountain Moves 62 Miles in 30 Minutes

By Corey Binns


A mountain near the Montana-Wyoming border once moved 62 miles in a half-hour in a catastrophic scenario that could be repeated elsewhere, scientists say.

Rock at the summit of Heart Mountain is 250 million years older than at its base. That suggests the top and the bottom have not always been together. The presumed migration to its present home has puzzled scientists for years. They have known the mountain moved, but no one has explained how it happened or how long it took.

A new explanation comes from deep underground, where lava bubbled up to the surface and sent the mountain on its way in surprisingly quick fashion.

Slip-slidin' away

A large number of vertical cracks, or dikes, in the rock sets the geology of the wandering hill apart from others. The dikes filled with lava, funneling it through a zone of limestone saturated with water.

"A unique feature that helped this strange scenario is that Heart Mountain had a deep confined fluid layer," said geophysicist Einat Aharonov at the Weizmann Institute of Science. "Into this layer many, many dikes intruded in close sequence?-such dike density is also not extremely common."

With Columbia University geologist Mark Anders, Aharonov devised a computer model to describe what happened below Heart Mountain 50 million years ago. The era was one of serious mountain building with a series of volcanic eruptions that formed the now extinct volcanoes of the Absaroka Range [satellite image].

The dikes directed the lava into the water, heating both the rock and the water. The water was trapped, and as in a pressure cooker, its pressure rose as it was heated. Caught between layers of impermeable slate, the boiling water couldn't escape.

With nowhere to go but up, the tension finally lifted the rock, and the mountain began to glide.

Look out!

"We think the slide motion was catastrophic," Aharonov told LiveScience. "According to our calculation, the motion took less than 30 minutes."

The findings, announced this week, were published in the March issue of the journal Geology.

Heart Mountain isn't the only moveable mountain. Aharonov warns that, sitting on a volcanic site, the Canary Islands could be traveling soon?-posing a significant tsunami risk."

http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060519_moving_mountain.html

EXCELLENT NEWS!!!!!

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ap_060518_chestnuts.html

"Nearly Extinct American Chestnut Trees Found
By The Associated Press


ALBANY, Ga. (AP)?-A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs.
The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees.

"There's something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight,'' said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. "It's either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance.''

Experts say it could be that the chestnuts have less competition from other trees along the dry, rocky ridge. The fungus that causes the blight thrives in a moist environment.

The largest of the half-dozen or so trees is about 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 years old, and is believed to be the southernmost American chestnut discovered so far that is capable of flowering and producing nuts.

"This is a terrific find,'' said David Keehn, president of the Georgia chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. "A tree of this size is one in a million.''

The rugged area known as Pine Mountain is at the southern end of the Appalachians near Warm Springs, where Roosevelt built a home and sought treatment after he was stricken with polio in 1921.

"FDR may have roasted some chestnuts on his fire for Christmas or enjoyed their blooms in the spring,'' Klaus said.

The chestnut foundation may use pollen from the tree in a breeding program aimed at restoring the population with blight-resistant trees.

"When the flowers are right, we're going to rush down and pollinate the flowers, collect the seeds a few weeks later and collect the nuts,'' Klaus said. "If we ever find a genetic solution to the chestnut blight, genes from that tree will find their way into those trees.''

The chestnut foundation has been working for about 15 years to develop a blight-resistant variety. The goal is to infuse the American chestnut with the blight-resistant genes of the Chinese chestnut.

American chestnuts once made up about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern United States, with an estimated 4 billion trees from Maine to Mississippi and Florida.

The trees helped satisfy demand for roasted chestnuts, and their rot-resistant wood was used to make fence posts, utility poles, barns, homes, furniture and musical instruments.

Then these magnificent hardwoods, which could grow to a height of 100 feet and a diameter of 8 feet or more, were almost entirely wiped out by a fast-spreading fungus discovered in 1904.

"There are no chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and if they are, they're Chinese,'' Keehn said."

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060517_monkey_codewords.html

"Monkeys Use 'Code Words' to Warn of Predators
By Bjorn Carey


If you're a putty-nosed monkey and you hear a friend whoop out a loud "pyow" call, you know there's a leopard sneaking around and it's time to boogie.

Similarly, if you hear a "hack," it means you should watch out for a hungry eagle.

A new study reveals that these monkeys can mix the two calls into a "pyow-hack" sequence to broadcast other types of information.

The findings, reported in the May 18 issue of the journal Nature, indicate that non-human primates can combine calls into higher-order sequences that have a particular meaning.

Putty-nosed monkeys, Cercopithecus nictitans, are about the size of a cat. They live among the trees in African rainforests. Their three main goals in life are to reproduce, eat, and not get eaten.

To take care of the latter two objectives, the monkeys rely on two calls. If the male let's out a "pyow," the monkeys scramble away from the lower levels of the trees. If they hear a "hack," they climb away from the canopy to avoid getting picked off by an eagle.

Researchers from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland followed a group of putty-nosed monkeys for two months and recorded the lead male's calls. They observed that the males sometimes let out a combination of "pyow-hacks," which on average gets the pack moving a little quicker and further?-up to 100 yards in half an hour?-than either call on its own.

"They might make a 'pyow-hack' in response to a predator, but the strange thing is they also do it early in the morning while foraging," said study co-author Klaus Zuberbuhler. "If the male wants to move on, he produces that sequence, which is followed by the group moving."

Once the male makes the call, which is sometimes spurred on by input from the elder females in the group, the rest of the monkeys congregate around the leader to see which way to head next.

"The visibility in rainforest is terrible, maybe 10 meters, which is why these acoustic signals are so crucial," Zuberbuhler told LiveScience."

Hey Stradee!




Calmer Cattle Yield Better Beef

When it comes to raising cattle, a calm approach by handlers is the best way to keep the herd relaxed and reduce the risk of injury to caretakers.

Retired animal scientist John Stuedemann studied the disposition of Angus cattle at the Agricultural Research Service's Natural Resource Conservation Center in Watkinsville, Ga.. Since the researchers handle these cattle so much, Stuedemann believes it's best for these animals to remain as calm as possible. Any excitement can lead to damaging equipment or injuring workers.

As the cattle stream through a cattle chute, they were given a "disposition score" ranging from 1 to 5. A score of 1 means the calf is especially docile and a 5 indicates the critter is extremely rambunctious. Most cattle in Watkinsville fall between 1.0 and 1.9.

Aids that were sometimes used to restrain or hurry cattle through the chute were removed from Watkinsville long ago. Cows are more likely to pass through the chute when pain is removed from the experience, Stuedemann said, and the removal contributes to the animals' calm demeanor.

Calm cattle make life easier for handlers, but sedate animals also tend to be healthier and gain weight quicker. In the five years of custom feeding and care, the 800 steers and heifers posted average daily weight gains from 3.1 to 4.6 pounds. A total of 381 head earned the "Certified Angus Beef" label, while only 30 animals graded "select." The rest earned the grade "Choice" or better.

This research is detailed in the May issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

ul,
That is really the kind of place I love to visit. So many beautiful places in Wien. Thank you for the site - I've bookmarked it for our next visit.

Clary,
I can only guess at your interests - but, have some suggestions. At road interchange 80 West of Wien is Melk. There is the most beautiful kloster I have ever seen at Melk. The Stift Melk. Then, only if you are interested, there is a WWII prisoner camp at Mauthausen (Exit 155). Just past there (Exit 216 or 224) is Gmunden - a really pretty stadt with an island building offshore. South of Gmunden is Hallstatter See and Hallstatt - if you have time this place is HIGHLY recommended for a visit. We had lunch by the lake and just loved it. The town was celebrating it's 4000th year at that time. Then, of course, Salzburg. A suburb on the South side is Hellbrunn with it's seats that spray water. Fun place. I have always stayed at the Gasthaus zum Hussarin in Anif - next to Hellbrunn. But there are many nice places in that area. If at all possible you must visit Berchtesgaden just across the German border - it has a lot of things remaining from WWII and, the boat ride on the Konigssee is well worth it. From there up the Inn river to Hall in Tirol (short drive to Innsbruck). At Exit 68 is a really nice place to stop for the night - there is a pedestrian walkway across the river to old town. This place is a must see. The church has a lot of saints still quietly residing there and the old town itself is just beautiful. From there, I have not explored yet, but look forward to getting lost there someday. Grin

Hope this helps.

sumac,
I must return to read all your links.

aktbird57 - You and your 298 friends have supported 2,386,692.7 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 112,398.4 square feet.
You have supported: (0.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (112,398.4)

American Prairie habitat supported: 52,248.3 square feet.
You have supported: (12,665.0)
Your 298 friends have supported: (39,583.3)

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,222,046.0 square feet.
You have supported: (170,744.2)
Your 298 friends have supported: (2,051,301.8)

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

2386692.7 square feet is equal to 54.79 acres

Thanks Danon for your personal favourites list - I agree about Melk, I sent my son and his friend there yesterday because he hadn't been since he was 7! I am very lucky to have Europe on my doorstep.

Color me green with envy, Clary. I find getting lost in Europe really fun. The places I mentioned are all worth a visit and are conveniently close to the main roads - except for the Hallstatt (which is the picture you see most advertising Austria in all the airports of the world)
Here are pics for you to see.



all clicked.

Pitoresque places, Danon. Have you visited the graveyard in Hallstadt?
I am trying to find out what to do this summer. This time we will start from Chicago. North? West?
South? East?

This is a very interesting commentary because it is not the usual pro or anti doing something position.

Read more at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/20/opinion/20ellison.html?th&emc=th

"May 20, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor

Turned Off by Global Warming
By KATHERINE ELLISON
San Francisco

BY now, only someone who has been hiding under a rock would need to see the new Al Gore movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," to learn that global warming is real. Even Time magazine caught up to the degree of the threat last month, with its cover story urging us to be "very worried." Many of us have also winced at the slick new television ad, co-sponsored by the national nonprofit group Environmental Defense, that depicts global warming as a speeding train headed straight for a little girl standing on the tracks.

Well, I for one am very, very worried. As the mother of two young boys, I want to do everything I can to protect their future. But I feel like a shnook buying fluorescent light bulbs ?- as Environmental Defense recommends ?- when at last count, China, India and the United States were building a total of 850 new coal-fired power plants. Clearly, it's time for some radical ideas about solving global warming. But where's the radical realism when we need it? "

Ul,

There are beaches all around any of the Great Lakes.

And now, for a word from our sponsor.......

http://www.livescience.com/environment/060518_mountain_snow.html

"Bleak Outlook for Snowy Peaks

By Sara Goudarzi


Ain't no mountain high enough for climate change, suggests a new model that predicts that by 2100 the peaks of Alaska will have only 64 percent of the snow pack that existed in the year 2000.

The new global climate model simulated snow cover on the world's mountain ranges from 1977 to 2100 and found that by the end of this century mountains in Europe and the U.S. will lose nearly half of their snow-bound water.

The Andes in South America will suffer a similar fate and snowcapped peaks in New Zealand will vanish completely, the model predicts.

Such declines in winter snow pack means that people who rely on the melting of snow for drinking, irrigation, and farming will greatly suffer, researchers said today.

What to expect: No wind? No rain? Nor winter cold? "

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/science/18evolve.html?pagewanted=print

"May 18, 2006

Two Splits Between Human and Chimp Lines Suggested

By NICHOLAS WADE

The split between the human and chimpanzee lineages, a pivotal event in human evolution, may have occurred millions of years later than fossil bones suggest, and the break may not have been as clean as humans might like.

A new comparison of the human and chimp genomes suggests that after the two lineages separated, they may have begun interbreeding.

The analysis, by David Reich, Nick Patterson and colleagues at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., sets up a serious conflict between the date of the split as indicated by fossil skulls, about 7 million years ago, and the much younger date implied by genetic analysis, as late as 5.4 million years ago.

The conflict can be resolved, Dr. Reich's team suggests in an article published in today's Nature, if there were in fact two splits between the human and chimp lineages, with the first being followed by interbreeding between the two populations and then a second split.

The suggestion of a hybridization has startled paleoanthropologists, who nonetheless are treating the new genetic data seriously. The earliest human-lineage fossil remains, like Sahelanthropus, seem clearly to have been bipeds, walking on two feet, but the ancestors of chimps presumably walked on their two feet and the knuckles of their hands, as do modern chimps.

"If the earliest hominids are bipedal, it's hard to think of them interbreeding with the knuckle-walking chimps ?- it's not what we had in mind," said Daniel E. Lieberman, a biological anthropologist at Harvard.

Hybrid populations often go extinct because the males are sterile, Dr. Reich pointed out, so hybrid females may have mated with male chimps to produce viable offspring. The human lineage finally re-emerged from this hybrid population, Dr. Reich suggests, explaining the younger genetic dates, while the very early fossils with humanlike features may come from the earlier period before the hybridization.

David Page, a human geneticist at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, said the design of the new analysis was "really beautiful, with all the pieces of the puzzle laid out." Whether the hybridization will turn out to be the right solution to the puzzle remains to be seen, "but for the moment I can't think of a better explanation," he said.

These crucial events in early human evolution are hard to judge dispassionately, Dr. Page noted. "We'd like to have a more Victorian view of our genome," he said, "and this reminds us that we are really animals and gives us a glimpse of our past and of a story that we might like to have told in a different way." "

Ul, which direction you head in from Chicago depends on what you'd most like to see/do. West for the most magnificent vistas of mountain, desert and wild beauty (but you have to go quite a distance and pass through some very, very flat prairie first). North, you're soon in Canada. I don't recommend South because it just gets too hot in the Summer months. East are the major cities of the Atlantic seaboard -- Boston, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. That's where the great museums and other city attractions are, along with the Atlantic beaches. But, of course, if you've seen Chicago, there's no need to visit New Yor,

ul,
We had only time for lunch - but, I have seen in our National Geographic magazine the painted skulls of the people from the gravesites. They must remove them periodically because there is no room. The Bronze Age museum is interesting.

Susan,
I know. I have been there. But - fresh water doesn't count. :wink:

Merry Andrew, "which direction you head in from Chicago depends on what you'd most like to see/do"- this is what we can't answer right now.
Too many possibilities.
My husband loves mountains, I love the sea and hot weather. Both we love to travel through the US.